FUTURE OR RUIN
Harold de Bree, Gordon Cheung,
Jana Gunstheimer, Luke Jackson, Monica Ursina Jäger,
Mark McGowan, Hugh Mendes, Svein Møxvold
Private View Thurs 5 Nov 6.30pm
- 8.30pm
Fri 6 Nov - Sat 5 Dec
2009
In 1921 Adolf Hitler called for a will to power when claiming
‘that freedom can eternally be only a consequence of
power and that the source of power is the will’. In
blaming Germany’s current and projected economic misery
on the repatriation terms set out by the international community
in the Versailles Treaty, Hitler sought to demonise the Jewish
financial community and ridicule the ‘bolshevism’
of the left and ‘nationalism’ of the right. Consequently,
Hitler aimed to re-establishGermany’s military might
and imperial powerbase by promising to combine social welfare
with nationalistic pride through the leadership of the National
Socialist party. Throughout the decade the Nazi party continued
to agitate and intimidate by using physical violence and unparalleled
propaganda until they attained power in 1933, having presented
two choices to the people of Germany: Future – the National
Socialists; or Ruin – all other options.
Fundamental to Hitler’s rise to power were the devastating
economic circumstances that Germany experienced post Word
War I, providing unsettled and fertile grounds for the Nazi
party. In our time the global economic crisis has again coincided
with the rise of the far right throughout Europe as unemployment
and immigration increase tension and resentment amongst local
populations. The British National Party has secured a seat
on the London Assembly as well as two European parliamentary
seats; in September half of the eighty arrested in Birmingham’s
race riots were Muslims and allied factions counter-protesting
against the English Defence League; Hungary has witnessed
a series of Roma and Gypsy killings that are considered the
‘most complicated and most serious series of murders
in Hungarian history’; Lithuania, Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic and Latvia have all suffered street protests, violence
and arrests as their economies contract, and unemployment
and inflation rise hand in hand.
Disaster and survival; apocalyptic forewarnings; democracy
and fascism; power and communication; war and murder; reconstruction
and re-enactment; these are the preoccupations of this cross-disciplinary
selection of international artists from Britain, Germany,
Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. From de Bree’s
mimetic remodelling of military hardware to Møxvold’s
warnings against the terrifying consequences of extreme nationalism
via Cheung and Jäger’s broader consumerist and
environmental concerns; from Mendes’ relentless documentation
of deceased historical figures to McGowan’s brazen re-enactment
of Oswald Mosely’s ‘Battle of Cable Street’;
and Jackson and Gunstheimer’s complex interweaving of
ideology, rationality, reality and fiction, we are confronted
with a group of European artists concerned with very European
problems.
Charlie Smith Gallery
336 Old St, London EC1V 9DR (above The Reliance)
Fri 6 Nov - Sat 5 Dec 2009
Wed - Sat 11am - 6pm or appoint
+44 (0)20 7193 6017
direct@charliesmithlondon.com
www.charliesmithlondon.com
|
