Shooting Back / tba21

Shooting Back

Shooting Back presents a selection of works by international artists, most drawn from the collection of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, which share a fundamental interest in ethnographic research, folklore, rituals, and spirituality, as well as in exposing alternative histories and acts of commemoration.

The title Shooting Back thus refers to the act of choosing to narrate one’s own history, the deployment of distinctive tools and methods of representation, and the reassertion of ownership over tradition and heritage. The expression is derived from ethnographic film productions of the 1960s and ensuing investigations. As artists, filmmakers, and theoreticians have developed new languages to talk about their traditions, heritage, and identities, they have in turn “shot back” at the crude, stereotypical, and fictitious imagery of their respective cultures presented by mainstream media and scholarship.

At the same time the expression “shooting back” marks the shift from passive forms of representation to new modes of self-representation. On an artistic level this has been addressed through the conscious investigation of overlooked, erased, and precarious histories. In order to approach such “elusive” realities, artists deploy strategies of reconstruction, archiving, and (performative) actualization and often access an immaterial heritage that is committed to forms of knowledge and culture that are already inscribed into history. The exhibition, divided into five loosely structured thematic sections and accompanied by a film program, is dedicated to hinting at these complex discourses.

eine Gruppenausstellung mit Arbeiten von
Kutlug Ataman, Mathilde ter Heijne, Sanja Ivekovic, Chen Chieh-Jen, Amar Kanwar, Kristina Leko, Tanya Hamilton, Brad Kahlhamer, Walid Raad (The Atlas Group) , Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkácová, Raqs Media Collective, Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam, Sean Snyder, Catherine Sullivan, Ai Weiwei, Akram Zaatari, Zelimir Zilnik

Mit Performance Uncomfortable Heritage von Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkácová

Ausstellungsdauer 6. Juni bis 28. Oktober 2007
Öffnungszeiten Dienstag bis Sonntag, von 12.00 bis 18.00 Uhr
Achtung: geänderte Öffnungszeiten im Juli und August
Dienstag bis Freitag, 12 bis 18 Uhr,
Samstag und Sonntag geschlossen