A TETI Group exhibition in two parts for Corner College

Curated by Gabriel Gee & Anne-Laure Franchette


Saturday, 5 – Saturday, 26 May 2018 (Part 1: The eyes of the lighthouse)

Opening Hours: Wed/Thu/Fri 16:00h-19:00h & Sat 14:00h-19:00h

With works and interventions by Cliona Harmey, Monica Ursina Jäger, Salvatore Vitale, & VOLUMES library

Opening: Saturday 5 May 18:00h

Discussion Friday 11 May, 18h30: Seen Unseen, Salvatore Vitale in conversation with Lars Willumeit, independent curator

Research encounter 25-27 May: Maritime Poetics: from Coast to Hinterland, limited seats, booking necessary, contact gabriel@tetigroup.org

Finissage: Saturday 26 May 18:00h artists talk Light and land with Cliona Harmey & Monica Ursina Jäger



Curatorial text

At the turn of the 1960s-70s, a drastic shift in the representations of nature paralleled an urban revolution that signalled an intensification of global networks. The increasing interpenetration of the natural and the human realms, as well as the increasing realisation of such an interpenetration, has been a characteristic of the rise of a ‘planetary age’. On continental coasts, where the sea meets the land, ports manage the transfer of goods and the balance of offer and demand with heightened efficiency. Such maritime commerce stands as the historical engineering of our global world, accelerated by the adoption of standardised containers in the 1960s. Ships ride anonymously over the sea, the lifting sea, their bellies filled with plastic wrapped merchandise. We appear to see more afar than we used to, through digital devices and virtual fluxes, while crowds fly to distant lands that air technology has made suddenly accessible. And yet, much remains unseen in the eyes of the lighthouse, which blips to bring the sailors safely home – and their goods for the improvement of lighthouse technology in the 19th century was directly connected to mercantile interests – thereby necessarily offering dark passages and suggesting the persistence of blind spots below our promethean visions. Through the lighthouse, we can explore and question the modes of representation of our socio-natures: what is it that we see, that we can see, that we are willing to see and not able or unwilling to look at, in a contemporary age where silvery and golden profusions might well lead to blackened collapses.

If the eyes of the lighthouse can guide us towards an enquiry into our perceptions of 21st century planetary conditions, they might then also shed light on the obscurity which surrounds the circulation of earthly materials, that fuel the light of our cities and the heat of our ever more complex technologies. It is to the blood of the land that we turn the spotlight, to gaze beneath the metal of the discreet gas and oil pipelines, to the construction of roads and canals, the baskets of railways and trucks roaming planes and mountains. We foresee the advanced state of Narcissus, peering no longer to himself in the pool of water, but inward in the woods behind him. And just like the industrial city of Tony Garnier used anthropomorphic features to organise its exemplary functioning, we look at the metabolism of the hinterland to query its desires and its health. For blood’s a rover, to use James Ellroy’s words, and beside the vitality of hybrid wild cities, loom darks shadows whose intentions or rather, projections, must be deciphered to read the oracles of the present …

Text: Gabriel Gee www.tetigroup.org



Cliona Harmey

Poolbeg lighthouse



Cliona Harmey’s response to “Hinterland” takes the form of a series of works which reflect on the transmission and absorption of light which lies at the heart of many communication technologies. Starting with a view from the interior of a lighthouse's red lantern the works look at modern systems of visibility, encoding, simulation and information. The show combines images of technological systems, a simulation deck which can emulate any port in the world, the interior of a barcode scanner, a view from the lighthouse. The works allude to the ways in which many global communication technologies used in logistics, cybernetics and infrastructure were influenced by developments in maritime environments.

The invention of the original concept for the now ubiquitous barcode was inspired by engineer Norman Woodland's experience with morse code. We could also think of lighthouses as original nodes in a developing network of a developing global communication and trading system. The individual elements in this exhibition reference the transmission and absorption of light at the heart of many contemporary communication technologies. lanterns, scanners, the ubiquitous barcode, whilst also considering some of the spaces which fall out of the range of this visibility.



Monica Ursina Jäger

Liquid Territory




As part of Hinterland, Monica Ursina Jäger presents a range of materials collected and produced through her investigation of the hinterlands of Singapore, looking in particular at sand trade, cut and fill strategies and reclamation practices. Her research explores the shifting grounds of port cities, the visible and invisible forms of global trade, and reflects on an inversion of the hinterland, whereby the inner land is projected outwards onto the sea.

This work has been conceived as part of an artists residency at NTU CCA Centre for Contemporary Arts, Singapore.



Salvatore Vitale



Salvatore Vitale takes us into the heart of the Hinterland, in the Swiss Alps, searching for an ever elusive yet resolute presence: the wolf. The re-emergence of the wolf in Europe has been the object of conflicted debates, and carries strong issues pertaining to the place of non-human species in our mixed-communities and environments. Through photographs, film and sound, Vitale illuminates the shadows of the hinterland, and the changing representation of wilderness and its perceived values at the turn of the 21st century.



The exhibition is supported by the Temperatio Stiftung
The research encounter is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and Franklin University, CH.

TETI Group
www.tetigroup.org
VOLUMES
www.volumeszurich.ch

[English below]

09. Mai 2018 – 18:30 Uhr
Book + Web Launch
Æther #1: Flughafen Kloten: Anatomie eines komplizierten Ortes

Flughäfen stehen für Mobilität, flows, Geschichtslosigkeit, Kommerz. Tatsächlich sind sie auf vielfältige Weise mit ihrer Umwelt verflochten, denn sie sind komplexe Gefüge, in denen sich Technik und Natur, Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Vergangenheit und Zukunft vermengen. Æther #1 untersucht einen solchen komplizierten Ort: den Flughafen Zürich-Kloten.
Die Reihe Æther versucht, Wissensgeschichte anders zu gestalten – und geisteswissenschaftliches Publizieren selbst in die Hand zu nehmen. Wir glauben, die beste Antwort auf die viel beschworene Krise der wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift bzw. des Buchs sind neue Formate, die digital und print zusammendenken. Hybrid ist auch die Wissensgeschichte, die uns vorschwebt: Komplizierte, dichte, miteinander verwobene Geschichten, die im Kollektiv entstehen.
Online unter: www.aether.ethz.ch

Mit Beiträgen von: Sam Bodry, Nicole Egloff, Nicole Graf, Nils Güttler, Annina Haller, Charlotte Hoes, Jonathan Holst, Oskar Jönsson, Carolyn Kerchof, Robin Leins, Monique Ligtenberg, Kilian Lock, Benedikt Meyer, Niki Rhyner, Kaj Späth, Max Stadler, Stephanie Willi, Raphael Winteler.
Herausgegeben von: Nils Güttler, Niki Rhyner, Max Stadler
Gestaltung: Loraine Olalia, Reinhard Schmidt, Nadine Wüthrich
Erschienen bei: intercom Verlag



[Deutsch oben]

09 May 2018 — 6:30pm

Book + Web Launch
Æther #1: Zurich Airport: Anatomy of a Complicated Site

Airports tend to signify mobility, flows, ahistoricity, placelessness, consumption. And yet they are entangled, in multiple ways, with their surrounds; for they are complex assemblages, where technology and nature, science and society, futures and pasts intimately intertwine. Æther #1 explores one such complicated site: Airport Zurich-Kloten.
The series Æther aims to make the history of knowledge accessible — and rethink the way publishing in the humanities is done. The best response to the so-called crisis of scientific publishing, we believe, is new formats that bring together print and digital. The history of knowledge, as we imagine it, likewise is hybrid: dense, involved, ramified stories — products of a collective.
Online at: www.aether.ethz.ch

With contributions by: Sam Bodry, Nicole Egloff, Nicole Graf, Nils Güttler, Annina Haller, Charlotte Hoes, Jonathan Holst, Oskar Jönsson, Carolyn Kerchof, Robin Leins, Monique Ligtenberg, Kilian Lock, Benedikt Meyer, Niki Rhyner, Kaj Späth, Max Stadler, Stephanie Willi, Raphael Winteler.
Edited by: Nils Güttler, Niki Rhyner, Max Stadler
Design: Loraine Olalia, Reinhard Schmidt, Nadine Wüthrich
Brought to you by: intercom Verlag

Just now, the journalists of the government critical newspaper “Cumhuriyet” have been sentenced in an unprecedented politically induced trial and just now, the state of emergency in Turkey has been extended once again. Meanwhile, Osman Kavala, Turkey’s most important and influential civil society activist and philanthropist, has been in prison without charge since October 2017. What does this mean for artists and cultural producers in Turkey? And how has the art scene in Turkey changed since 2016 (the coup-d’etat), or shall we say, since 2013 (the Gezi protests)? And what can we understand about it and how can we help our colleagues in Turkey?

Asena Günal is the program coordinator of the art center Depo in Istanbul-Tophane. Depo is an initiative of Anadolu Kültür which was founded by Osman Kavala. She is concerned about the isolation Turkish art scene might face with the rise of authoritarianism. Depo is a space for critical debate and cultural exchange with a wide variety of international art exhibitions, screenings, talks and such and the first initiative in Turkey to focus on regional collaborations among Turkey and countries in the Caucasus, the Middle East and the Balkans. Asena Günal is also the co-founder of Siyah Bant, a platform that documents censorship incidents in the field of arts.

Asena Günal has studied International Relations and Sociology and obtained her PhD in the History of Modern Turkey program at the Atatürk Institute, Boğaziçi University. She previously worked as an editor in İletişim Publishing House between 1998 and 2005.

In this open talk, Asena Günal will speak about the current situation in Turkey and especially in Istanbul’s art scene, how does the state of emergency affect the artists, who is Osman Kavala and how does his detention and arrest intimidate the civil society and the art scene; she will also talk about the artistic programme at Depo and their resistance strategies.

An invitation by para polis/Anke Hoffmann in collaboration with Corner College/Dimitrina Sevova.