Mills Gallery
Encounters
April 6 - May 20, 2007
Mills Gallery, Boston
Introduction
The main focus of Encounters is to show autonomous projects dealing with the tension between dominant and alternative (image) cultures in totalitarian regimes. Uzbekistan, Iran, Russia and the global domain of the internet are the featured regions. How is public life ‘designed’ in these regions? How to bring forth the tension between official and alternative visual culture? What is the dominant image Western media create of these societies and is there another story to tell? How to cope with the expanding global domain of the internet and the idea of freedom within this area? Guest-curator Femke Lutgerink brings together six artists from The Netherlands, Belgium and Iran - Nele Decock, Rob Hornstra, Stani Michiels, Anoek Steketee, Reza Abedini and Hans Wolbers - who explore these questions in their work. Photography, the internet, sound and graphic design are the media they use.
The artists show us their fascination with these societies, either far away or around the corner, seen from within or as a stranger. The self-willed, personal translations of the artists with an
obvious social acknowledgement tell us about astonishment, relatedness and also uncomfortableness within their exploration and confrontation with the others. None of the artists are explicitly political, but their points of view serve as an Archimedes point to tell about bigger global issues such as democratization, globalization and emancipation. The purpose of the
exhibition is to create a space of openness and comfort where the public can get a hint of these fruitful encounters.
Mills Gallery
539 Tremont Street, MA 02116
http://www.bcaonline.org/
Mills Gallery is part of the Boston Center of the Arts, and is a non-profit organization
Encounters was generously sponsored by The Netherland-America Foundation http://www.thenaf.org/ & by the Consulate General of The Netherlands, New York. Thank you very much!
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