8 October 2012
New exhibition takes visitors into the movies
The Cooper Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) will be turned into the set of an imaginary film, complete with cinematic trailer flickering in the foyer and three large-scale neon signs announcing the different phases of a major 'exhibition as movie' that will open next week.
'Surplus Cameo Decor' is the work of the German artist Edgar Schmitz. The exhibition, which runs from 18th October until 14th December, will be divided into three episodes, each featuring an array of filmic props installed in the gallery space.
These include a bronze tinted two-way mirror in a style borrowed from the infamous Palasthotel in East Berlin, the headquarters of secret police surveillance that the first of the sets is based upon and inspired by. Cameo appearances by actors, directors and other celebrities will be documented in photo shoots in the gallery setting.
Sophia Hao, Curator at DJCAD, said the Cooper Gallery was delighted to host the first solo exhibition in Scotland of work by this renowned international artist.
"The work of Edgar Schmitz seeks to draw attention to the small parts of the vast blocks of knowledge that lie behind the quiet background voices, whispering and nudging us along certain designed paths." she said.
"By turning Cooper Gallery into a semi-fictional hub for cinematic plots and invited cameo appearances of cultural elites, Schmitz provides a way into seeing how the world is continually contextualized by these background or incidental moments - the ambient politics of the everyday, how it is constructed and how we are continually and quietly spoken to by a multitude of authoritative voices."
The exhibition's three episodes are:
- 'Palasthotel' (18th October - 6th November) - the set based on the hotel the StaSi used to spy on foreign visitors to the German Democratic Republic.
- 'Horizontes Soroa' (8th November - 27th November) - set in the swimming pool of a remote Cuban resort, under refurbishment in the early 2000s.
- 'Sindanao' (29th November - 14th December) - set in 2017 Hong Kong ahead of the opening of the opening of a new super-museum.
To coincide with the exhibition, a travelling forum entitled 'Hubs and Fictions' that explores the condition of current art and the notion of 'imported remoteness' in exhibition making, will be launched at the Cooper Gallery on 30th November. It will continue at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and Goldsmiths College in London.
Bringing together contributors of leading figures from the fields of artistic, cinematic and curatorial practice, with a geographic spread from China, Pakistan, to Germany and Britain, the forum will explore how fictions and projections overlap in different exhibition settings, and how plots play out in these.
'Surplus Cameo Decor' opens with a Preview Evening on Thursday, 18th October from 6-8pm which is free and open to everyone to attend. The three episodes will take place until 14th December, with the Gallery open from 9.30am to 5pm on weekdays and 10.30am to 4.30pm on Saturdays. Further Preview Evenings will take place at the same times on the opening dates of each episode.
More information is available at www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/exhibitions/exhibitions/edgar-schmitz/.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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