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PCFS - Post Colonial Flagship Store

PCFS - Post Colonial Flagship Store

Opening

Wed, Oct 02, 7 PM

Duration

Oct 03 to Nov 23, 2014

Opening hours

Tue-Sun 1 - 7 PM

Admission

free

Pre-Opening (Press): Tue, Sep 30, 11:00
Closing ceremony with a concert performance by LA VIE AN BÔ: Sat, Nov 22, 20:30

Exhibition concept: Georg Klein and Sven Kalden

Curatorial collaboration: Bernhard Draz and Joachim Seinfeld


Artists:

Mario Asef (ARG)*, Nasrin Abu Baker (ISR/PSE)*, Bernhard Draz (GER)*, La Vie en Bô / Agnès Guipont (FRA)*, Sven Kalden (GER)*, Mansour Ciss Kanakassy (SEN)*, Georg Klein (GER)*, Ingeborg Lockemann (GER)*, Ernst Logar (AUT), Israel Martinez (MEX)*, Lamyne Mohamad (CMR/FRA)*, Erik Pauhrizi (INA)*, Joachim Seinfeld (GER)*, Signe Theill (GER)*, Steffi Weismann (SUI)*, Gudrun F. Widlok (GER/GHA)*
*Artist-in-Residence of quartier21/MuseumsQuartier

„PCFS - Post Colonial Flagship Store“ is presented in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs.

https://twitter.com/postcolonial
#postcolonial #flagshipstore

Header image: Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: Zentralbank Shopping Store, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Lamyne Mohamad: Je les vois grands! Photo © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Sven Kalden: Graben, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: Zentralbank Shopping Store, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: Zentralbank Shopping Store, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Ingeborg Lockemann: Werbebotschafter (2004-2014), Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Ingeborg Lockemann: Werbebotschafter (2004-2014), Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Erik Pauhrizi: Young Djamu Art Shop, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Israel Martinez & Signe Theill, Photo © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: Zentralbank Shopping Store, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Ingeborg Lockemann: Werbebotschafter (2004-2014), Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Nasrin Abu Baker, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

La Vie en Bô / Agnès Guipont, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

Bernhard Draz: Echte österreichische Führerkugeln, Photo: © esel.at / Joanna Pianka

The “Post Colonial Flagship Store (PCFS)” exhibition project (concept: Sven Kalden and Georg Klein) showcases artworks camouflaged as consumer goods, and engages with a new, surreptitious form of colonialism. The Flagship Store is what the colonial store was a hundred years ago, offering a “cleaner” consumer world today, albeit one all too frequently based on the exploitation of low-wage countries.

European and international artists reference the colonial background of their respective countries and its impact on contemporary life. Dependence, opportunities, hopes, and issues of identity are addressed, as are global investment strategies and the migration of labour.
The works by the artists from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America are presented as “commercial products” or as “service agencies” in a shopping mall, the modern manifestation of the general store.

For example, Mansour Ciss Kanakassy (SEN) is opening an African bank that supplies the AFRO as a counterpart to the EURO. Erik Paurhizi (INA) and Weismann+Klein (SUI/GER) engage with the colonial tradition of exploiting raw materials in Indonesia and make them “palatable” to Western customers in an innovative way. Israel Martinez (MEX) presents the soundtrack to the “Mexican Drug War”, engaging with the drug trade as a subject, its violent impact in Mexico and its business involvements with the USA.

The giant clothes of Lamyne Mohamads (CMR/FRA), which are made to Chinese patterns but with African fabrics, comment on the current massive Chinese invasion of the African continent. In turn, Mario Asef (ARG) describes present-day colonization by means of the “Argentine ant”, which has already reached the shores of the Mediterranean using strategies similar to the Spanish colonizers of olden times and has now conquered the whole of Europe. Also engaging with the Europeans is the Ghanaian agency of Gudrun Widlok (GER/GHA), which arranges the sponsorship of old, lonely Europeans by an extended African family. The project is now being expanded with young, European volunteers, who are more likely to find help in Africa than to be helpful there themselves.

The “exponents” reflect the subject of economic neo-colonialism in both content and their form of presentation. By deliberately playing with the character of commercial goods, visitors are enticed by forms of modern colonialism. Global brands often have their showrooms designed like art exhibitions — this exhibition reverses the trend and allows the artists’ works to appear in an entirely branded consumer world: the “PCFS Flagship Store”.

The exhibition is accompanied by a program of film screenings, workshops for children and young adults etc.

Exhibition views

Photo: Thomas Bruns

Photo: Thomas Bruns

Nasrin Abu Baker: Palestine one direction, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Nasrin Abu Baker: Palestine one direction, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: Zentralbank Shopping Store, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Photo: Thomas Bruns

Gudrun F. Widlok: volunteers unlimited / adopted, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Gudrun F. Widlok: volunteers unlimited / adopted, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Gudrun F. Widlok: volunteers unlimited / adopted, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: Zentralbank Shopping Store, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: Zentralbank Shopping Store, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Steffi Weismann & Georg Klein: UNzuRECHT A, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Steffi Weismann & Georg Klein: UNzuRECHT A, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Mario Asef: Crossfade, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Photo: Thomas Bruns

Erik Pauhrizi: Young Djamu Art Shop, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Erik Pauhrizi: Young Djamu Art Shop, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Erik Pauhrizi: Young Djamu Art Shop, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Photo: Thomas Bruns

Photo: Thomas Bruns

Israel Martínez: South of Heaven, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Joachim Seinfeld: Vucumprà – The Other Side of Holiday, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Bernhard Draz: Echte österreichische Führerkugeln, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Sven Kalden: Graben, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Ingeborg Lockemann: Werbebotschafter, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Lamyne Mohamad: Je les vois grands! Photo: Thomas Bruns

Signe Theill: Capture, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Ernst Logar: Welcome to Europe - Insha’Allah, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Ernst Logar: Welcome to Europe - Insha’Allah, Photo: Thomas Bruns

Ingeborg Lockemann: Werbebotschafter, Photo: Thomas Bruns

MQ Freiraum

opening hours

mo:closed
tue-sun:10-18h

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