Body in Abstraction

Conceptual video art is marked by a search for the essential boundaries of the moving image. It explores the boundaries of perception and of the human being in its interaction with the world. The exhibition “body in abstraction” presents four works from the European tradition of conceptual art. The artists share a minimalist commitment to the concentrated form of installation video. Refraining from the narrative and representational strategies of shock and provocation, they all manifest a certain stylistic austerity.

The works by Elisabetta Di Sopra, Hofstetter Kurt and Barbara Doser concern essential and archetypal forms of the human body, the way in which we identify others and ourselves. Anna Jermolaewa and Peter Weibel are trying to explore the boundaries of society and of human interaction with the medium of video.

Artists: Anna Jermolaewa (Russia), Elisabetta Di Sopra (Italy), Peter Weibel (Austria), Hofstetter Kurt und Barbara Doser (Austria)
Curator: Laura Carlotta Gottlob
Art History Advisor: Reidar Due
 

Accompanying Program: ARTIST RESEARCH LECTURES

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Fri, February 15, 4 p.m.
Peter Weibel: »RENAISSANCE 2.0«
at the Ruskin School of Art – Old Master’s Studio, 74 High Street

Mon, February 19, 4.30 p.m.
Hofstetter Kurt: »On the Event Horizon of Order«
at the Department Computer Science – Wolfson Building, Parks Road

The exhibition is organized by St John’s College Oxford and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. In collaboration with MAO – Modern Art Oxford, University of Oxford – Ruskin School of Art & Department of Computer Science and with support of the Austrian Cultural Forum London.