Finissage Oleg Kulik - Silent Dog Whistle Event

Finissage
2. 11. 2022
17 bis 21 Uhr

MONEVCONTEMPORARY is pleased to present ‘OLEK KULIK - DOG WHISTLE’, at DIT., Vienna.

Silent Dog Whistle shows works by Oleg Kulik from 1994/1993 to 1998, exhibiting both photographic works and documentary photographs of various performances, thus making accessible a wide range of his artistic work. In several of his best-known performances, Kulik assumed the role of a dog: he barked, howled, bit visitors and defecated on the ground while on a leash, causing scandals. Other works seen in the exhibition are staged photographs, like Russian Series or Family, in which he reduces conflicting questions to the level of absurdity. In Your Candidate Kulik on the other hand he takes his concept of a political Animal-Party a step further. The photographic series Memento Mori is one of his first works, where he shifted the focus away from his person to other subjects. In this case Kulik shows close ups of dead monkeys preserved in the museum, with the title already suggesting it refers to the remembrance of death. The photographs let the viewer reflect on how we as humans use the corpses without their will, for any desired purpose.

With his works he provoked the audience and many times triggered police operations. 25 years after his last show “Fourth Dimension”(in collaboration with Mila Bredikhina) in Vienna at the Secession his work is more relevant than ever, the urgency and zeitgeist of Oleg Kulik testify to his quality and sharpness.

Literature: Why have I bitten a Man? An Open Letter by Oleg Kulik, in: Primary Documents. A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s, hg. v. Laura Hoptman und Tomas Pospiszyl, New York 2002, p. 344-361.