press release (unedited)
Baumgartner Gallery invites you to the third one-person exhibition of
Rainer Ganahl in our relocated new Gallery. (522 west 24th street)
The heart of this exhibition is grouped around the harmless daily practices
of bicycling and studying. The bicycle is a relatively cheap, environmentally
friendly, self-sufficient, democratic vehicle that works with human energy.
In the video “Bicycling Damascus” the artist drives around this
ancient city filming directly across the steering wheel without holding
it thus rendering it into cross hairs. His risky and unlawful engagement
with the bicycle, the city and his camera creates an anti-gravitational
epic of traffic jams, busy people and a colorful middle Eastern street
live in a country, the U.S. State Department considers to be involved
with terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
Two “news paintings” show yet another type of bicycle use: One
painting reports of a bicycle bomb in Iraq; the second painting depicts
a young boy who drives towards an Israeli tank in the occupied Palestinian
territories standing like an acrobat on his bicycle. These commissioned
paintings are part of a series of “news paintings” related to
Middle East violence and the “War on Terror.”
Since the beginning of the 1990s Ganahl has been studying foreign languages
as part of his art practice. The video work “Homeland Security”
consists of 5 given sentence uttered by the artist in the 11 languages
he has been learning so far. The "Homeland Security" clips,
filmed as police mug shots, reiterate, “I’m not a terrorist,”
“I’m not a religious fanatic,” “I don t give money
to terrorist networks,” “I don t know how to build bombs”
and “I’m not downloading dangerous information from the internet.”
”Homeland Security” sequences start with Arabic, a language
Ganahl has been learning since 2001. Some photographic works and works
on paper related to his Arabic studies are also in the exhibition. For
example, “Please, teach me Arabic” consists of stamped and hand
written postcards sent from Damascus to nearly “10 journalists of
US mainstream media standing for conservative views on US foreign policy”
soliciting linguistic help.
The tourist postcards used for mailing depicts the statue of Saladin who defeated the Crusaders during the Middle Age. For these mailings Ganahl used regular Syrian postage depicting President Assad who ordered the entire rebellious Syrian city of Hama to be destroyed in 1982, massacring more than 80 000 civilians. Works with less regular stamps made by the artist are also included in the exhibition: “Why do they hate us,” “Use a Bicycle” and “Basic Politics: Spinning” are postcard works that use New York City landmarks including the towers now emblematic for its destruction.
The exhibitions concludes with some of Ganahl’s dialog works: “Afghan
dialogs” consists of Silk embroidery works conceived as dialogs between
the artist and a community of Pashto and Urdu speakers living in the tribal
areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Framing elements of US networks
footage - logos, running texts, head lines etc. - were presented to local
people who were invited to comment on them. The results were embroidered
together with the news interface material. This exhibition includes AFGHAN
DIALOG, HOMELAND SECURITY, by anonymous who added to the network logo
“Homeland Security” (fox news): “The entire Muslim world
is with America against terrorism.” Due to difficulties in communication,
the piece “Running texts” doesn’t have any comments added.
The embroidered running texts were taken from TV images that depicted
the Afghan war.
For “Arab dialogs” the same working principle applied. The artists
visited tile factories in Northern Italy where mostly immigrant Arabs
were working under bad conditions. Their comments to these TV-head line
news concerning Middle Eastern violence and the war with Iraq were written
on paper first and then transferred and fired onto ceramic tiles. Arab
Dialog with Klid was made and produced in Sassuolo in Summer of 2003,
This young man from Morocco who didn’t want to give his full name
wrote: “I hope that peace will overcome the world.”
BAUMGARTNER GALLERY Work List Rainer Ganahl
CNN.COM, Afghan bicycle bomb injures 15, 12/6/2003, 2004
Acrylic paint on canvas, 84 x 74 inches (210 x 180 cm)
(3036, Nr. 5)
YAHOO! NEWS, Photo AFP, A Palestinian child balances on the seat of his
bicycle, 7/5/04, 2004
Acrylic paint on canvas, 220 x 180 cm
(3077, 16)
Searching "terrorism" on Google.com, 2004
wall painting (dimension variable edition of 5)
BICYCLING DAMASCUS, 2004
Video, 90 min, Edition of 10
Homeland Security, 2003
Video, 8 min, Edition of 10
Basic Arabic, Studying Arabic, Damascus, 2005
Photograph, 20 x 24 inches edition of 4
Basic Arabic, Study Sheet, New York 6/22/04
work on acid free paper , 9 x 12 inch
Basic Arabic, Study Sheet, Utrecht 5/20/04
work on acid free paper, 9 x 12 inch
Arabic, Study Sheet, Damascus 10/9/04
work on acid free paper, 9 x 12 inch
Basic Arabic, Study Sheet, Damascus 9/22/04 III
work on acid free paper, 9 x 12 inch
Please, teach me ... (10 conservative members of U. S. media outlets),
2005
10/20 postcards, framed, 31 x 37 inches
Arab Dialog with Klid, Sassuolo 2003
Translation: I hope that peace will overcome the world.
Klid is from Casablanca, Morocco, and is factory worker in Sassuolo's
tile factories. He decided to only give his first name.
work on paper, digital print plus ball pen, 14 x 17 inches (36 cm x 43.2
cm)
Arab Dialog with Klid, Sassuolo 2003
Translation: I hope that peace will overcome the world.
Klid is from Casablanca, Morocco, and is factory worker in Sassuolo's
tile factories. He decided to only give his first name.
Four ceramic tiles with fired paint, 70 x 100 cm (tiles) - plus wooden
frame -approx. 29 x 42 inches (framed)
AFGHAN DIALOG, HOMELAND SECURITY, 2001/02
Text by anonymous, ìThe entire Muslim world is with America against
terrorismî
60 x 160 cm
Why do they hate us? 2004
12/8 postcards sent to Manfred Baumgartner
work on paper, framed, 31 x 31 inches
Basic Politics: Spinning, 2004
12/9 postcards sent to Manfred Baumgartner
work on paper, framed, 31 x 31 inches
Use a bicycle, 2004
12/7 postcards sent to Momenta Art
work on paper, framed , 31 x 31 inches
Art in America, 2004, May
