FEEDFORWARD. The Angel of History
Cleaning up after the 20th century. What is progress now?
The Angel of History addresses the current moment in history where the wreckage of political conflict and economic inequality is piling up, while globalized forceslargely enabled by the “progress” of digital information technologies inexorably feed us forward. The exhibition title references Paul Klee’s painting “Angelus Novus,” which Walter Benjamin famously interpreted as an “angel of history” transfixed by the wreckage of the past that is piling up in front of him while being propelled backwards into the uncertain future by a storm from paradise(progress).
CURATORS: Christiane Paul & Steve Dietz
ARTISTS: AES+F, Christopher Baker, Stella Brennan, Paul Chan, Nancy Davenport, Nonny de la Peña y Peggy Weil, Hasan Elahi,
Cao Fei, Bárbara Fluxá, Daniel García Andújar, Fernando García-Dory, Goldin + Senneby, Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji,
Knowbotic Research + Peter Sandbichler, Langlands + Bell, Jennifer + Kevin McCoy, Margot Lovejoy, Naeem Mohaiemen,
Ali Momeni + Robin Mandel, Carlos Motta, Trevor Paglen, Rachael Rakena, Fez Fa’anana, Brian Fuata, Stephanie Rothenberg +
Jeff Crouse, System-77CCR Consortium, Piotr Szyhalski, Tamiko Thiel + Teresa Reuter, Carey Young
LABoral Centro de Arte, Gijón, Spain, 22.10.2009 – 05.04.2010
knowbotic research, be prepared! tiger!
In April 2004 video footage appeared on the Internet showing two Tamil Tigers proudly patrolling Sri Lankan waters in a boat retrofitted in the shape of a US Air Force F117 Stealth Bomber. In 2006 Knowbotic Research decided to investigate the juxtaposition of a glaring visibility and technological blindness symbolized by the boat and, with Peter Sandichler, reconstructed a stealth boat and launched it in the Duisburg harbour. The polygonal contours of the boat were jarringly visible among the local boat traffic, but it proved invisible to quayside radar. While the cloak of such radar invisibility did not ultimately translate into invincibility for the Tamil liberation movement, the boat’s shape is a “negative blueprint of the radar-controlled space” of contemporary surveillance society. be prepared! tiger! publicly performs its countermeasures to panoptic algorithms, visibly parading under the radar.
In April 2004 video footage appeared on the Internet showing two Tamil Tigers proudly patrolling Sri Lankan waters in a boat retrofitted in the shape of a US Air Force F117 Stealth Bomber. In 2006 Knowbotic Research decided to investigate the juxtaposition of a glaring visibility and technological blindness symbolized by the boat and, with Peter Sandichler, reconstructed a stealth boat and launched it in the Duisburg harbour. The polygonal contours of the boat were jarringly visible among the local boat traffic, but it proved invisible to quayside radar. While the cloak of such radar invisibility did not ultimately translate into invincibility for the Tamil liberation movement, the boat’s shape is a “negative blueprint of the radar-controlled space” of contemporary surveillance society. be prepared! tiger! publicly performs its countermeasures to panoptic algorithms, visibly parading under the radar.
Boat, aluminum and wood: 440x240x75 cm; single-channel video, 1 min. 15 sec.
Out-Site03, MQ Wien, Peter Sandbichler
