Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration

Niklas Goldbach, Bel Air, 2011, video 8:04 min, Full-HD, stereo, video still. All images are courtesy of Galleria Bianconi, Milan.

Galleria Bianconi - Milan
Curated by Julia Draganović and Elena Forin

By Paco Barragán

Gallery Bianconi in Milan presents “Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration Second Stage,” a group show with artists Marco Giovani, Niklas Goldbach and Yves Netzhammer. The first stage of the show was held between October 2011 and January 2012 and showcased the work of Via Lewandowsky, Cesare Pietroiusti and Luigi Presicce, also at the same gallery.

In both shows several artists from different countries have been invited to respond to possible strategies of collaboration. From Dadaism, Constructivism and Fluxus to Gilbert and George, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, as well as other younger artists such as Jorge and Lucy Orta, Elmgreen and Dragset, Allora & Calzadilla, Eva and Franco Mattes, Superflex or Voina, collaborative practices have always been at the heart of contemporary art practices.

The big difference is that while in the past collaboration in the form of  artists’ collectives tended to be fixed and spanning a certain period of time, today’s collectives and collaborative strategies tend to be flexible and work on an open and more project-oriented basis. Now the question might be: How does this, for example, affect concepts like “aura” and “authorship?”

So, click or clash? Are contemporary strategies-as Julia Draganović and Elena Forin suggest-”a result of strategies of consensus or,” on the contrary, “an answer to situations of conflict” that “reveal(s) itself a highly controversial proposal.” The red line that emerges throughout the show is the relationship between the individual and society’s power structures.

Italian artist Marco Giovani questions identity from two different angles: First, he creates strange sculptural reliquia made with cloths and other elements that suggest the idea of a lost culture or civilization; secondly, he conceives of surprising photographs in which identity is alienated and suspended. Niklas Goldbach for his part, tackles the idea of standardized, inauthentic identities. In his video Bel Air, the same character appears four times and questions not only the relationship of the individual with society but also with the self. Finally, Yves Netzhammer too challenges the limits of identity by means of a subtle video installation in which the viewer’s perception is challenged both visually and architectonically. His weird, humanoid creatures act like floating silhouettes in a world in which nature and technology collide desperately in search of a new identity.

Yves Netzhammer, Vororte der Körper / Periferie dei Corpi, 2012, video installation (steel, fabric, video animation 14.22 min. loop). Photo: Luigi Acerra.

Times are changing. All these new strategies of collaboration may well be the result of the crisis of contemporary society and the modernist dogma. The search for a new social paradigm that is capable of comprehending society’s complexity and the role of the individual within it has just begun.

(January 19 - March 3, 2012)

Paco Barragán is an independent curator and arts writer based in Madrid.