Review: The Prehistory of the Crisis

The Prehistory of the Crisis

24 October – 29 November, 2008.
The Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar, Dublin. 

In this gloomy climate of economic collapse, an Ireland that had changed so rapidly has again to re-adjust. We have been forced to remember the obvious fact that the future is uncertain, and of course as a result, fears are mounting. Prompted by the anxiety of this dilemma, ‘The Prehistory of the Crisis,’ acts as a portent of nationalistic conflicts, of racism and exclusion. 

Curator Tessa Giblin assembled an international group of artists from the Netherlands, Germany, France and Serbia, in the belief that art can have a potent voice before public opinion has formed on the crisis that she forecasts. She hopes to influence our understanding by presenting works dealing with the problems of living in politicized space. Of course this is something everyone can identify with, but the focus here is on the experience of migrants and refugees.

Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin, created a sixteen minute video depicting a day in the life of an African immigrant living in France. The title Manmuswak translated into English means ‘man must live by whatever means.’ We are offered a banal account of a person struggling to get by. Looping surveillance from observer to observed changes as easily and swiftly as the two men we see changing jackets as they swap shifts as supermarket security guards. As the video continues we become aware of a commentary on a system that one is either in or out of, or indeed somewhere in between. Cyclical patterns emerge in the piece, successfully evoking feelings of entrapment and paranoia. I move on.

The awkward positioning and lack of sound in Andrijana Stojkovics video ‘Home’ serves to exaggerate the discomfort it’s viewing also promotes. Slow moving and close up footage of banal tasks feels like an intrusion into the lives of the protagonists. When the camera shot widens, their surroundings come into view and you realize that the video is providing an insight into life at a refugee camp. We are faced with a grim awareness of the complete lack of privacy that they are forced to experience every day.

What struck me about these two pieces was not a specific political and historical commentary; like all the pieces in the exhibition, their narrative is ambiguous. These spaces could be anywhere. What they did was evoke feelings of unease, entrapment and paranoia, and while the efficacy of art in political action is open for debate, I couldn’t help but think that they were effective in at least creating an awareness of the difficulties and often ridiculousness of spatial politics.

Posted By: Paula Barrett (89.204.231.87)  Date: 01/16/2009 1:17 pm Status: Open Category: Reviews

“The Prehistory of the Crisis” The Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar. 

“Manmuswak” Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin

Upon entry to the Project Art’s Centre’s exhibition space the foreword printed states “A partnership, with artists exhibiting their work for the first time in Ireland. Works produced in relation to the power displacement experienced by both citizens and civil servants.” Curator Tessa Giblin has considered the comparative “Displacement” theme as appropriate and applied it to Ireland’s ensuing recession and the role of the increasing foreign population. My first impression of the exhibition was slightly distracting, in the contained and somewhat clustered gallery space. Throughout the video installations simultaneously projected on each wall, I found myself attracted to the only video piece with a soundtrack and minimal French dialogue “Manmuswak” by Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin 2005.
through the city of Nantes.

There is a prevailing sense of surveillance, but the visual narrative does not suggest it in the conventional context. Instead the notions withstanding of the immigrant and his cycle of differentiated habitat seems cluttered with the artists objective of sharing identities. The camera autonomously surveys and thereby contradicts his momentary roles of security, within lieu of his apparant illegal status. The subdivisions of class in suburban territories, and the perception of the security guard all revolve around the issue of the migrants adaptability and obligatory vocation according to social hierarchy and classification. The artists social conscience seems to recognize the wider political nuances, and amalgamates the African origins of the characters and their dispositions in the domain of undocumented labour. 

The consistence of “Manmuswak” remains applicable to its comparative function to communal issues of the problematique in social subsistence. Despite this, the Project exhibition piece seems politically contextual and devoid of any attempt to expound the aesthetic possibilities of film media. The video piece reminded me of my time in France, and my quotidian encounters with various immigrants (including Irish) who seem to struggle with integration often revert to socializing in small communities. Although conceptually interesting, the video does not actually seem to convey the greater issue of immigrant disposition and the enmity of the system. Instead Bernier and Martin have found an uncontroversial artistic rhetoric rather than radicalised anti-governmental despondency. The issues of immigrant degeneration in France remain contentious and their more recent works seem to explore the themes of immigration in France more effectively than “Manmuswak“.

Stephen Peter Coleman

Posted By: Stephen Coleman (78.137.130.245)

Shifting boundaries, multiple perspectives and a profound sense of confusion are all evident in Aernout Mik’s film ‘Training Ground’ (2006). Furthermore, this two-screen video piece fractures the normal viewing experience through its placement on the floor of the gallery space, which serves to implicate the viewer in the action from the very start, so that we too are woven into the disjointed fabric of the film. In this way, the viewer becomes part of the film’s physicality, heightened by the fact that we are situated at the same level as the figures on screen. This sense of the viewer as active participant is explored further in this work when the camera adopts a position inside a lorry, and therefore slightly outside of the central action. In this way we watch as both participants and outsiders, the boundaries in which we are placed are neither fixed or concrete. Alongside this obvious shift in perspective, the scene also commands attention due to the fact that our view is hindered by a row of mini toy figurines, which are lined up on the dashboard of the lorry. This offers an immediate distraction from the action outside, partly due to the contrast of plastic colour with outside’s neutral tones, yet also because of the way the toys confront the viewer, their static stares hinting at the fluid nature of the situation behind. Their warrior poses and air of self-aggrandisement offer both a comparison and a mocking of the unfolding events. There is certainly a notion that the police, with their uniforms and authority, are adopting a heroic pose, complete with guns and the usual associated weaponry. The ‘prisoners’ however, are shown to be less capable, mere toys that can be mocked at, played with. And yet this distinction is not upheld throughout, rather such divisions are presented as interchangeable. All are the coloured figurines that can be kicked down and all are the coloured figurines that can stand proud and self-assured.

Indeed, this notion of changing, of the ability to adopt, in a sense, different roles, is one of the main themes of Mik’s film. The notion at the beginning, that there are three distinct ‘groups’ is interrogated as the film progresses, so that there is shown to be a breakdown between the areas of separation and distinction. This, of course, is further heightened by the actual presentation of the piece which only adds to the continual feeling of movement and ambiguity. The power structures that appear to exist within the film collapse as the participants step over the boundaries that are initially presented. The police officers perform the roles of the ‘prisoners’, the truck drivers, who up until now have merely been inactive outsiders, assume a more central role, parading up and down with fake rifles. The ‘prisoners’, in direct contrast to their previous passive role, embrace a stance of authority and control. The film adopts an almost surrealist quality as this swapping occurs, with bodily convulsions and involuntary actions dominating the scene. There is certainly a feeling of performativity, of the notion that social roles are interchangeable and not specific to one social group or another. 

In the context of this exhibition, which seeks to deal with economic challenges and evolving issues relating to the nation and identity, Mik’s film offers an interrogation of a larger context, focused around uncertainty and insecurity. Mik presents us with a situation which is centred upon chaos, whereby the means of separation are no longer viewed as adequate, or effective. Furthermore, such chaos also suggest some kind of escape, of a break from the established order of things, where the tools of confinement are scrutinised. The ‘prisoners’ are clearly made up of disparate nationalities and backgrounds, and in light of this, Mik’s film may offer some sense that racial distinctions and social status are not confining or fixed.

Posted By: Imelda Barnard (83.71.9.113)

Although I found the installations and video pieces within the exhibition ’The Prehistory of the Crisis (1) at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, compelling in their own right, I was incensed by the exhibition itself, its claims and its ethical motives. Rather than discouraging, I found it encouraging and even promoting the notion of ‘the other’ which in itself leads to the type of crisis it is prophesising. When we see the subjects portrayed so obviously by actors in such staged and choreographed settings, the possibilities for connection with these people are lost as we are given the role of passive viewer rather than active participant in the story of cultural and social politics.

My interpretation of the mission of this exhibition is to address social issues regarding immigration and to attempt to soften the blow of the imminent crisis by addressing these issues now and ‘activating within us some sort of responsibility for coming to an autonomous awareness of the complexity of otherness and the complications of ‘living with others’’ I do not understand how videos which are so staged can successfully give us a realistic awareness of the complexity of the concerns and issues of migrants. By using such choreographed media, the exhibition is actually avoiding the very responsibility it is trying to instil in others. If the videos consisted of documentaries, factual footage, real-life interviews, the exhibition would be much more effective. 

‘The Prehistory of the Crisis attempts to broach these issues before the period of crisis has hit, at a time when art can have a discreet yet potent voice.’

Who’s voice? The artists? Are they directly affected by immigration? Are they immigrants themselves? These questions need to be asked, but so does the question of who will hear it? I very much doubt that the future activators of such a crisis go to art exhibitions in the Project Arts Centre. These are the youths that shout abuse at you because you have a scarf on your head, the cowboys at the Garda National Immigration Bureau who treat you like dirt, the men who beat you up in the street in broad daylight while heavily pregnant because of the colour of your skin, the ones who attack your chipper in the middle of the night. I very much doubt that these same people would see this exhibition.

The grand claims of this exhibition is encouraged by the intellectual bravado of its audience who will never have a realistic perception of the realities of such a crisis, but will be able to console itself in its phantasmagoria of ‘understanding’ as it takes place.

Posted By: ayse (89.204.237.102)

Four video installations form this ambitious show at the Project Arts Centre. The collective aim is ‘to influence cultural understanding’ of the imminent crisis, ‘as Ireland heads into recession’. Each piece ‘attempts to broach these issues of crisis before the period of crisis has hit’. An unmistakeable sense of foreboding can be detected threading its way from screen to screen, through intertwining themes and perplexing scenes promising to plant a stitch of that tension onto the viewers mind. 

All four films portray various elements which may be associated with crisis situations including, isolation, threat, loss and dread in Jeanne Faust and Jorn Zehe’s ‘sonst wer wie du’. Agitation, disconnectedness, breakdown, sickness as Aernout Mik’s ‘Training Ground’ descends into chaos. Issues of surveillance, security, identity, race, aggression and power loom in Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin’s ‘Manmuswak’. The word ‘crisis’ is what sews these films loosely together, but the meaning is lost underneath a blanket of real confusion, not an understanding of the work in relation to it’s aims. The show is successful in highlighting confusion as the question it raises most is how on earth do these films relate to our particular crisis as we hit recession in Ireland?
Of the four, Andrijana Stojkovic’s film ‘Home’ is the most accessible and perhaps the most relevant to the question ‘how will Ireland cope? ’ It is a direct insight into one couples survival in crisis. In what appears to be a simple domestic setting an old woman prepares dinner. She is using a camping stove but they are definitely not on a camping holiday. Materials are basic so they must be quite poor. The camera zooms out and shows all domestic activities happening around a central bed. The woman joins her husband sitting on the bed. The reality of this couples situation hits as the camera finally reveals that this cosy little setting is in fact surrounded by hundreds of other similar arrangements set up in a refugee camp. The message, that things are not as they seem, hints at something which is clearly happening in Ireland’s preparation for a crisis – our country being in denial of the full extent of what is to come.

Posted By: Louise Flynn (89.100.119.56)

In this short video piece (7min 30) we see an old couple performing domestic activities. The setting feels not quite right, but it is hard to pin down why at first. We watch the couple cook, eat, read the paper, clean, knit and play cards. We see them side by side in bed. We see them in their slippers and socks. They enact their gender stereotypes – the woman cooks, knits, sews, the man repairs a clock, sleeps, reads the newspaper.

There is a large window by the bed and it seems strange, because anyone would be able to see into their bedroom. At one point we do see a figure outside the window. It then becomes clear, as the camera pulls out, that this couple are not in a usual domestic situation. Their bed and “home” is in a gymnasium in a school in Serbia with many other couples. The people that surround the couple stare blankly at nothing in particular and the air of sadness is apparent. The metal frames of the beds on which they sit are like the bars of prison cells. The people are not moving around freely, they are not interacting. 

A blurb at the end of the piece tells us that these are people who were expelled from West Bosnia in 1992. Their “home”, the gymnasium is named after the Croatian poet Vladimir Nazor, who was the first President of the People’s Republic of Croatia. There is no sound on the video piece, so this device of pulling back to reveal the situation in its entirety, and the text at the end are the things that tell us the full story.

The device used at the end of the piece, the “reveal all” technique of pulling the camera back to shed light on the context could be considered to be slightly annoying; an easy,obvious, trite method of giving the viewer more information. In this particular context however, it is effective. Having seen the couple perform the rituals of their daily life without knowing the context, we are enabled,at the end when all is revealed, to get a sense of how life must carry on despite everything. When a tragedy or a disaster occurs, that “stop all the clocks” feeling that things cannot possibly move forward because the world as we know it has broken down takes over. Yet, though we feel this, it does not happen. Time still moves forward. We see that happening to the couple in this piece. They may be living in an unconventional situation, but they still have to perform the conventions of eating, sleeping, cleaning etc.

The overall theme of the show is “The Prehistory of Crisis”. This theme deals with the issues involved in the shift in social, cultural and political conditions brought about by the economic downturn.The information provided by the gallery (written by curator Tessa Giblin) explains that in the context of Ireland’s 2008 recession

“The Prehistory of Crisis attempts to broach these issues before the period of crisis has hit…”

and that the video pieces

“…hone in on individual responses to conditions: the pieces are variously referential of particular situations, but they all activate within us some sort of responsibility for coming to an autonomous awareness of the complexity of otherness and the complications of ‘living with others’ ”.

We associate situations like the one we see on the screen (living communally in a school gym) as being the stuff of other places, not of Ireland. We don’t really believe that something like that would happen to us in our lives, even though it so easily could. A hurricane in New Orleans brought about living situations of a similar style, not a war or a recession. The show looks to address these ideas within us with a view to

“changing attitudes in the Irish context.”

It achieves this without ominous warnings, threats or scare tactics. The piece is not saying “look what could happen to you”, it is simply making us aware of what does happen.

Posted By: oonaghgood (193.1.217.20)  Date: 02/03/2009 10:21 am Status: Open Category: Reviews