On Objects and Fetishes

MARC ASCHENBRENNER, ULF AMINDE, PIA GRESCHNER, LISA JUNGHANß, ANNIKA LARSSON, STEFAN PANHANS, NICOLE WERMERS

presented by Anna-Catharina Gebbers & Olaf Stüber

2 October 2010, 14:00-18:00hrs

Anna-Catharina Gebbers | Bibliothekswohnung
Ziegelstr. 2, 6. Stock / 6th floor, 10117 Berlin Mitte
www.bibliothekswohnung.com

An object with special powers can also be described as a fetish. The word ‘fetish’ is derived from the Portuguese feitiço (L. factitius), meaning ‘artificial’, ‘false’ or ‘sorcery’. There is a connection between an artificial object and magical powers Inscribed in the fetish. Fetishes can take material form, but their true significance lies in the embodiment of meanings, symbols, forces, energies, powers, spirits, deities, etc. Interestingly, these magical relations do not exist in parallel worlds removed from everyday existence:

Utility objects have conventions of use and action inscribed within them, through which the objects themselves tell us what they mean and how we should deal with them. In view of the formative power emanating from such objects, the question can be raised as to whether objects serve us or vice versa. Objects appear to have at least a co-authorship in our actions. These object relations can have the effect that we ascribe them magical properties, autonomous power or the capacity to act independently. As a factory contains a whole regime of actions that are predetermined by objects, Karl Marx believed that the human subject here becomes alienated from his own true nature and is thus ‘objectified’. For Jean Baudrillard, this idea culminated in the ‘desiring machine’ in the form of an autonomous, intelligent robot, along with the chilling notion that the autonomisation of machines would eventually lead to them taking man’s place (The System of Objects, 1968). According to the Situationist International, objects produced in the society of the spectacle actually fabricate needs (Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, 1967). The actor-network theory (Michel Callon/Bruno Latour) describes the power of objects to act as agency.

Contemporary culture appears to provide the reflexive and mediatory form that allows us to swing back and forth between economic rationality or scientific truth and fetishistic practices. We even seem to depend on enchantment as a way of protecting ourselves from dissociation, anomy and the loss of our sense of belonging.

For On Objects and Fetishes Anna-Catharina Gebbers and Olaf Stüber have brought together moving image works by seven contemporary artist that revolve around the magic of objects: Marc Aschenbrenner (AT), Ulf Aminde (DE), Pia Greschner (DE), Lisa Junghanß (DE), Annika Larsson (SE), Stefan Panhans (DE), and Nicole Wermers (DE). The main theme in the works of Pia Greschner and Nicole Wermers are the promises and the ‘personalities’ of architectural objects. Ulf Aminde and Marc Aschenbrenner show protagonists who gradually merge with objects. Lisa Junghanß’s work revolves around the fetish as both ritual and erotic object. Annika Larsson and Stefan Panhans focus on fetish-like insignias with social symbolic power. Screening during Frieze Art Fair week: Friday, October 15, 6pm–10pm at 401 Contemporary, 13 Mason's Yard, St. James's, London SW1Y 6BU, England, www.401contemporary.com.

The moving image works are on view within the solo exhibition The Black Object of the artist Heji Shin (DE). Her photographic work is focussed on the camera's ability to seduce. Characterised by a cinematic aesthetic her works question the ability of the photographic medium to purely document and instead emphasises on its theatrical power. The exhibition at the Bibliothekswohnung displays a dramaturgy of portraits, still life and material studies in which the depicted object unfold their magic.

The exhibition takes its associative starting point from Oraninenburgerstrasse, a street that is located near to the Bibliothekswohnung and which connects Friedrichstrasse with Hackescher Markt. Tourists, art lovers, fashionistas, prostitutes and their customers create the group of flâneurs. Exhibitionism and voyeurism, as well as specific object preferences and fetishes are part of all these environments - and blur the boundaries.