The John Institute (Jean Claude Freymond-Guth, Burkhard Meltzer, Michael Hiltbrunner (2007-2009) has organised contemporary art exhibitions, performances, concerts, screenings and discussions at various venues from 2007-2012. The idea of an institute that cannot be found at a permanent adress, but rather forms new shapes with each appearence in public, originated from a debate on masculinities between the co-founders. On their trip back from one of the numerous group shows on feminism at that time, they decided to begin a discussion on masculinities beyond the obvious clichés that exist of the male artist. The discussions and presentations evolved from that point focuses on notions of a masculine self and its relationsships to other possible ideas of a human identity related to gender and sex. It also includes a broad field that is connected to these questions in general – from individual narrations or staging of role models in performances, music and film to the use of language or the visual occupation of a certain space.
The formation exhibition by The John Institute included artistic positions of several artists dealing with male role models and idols. In their works they are being portrayed, sometimes assured, partly questioned, deconstructed and changed – including “macho” stereotypes like the “rapper”, the “superhero”, the “success-driven businessman”, the “manly man” or the “nerd”. Others seem more neutrally connoted like the “softie”, the “feminine man” or the idea of the “man giving birth” and the linked postulation of the decomposition of any asserted superiority of men over women.
Dani Gals work is establishing relations between language, images and their political, social and cultural patterns. He is primarily interested in contexts like political protest or music culture. With precise staging, Gal reveals how contents are easily manipulated as well as social groups are formed through audio-visual media. Encountering a montage of various historic media sources juxtaposed with the artists contemporary production, the process of constructing meaning and subjectivity enfolds in the exhibition space. The video Blind Fury, 2005 is one of three parts of Keep it real, filmed in New York. The portraits of Harlem rap culture protagonists focus on linguistic and visual aspects that form a subcultural context – showing for instance Stephan Morris aka Blind Fury – an MTV „Battle Rap Contest“ finalist – at the moment recording his first EP.
Julika Rudelius` two-channel-video projection explores structures and patterns of social status, the images of self and wealth. The protagonists – interviewed by Rudelius using a special technique – tell about the importance of these values in relation to feelings of beeing successfull or lucky. A backdrop-like language, clothing and location (a business meeting room) questions the very wishes and plans that the protagonists are talking about. Filmed somewhere between documentary and drama, Rudelius work slowly dissolves the boundaries between critical account and representation. Dutch businessmen, who consider themselves as successfull, answered in Economic Primacy, 2005 to questions transmitted through a phone headset. The person of the interviewer was absent and thanks to this special technique, the audience could only follow the buisinessmen`s part of the interview.
Pascal Häusermann uses material or techniques notoriously attached to images of the male artist as creator: stone, engraved letters, sculpture. Häusermann comments on those martial clichés with the juxtaposition of advertising claims („We are designed to be different“ etc.) In a series of collages Apokalyptische Körper, 2003 Häusermann composes anthropomorphic fragments to fantastic beings, offering views of their interior and exterior at the same time. The Kafkaesque trauma of ones own body suddenly consisting of strange or even unknown parts, provokes disturbing questions. By encoutering the sculpture Die grosse Ernüchterung, 2005, an icon of male self-consciousness makes a rather embarrassed impression: a thinkers figure without head, but holding the works` illuminated title in its hands.
Group show with David Blandy, Dani Gal, Simone Gilges, Nicolas Guagnini & Jeff Preiss, Pascal Häusermann, Walter Pfeiffer, Julika Rudelius, Ed Young, Silvie Zürcher
Co-curated with The John Institute
Location: Arts space Perla-Mode/Freymond-Guth Fine Arts, Langstrasse 85, CH-8004 Zürich