Jürgen Klauke (GER): Experimentelle Neurose

Pre-Opening: Wed, Jun 4, 17:00
Location: EIKON Schaufenster, Electric Avenue
Eintritt frei

As part of the "MQ Summer of Sounds" 2014, EIKON and freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL are inviting performance and photo artist Jürgen Klauke to exhibit his work on Electric Avenue. Throughout the festival, the EIKON showcase will act as a a satellite for the show "Connecting Sound Etc. Cable Works, Cable Sounds, Cables Everywhere" picking up directly on the theme of the exhibition curated by Georg Weckwerth and presenting additional works by the artist.

Two works from Jürgen Klauke’s series “Experimentelle Neurose” (2004/06) will be on view. Both are life-sized black and white photographs showing the artist himself electrified in more ways than one: Klauke is hooked up to cables and subjected to high tension, electrified by jolts of power that are strong enough to make him quiver or even die. The multiple exposures make it seem as if the artist wants to step outside of himself, split off an emotional double as it were, or at least an ectoplasmic cloud. The latter is an ironic reference to spiritualist séances of parapsychology, which we tend to belittle today. At the same time, however, the images also attempt to engage in serious discourse relating to the increasingly relevant question to what extent human beings should embrace technology, including on an emtional level, or in other words how much technology should become an extension of ourselves as defined by Marshall McLuhan. In final analysis, Klauke is examining the advantages and risks of having ourselves retrofitted into cyborgs in the not-too-distant future. It’s probably no accident that in these images we can no longer distinguish whether human beings are still pulling on the (power) strings or whether we are already dangling from the strings of technology.

Picture: Experimentelle Neurose, 2004/06 © Jürgen Klauke

Part of:
<link http: www.mqw.at no_cache en program programmdetail mq-summer-of-sounds-1>MQ Summer of Sounds

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