Dec 2011 - Feb 2012 Arnolfini brochure (PDF, 1605Kb)
Mar - May 2012 Arnolfini brochure (PDF, 1295Kb)
T: +44 (0)117 9172300 / 01
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA
www.arnolfini.org.uk
Helena Almeida, Inhabited Painting 1976. (Detail) Courtesy Collection Môdulo-Centro Difusor de Arte
Magical Consciousness
This event has already taken place and ended on 3 Jul 2011
Exhibitions
Thu 12 May - Sun 3 July 11am - 6pm (exc Monday)
Free
Helena Almeida, Rosa Barba, Uta Barth, Angela Bulloch, Mariana Castillo Deball, Ula Dajerling, Matias Faldbakken, Ellen Harvey, John Hilliard, William E. Jones, Onkar Kular & Noam Toran, David Maljkovic, Melik Ohanian, Trevor Paglen, Peter Peri, Rosângela Renno, Mungo Thomson
Magical Consciousness is about considering when images are no longer enough. It is a group exhibition co-curated in collaboration with the renowned London-based artist-filmmaker Runa Islam that looks for the potential that comes out of denying or abstracting images. Based around some of Islam's research interests into perception, the act of looking and reflexive forms of lens-based imagery, this exhibition considers the possibility of seeing yourself seeing things differently. Magical Consciousness is titled in reference to the work of philosopher Vilém Flusser, who suggested that there is more potential to touch reality in the act of looking itself rather than in what is actually being looked at or through using descriptive text, because of the latent potential of the viewer's imagination.
The exhibition presents works by a selection of artists looking for the potential that comes out of denying or abstracting images. For example Ellen Harvey's Collection of Impossible Subjects, 2008, is an interpretation of a salon-style museum etched onto a large mirror-wall, displaying elaborate frames but with the images replaced with glowing light. Rosângela Rennó's video Vera Cruz, 2001, gets its first presentation in the UK - an 'impossible film' without imagery documenting the arrival of the first Portuguese settlers in Brazil. Mungo Thomson's new work is a dramatic large negative image from space. Historic conceptual works include Helena Almeida's sequence of photographs Inhabited Painting, 1976, in which she paints herself out of the image using International Klein Blue.
A special exhibit as a part of Magical Consciousness will be an Aztec era artefact on loan from the British Museum. This mirror is made from highly polished black obsidian and was used by this ancient Mexican culture as a magical device for looking into the future.
Co-curated by Runa Islam and Arnolfini.
The Apparatus is a year-long project running throughout 2011, to mark Arnolfini's 50th anniversary. This series of exhibitions and events will focus on the conditions of the art world today, particularly its systems of belief and valuation, its role within society, and its relationship to the wider political economy. The Apparatus is about the ‘makings of' artists, of artworks, of institutions, and of a cultural infrastructure.
Magical Consciousness is funded by Mexican Foreign Ministry, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Polish Cultural Institute, OCA Norway.
Supported by Treasure Island Sweets, Bristol; M C Designers, Eastbourne; and the Trustees of the British Museum.
Supported by Treasure Island Sweets, Bristol; M C Designers, Eastbourne; and the Trustees of the British Museum.
