EUTOPIA

NSK State Pavilion

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NSK State Pavilion
57th Venice Biennale [link]
Venice, Italy
May 11 – July 15, 2017

The NSK State Pavilion models itself on the inherent shortcomings (and aspirations of) applying a theory to a certain contemporary situation of historical importance. A hard-tilt slanted room with swaying floors and Borgesian passport desk are analogous to the precarious nature of the refugees’ situation in Europe. A selection of blank-page copies of the West’s foundational texts are indicative of the potential for complete change but also of the uselessness of those same texts to remain practical. Keep in mind that one of the most influential (and most popular) surveys of contemporary art in the 21st century is structured around a 19th century idea of nationalism.

~ Chad Dawkins
images courtesy of the author

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Buster Graybill

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Buster Graybill
Recreational Modernism
Sala Diaz, San Antonio, Texas [link]
September 9 – October 15, 2016

So many times I hear people call our art modern. This is a blind alley of common vernacular. Modernism is a wax museum of power, control, and failed utopias—turn off the air and let it melt. The grass is always greener and our memories have outlived us. Memories exist beyond reality; mnemonics scrub memories clean; nostalgia keeps them safe. Sign and signifiers are breadcrumbs to lead us back to an original point of departure. Let us pass through the present, mud flying and back aching. Let the fury of the present make a trembling target of the past.

~ Chad Dawkins

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Daniel García Andújar

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Daniel Garcia Andujar 2

Daniel García Andújar
The Butterfly Funnel
Artpace, San Antonio, Texas [link]
March 17 – May 15, 2016

Andujar’s archive is, like all archives, compromised. What he offers is, not unlike history, neither accurate nor false. Whereby our reliance on interest as a qualifying aesthetic feature blinds us to the subtle truth in details. The exhibition, as a formality, threatens to become a monument to the personal disillusions of its subject. Then why concede to this threat? How much louder must we exclaim into the void of the exhibitionary space? A flag, a sign, a literal symbol modifies its environment without even touching it. Ultimately, this fleeting gesture compromises the exaggerated destinations of display.

~ Chad Dawkins
Originally commissioned and produced by Artpace San Antonio.
Photo credit Adam Schreiber

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