Theodoris Prodromidis (Fellows 2019), Stefania Strouza (Fellow 2018) and Nikolas Ventourakis (Fellow 2020) participate in the 3rd Industrial Art Biennial ‘Ride into the Sun’ in Istria, Croatia.
Industrial Art Biennale
The Industrial Art Biennale (IAB) is an international exhibition of contemporary art, envisaged as an experimental laboratory grounded in the industrial topography of Istria and Rijeka. It reflects on the phenomena that shaped the social and cultural landscape of the region and will take place in the following locations: Labin, Opatija, Pula, Raša, Rijeka and Vodnjan.
With over fifty works by Croatian and foreign artists, part of which created especially for the occasion, the Industrial Art Biennale examines the relationship of art and society, with a strong focus on the specificities of the above said locations. In this sense, the 3rd Industrial Art Biennial will touch upon the issues of art and cultural production, cinematography as a social and ideological tool and the relations of power, politics, aesthetics and the power(lesness) of images… It directs attention to the decayed industrial infrastructure, observing the effects of deindustrialization and counting on the perspectives of solidarity and feminism. It examines the topics of labour, the effects of tourist development and the waning industrial production. Finally, it investigates the current state of tensions and downfalls, in terms of social unrest, loss of perspective, issues of ecology, radical climate changes, exploitation of natural resources, but it in the same way examines the horizon of possibilities of social imagination and their utopian potential.
3rd Industrial Art Biennial – Ride Into The Sun
The title “Ride into the Sun” was taken from the legendary Velvet Underground’s song and loosely translated into Croatian as “Straight into the Sun”. It incorporates our immanent desire for another better world and life. It is a ride which can end in a pleasant dream of a sunlit Arcady – a peaceful and prosperous society leading an idyllic life – or in the nightmare of a world destroyed by numerous human and natural disasters. This Biennial supports the idea of “the underworld” not in its ideological sense, as an alternative to “the heavens”, but in the actual, physical form, which is already available as a possible habitat and to which, paradoxically, we humans devote much less attention than to the unknown universe.
We are witnessing a kind of a “withdrawal from history”, the abandonment of the progressive and utopian historical legacy of modernism, solidarity and development. At this moment of great social regression defines both the European and wider international context, the Industrial Art Biennale opens up a perspective to reflect upon new horizons that can overcome social fragmentation and feelings of hopelessness.
Participating artists:
Matthew Barney, Filip Borelli, Ben Cain, Jasmina Cibic, Teresa Cos, Christopher Cozier, Boris Cvjetanović, Dušica Dražić, Wim Janssen, Igor Eškinja, John Ford, Jeanno Gaussi, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Helidon Gjergji, Krešo Golik, Tina Gverović, Scott Hocking, William E. Jones, Jelena Jureša, Mary Reid Kelley & Patrick Kelley, Guido Kucsko, Kuehn Malvezzi – Office KGDVS – Guido Jan Bral, Robert Kuśmirowski, Ana Kuzmanić, Lina Lapelytė – Vaiva Grainytė – Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Claudia Larcher, Paul Albert Leitner, Elvis Lenić, Silvio Lorusso, Marko Lulić, Basim Magdy, Ursula Mayer, Metal Guru – Sandro Đukić, Hana Miletić, Antun Motika, Bojan Mucko, Alban Muja, Gülşah Mursaloğlu, Damir Očko, Marina Orlić, Prabhakar Pachpute, Rupali Patil, Marek Piwowski, Agnieszka Polska, Theo Prodromidis, Tanja Prušnik, Godfrey Reggio, Rimini Protokoll, Maruša Sagadin, Dragana Sapanjoš, Toni Schmale, Stefania Strouza, Jacques Tati, Bert Theis – Barbara Barberis – RiMaflow, Nikolas Ventourakis, Munem Wasif, Erwin Wurm, Dino Zrnec.
Curators:
Branka Bencic, Gerald Matt, Christian Oxenius
Duration: 10/10-21/11/2020
More: https://www.koraxcontemporary.com/ride-into-the-sun?fbclid=IwAR1VzwAdEgOJIm9fs9lY2af6Wum6aBrqhy-eQys-c9AhZgYcppMv7WTy0T8