In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, 19th and early 20th century literature abounds in fantastic, erotic human-machines understood metaphorically as rebellious social models of anti-procreation. Michel Carrouges compiled these in 1954 under the term ‘Bachelor Machines’, drawing from Marcel Duchamp’s work La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even/ The Large Glass, 1911 – 25). In his 1975 famous exhibition Bachelor Machines, Harald Szeemann translated some of these theoretical fictions into physical machines, which he complemented with a plethora of other conceptually related materials, from artworks to ready-mades and texts in a cacophonous attempt to grapple with the ‘macabre and timeless myth’.
The collective curatorial project 'RE: Bachelor Machines' develops through the historical lineage of the concept and Szeemann’s 1975 exhibition, is surveying the energy and questioning the timelessness of the myth from the perspective of the now and tomorrow, while reflecting on Szeemann’s curatorial methodology. How has the transition from the mechanical era to the so-called information or digital age reshaped the myth and restated its relevancy? Can a contemporary feminist perspective be accommodated within its scope or will it essentially transform the myth?
Material from Harald Szeemann’s extensive archive has been juxtaposed with various contemporary artistic positions, objects, text and video material. Opposing the notorious ‘Szeemann model’ of the autocratic, single author with a collaborative curatorial enterprise, emphasis is put upon a heterogeneous and communicative approach. While the curatorial enterprise draws inspiration from Szeemann’s associative modus operandi, it activates dispersion informed by an affirmative and inclusive attitude towards all participating voices.
'RE: Bachelor Machines' should not be understood as an attempt to reconstruct Szeemann’s exhibition. Whereas it is a form of actualisation, it does not raise the claim to re-enact the historical exhibition, nor to pay hommage to it. The exhibition explores the concept from a contemporary perspective, visualising an ongoing research process, conducted by the curatorial collective over the course of several months. The viewer is invited to meander among topics, such as deproduction and the refusal of procreation, the impact of digitalisation on the relation between humans and machines and on an actualized understanding of eroticism, the political agency of the Bachelor Machine in contemporary times and the overcoming of gender binaries in preparation for a posthuman condition.
CURATED BY:
Gunnar Ceccotti, Daniela Duca, Laetitia Gorsy, Anja Henckel, Ksenia Jakobson, Ingrid Kraus, Virág Major, Sarie Nijboer, Gabriela Seith, Vincent Schier, Ting Tsou, Julian Volz, Marlena von Wedel
KdK-TEAM:
Beatrice von Bismarck, Anna Jehle, Julia Kurz, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer
PARTICIPANTS:
Panos Aprahamian, Studierende der Kunstgeschichte und Kuration AUB Beirut / Mit Borras, Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Maxxima Foxy, Neil Harbisson, Florentina Holzinger, Viktoria Modesta, Tyyne Claudia Pollmann, Hjördis Behncken & Thomas Spieler, Hannes Wiedemann
25.05.2018, 5:45-6:30 p.m.
Artist talk with Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Hannes Wiedemann
26.06.2018, 7:00 p.m.
Screening: Bruce La Bruce, “The Misandrists”
22.06.2018, 2:00-6:30 p.m.
Public Roundtable, seminar “Archiving / Exhibiting“
19:00-22:00 Uhr
Guidance tour and talk with the curators
Archiving and exhibiting are practices which are closely related to each other in various ways and are currently reconsidered as crucial methods of writing history, producing meaning and constructing narratives. As a mysterious entity, 'the archive' usually remains invisible and inaccessible, contributing to the idea of an inexhaustible source of an infinite number of (hi)stories. On the other hand, exhibitions are often based on some sort of archive and one of their central characteristics is that of making things public.
The roundtable seminar "Exhbiting / Archiving" will address and discuss some issues related to this topic, in the context of the exhibition "Re: Bachelor Machines".
A cooperation project for the exhibition RE: Bachelor Maschines
AUB Byblos Bank Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon, 26.04.-30.05.2018
CURATED BY: Natasha Gasparian, Lama El Khatib, Nare Sahakyan, Yassmeen Tukan
PARTICIPANTS: Ziad Abillama, Haig Aivazian, Lana Barakeh, Karam Ghoussein, Hiba Kalache, Jean-Marc Nahas, Dmitri Sarkisov, Rania Stephan, participants of the MA program Cultures of the Curatorial HGB Leipzig
The Horror, The Horror, The Horror - Harald Szeemann and the Archive