ArtEco: Bye bye Testosteroni

Monday, September 26, 2011

Bye bye Testosteroni

Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani

Colour print on alu dibond

118 x 149 cm. Edition 3.

A girl enters the space she makes a sign: Time-out, and freezes for 5 seconds.

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani

Impero dei Segni

Galerie Eigen + Art

Berlin

With the Saudi Arabian Women getting the right to vote this weekend, Monday morning begins with a great boost...

To move the perspective from Saudi Arabia and to a completely different Male chauvinistic territory we go to Italy and Berlusconi's world, where this photography series has been shot by Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani.

I came about this rather poignant photography series IMPERO DEI SEGNI at Galeri Eigen + Art (Berlin), it records the performance of a temporary intervention with activists at the empty Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome.

Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani

Colour print on alu dibond. 118 x 149 cm. Edition: 3.

They sit down on the floor for a sit-in and freeze for about 5 seconds.

"The work IMPERO DEI SEGNI thus unites two sets of themes in contemporary art: on the one hand, the discourse surrounding 'appropriation and art in public spaces' and on the other, 'artistic intervention in the political'. The work thus seizes on essential questions in intervention art, such as those already posed by Situationists and other ephemeral, situation- specific performance artists, in short: how can artistic criticism have an effect in the political sphere? The project does not dwell on the aesthetic argument of these objects, but offers a concrete set of instructions for action through the work. The work can be seen as a piece of 'fine art' - fine in the sense that it possesses edifying qualities for the viewer and prompts, quite literally, action, the art of action."

- Galerie Eigen + Art

Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani

Colour print on alu dibond. 118 x 149 cm. Edition: 3.

They line up and build a word in Italian sign language: Manifesto

The "silent" demonstration is set appropriately at the Palazzo dei Congressi which is a building built as Mussolini's vision of a 'Third Reich'. The non-verbal communication is set out for you to interpret through, gestures, body language and sign language.

"Bye, Bye Testosteroni" is quite an amusing way of saying hey look at us, we have a manifest to give you, but please be welcome to interpret it your way.