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MANHATTAN MARXISM / WOOL WORKS / EXPLOITATION
STRANGE TEACHING / WOOL WORKS / EXPLOITATION
a project developed for PANORAMA BOA VISTA, Porto, Portugal, March 2017
FROM PRESS RELEASE:
Rainer Ganahl - Manhattan Marxism / Wool Works / Exploitation / Strange Teaching / Wool Works / Exploitation - Opening Wednesday, Apr 12, 10pm
In this exhibition, Rainer Ganahl combines his projects Manhattan Marxism and Strange Teaching, emphasizing the aspect of exploitation.
Ganahl, a professor of fine art, calls his art education Strange Teaching, an educational extravaganza, and invites his and other teachers' students to participate in his art endeavors. A variety of strange teaching projects that have so far taken place include squatting in a dilapidated department store in Leipzig, a lecture and studio visit marathon in New York City, and now a sweat shop production here in Porto. To learn more about Strange Teaching click here.
Manhattan Marxism has previously taken place at Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein (2012), White Columns, New York (2013), and De Vleshaal, Middelburg (2014). Ganahl is interested in Karl Marx as a theoretician and as a metaphor for a more just world. He is interested in convivial spaces to be shared with others.
His guiding idea for the Porto edition of Manhattan Marxism consists of working with wool in a preindustrial way. The students spin, make felt and produce works from scratch that compare and compete with five machine-knitted pieces that are made possible with the help of STOLLs knitting computers. The work process is documented and quantified. Thus, it is meant to raise consciousness about the manifold complicated hidden production processes that enter the consumer products we purchase at department stores for little money. Like a Do It Yourself (Marxian) superstructure, a series of guest lectures with visiting local and international artists and critics, as well a presentation by the participating students, accompany the hard and restless labor of the unpaid work program.
Ganahl's exhibition is complemented with a separate show of works by the selection of students from the AbK-Stuttgart and FBAU Porto who volunteered to be "exploited" by the artist.
Participating students: Marta Arcanio, Juliana Boller, Carmen Velert Castellanos, Josephine Ducat, Leila Dendic, Elmar Mellert, Ruxin Lui, Grecia Paola, Soraia Pinheiro, Gil Raro, Clara Silva, Rintaro Takahashi.
Thanks to the participating institutions in Stuttgart and Porto, and to the local coordinator Rute Rosas. Thanks also to STOLL, Reutlingen
With special support of the EXPLOITED students of the art accademie Porto, Professor Rute Rosas, and everybody who has helped me as well as the EXPOLITED studetns of the academuy of fine arts Stuttgart. Thanks also to Pedro Wirz and Raphael Linsi.
STRANGE TEACHING / WOOL WORKS / EXPOITATION - RAINER GANAHL
STRANGE TEACHING / WOOL WORKS / EXPOITATION - THE PROCESS
STRANGE TEACHING / SCHONE AUSSICHT / BOA VISTA - EXHBITION OF PARTICIPATING" EXPLOITED" STUDENTS
STRANGE TEACHING / SCHONE AUSSICHT / BOA VISTA - EXHBITION OF PARTICIPATING" EXPLOITED" STUDENTS
Marta Arcanio, Juliana Boller, Carmen Velert Castellanos, Josephine Ducat, Leila Dendic, Elmar Mellert, Ruxin Lui, Grecia Paola, Soraia Pinheiro, Gil Raro, Clara Silva, Rintaro Takahashi.
Juliana Boller
Leila Dendic
Soraia Pinheiro
Elmar Mellert
Marta Arcanio, Carmen Velert Castellanos
Josephine Ducat,
Ruxin Liu
Rintaro Takahashi