Open House

For Open House twelve curators were each asked to carry out at the same time but separately a project in the available spaces. Thirteen artists have thus been chosen. Their works are shown alongside each other without any obvious links, but on the contrary, with a maximum of differences between them. The idea was to not emphasize a federating theme, nor a unitary approach which would endow the very distinctive artistic approaches with a single common denominator, but to create conditions allowing the broadening of the creative scope and that of the works' interpretation.

On the one hand, by its very existence, Open House queries the curators' role as intermediaries between the artists and the institutions, as well as the modalities of the artist/curator partnership (in the practical, theoretical, economic meanings, in the power relation etc.). On the other hand, Open House is also an attempt to test the group exhibition as a 'genre' and addresses such questions as: Does the exhibition's theme always pre-dominate the understanding of the works? Is this reading of the works the only point for a thematic exhibition? If the exhibition's theme is essential for group shows, then who is it for: the artist, the curator, the public? Or else: Can one work without any imposed discourse, without hierarchy, just letting its own dynamics develop, relying on the open-ended character of the invitation?An ice coffin lying in the woods (Enzo Umbaca chosen by Roberto Pinto), a Ford Mustang Lounge decorated with flags (Katharina Jahnke / Heike Munder), panoramic views of Warsaw printed on wallpaper and a jump into the void (Joanna Rajkowska / Bettina Heldenstein), a 'travelling' photograph and language students invited to exhibit (Louise Lawler / Adam Budak), a stadium made out of bits of soap (Sislej Xhafa / Evelyne Jouanno), a documentary installation on Johannesburg and Mexico (Gast Bouschet / Fernando Alvim), virtual elevators (Pavlína Fichta Cierna / Viera Janceková), a mural painting completing the landscape hidden behind the architecture (Niamh O'Malley / Mária Hlavajová), a specific jungle (Christine Biehler / Christine Walentiny), a strange anthropomorphic landscape (Andy Alexander / Noëllie Roussel), an unstable sound sofa (Tere Recarens and Emilio López-Menchero / Eva González-Sancho), the transposition in paint of architectural motifs and landscapes (Tina Gillen / Laure Faber): all these projects were especially designed for Open House, which taken altogether, might contribute a few answers to the questions raised above.