An exhibition which unfolds in two stages and explores new forms of censorship, in New York and Milan. Curated by Aria Spinelli and Jason Waite, the work reflects and intervenes on the conditions of information production, the apparatus of power and its relationship to new forms of censorship. The distinctive aesthetic strategies utilized by the artists confront the “medium of the message” and provide alternative modes of seeing communication and its meaning.

 

Opening with drinks at 6.30pm until 9pm on 15 September.

 

Works selected for exhibition in Milan at the Fabbrica del Vapore, Via Procaccini 4, from 15 to 29 September:

Claudio Allia - Remote Control

arouraMeccanica - Lettere dal Ministero della Verita'

simona barbagallo - Un sogno ipertrofico

Amit Berlowitz - What should we dream of

Ernesto Magro - La verità è la versione più accreditata

Giuseppe Mendolia Calella - URL per un Don Giovanni

minimum - mirror mirror

Elena Monti - Mirror's Cover

Christian Varsi - The Braille Photography

Julia Winter - Pravda

 

The catalogue published by ZeL Edizioni includes an essay by the artist and theorist Hito Steyerl and critical texts from the curators.

 

See all Works submitted


Producing Censorship
"At a moment of ever expanding means of visibility and information surges, the discourse around censorship as a form of limitation or redaction is in need of re-examination. While this traditional notion of censorship as negation aiming to influence public opinion is still pursed by various governments, enterprise, media and cultural institutions, increasingly concentrations of power have focused on augmenting and amplifying the accumulation of information and taking a proactive approach to 'message management'.

The ongoing transformation of censorship is characterized by a multiplicity of mechanisms including; acceleration, repetition, the manufacturing of images, spin and selective framing of events have all contributed to the notion of censorship as a means of production. The resulting product floods the complex web of information with data, narratives and pictures that ultimately destabilizes the relationship of truth and fiction.

As artist and theorist Hito Styerl points out, “a fact is something which is made.” 1*

Censorship as a means of production is also embedded in its etymology. The censor is not only someone who records and judges, their position is fundamentally anchored in the word by the root, kans-, one who “speaks solemnly, announces.” The active position of the censor as one who engages in the creation of rhetoric has taken on a greater urgency in the new landscape of direct communication. To announce is to set in motion a process of /verification/ which is elaborated by Foucault. In his writings, truth is seen not a monolith but rather “a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation, and operation of statements.” 2*  If truth is therefore a complex system of production and dissemination it must be in proximity to systems of power that have the capacity for such circulation. Foucault sees this relationship as interdependent, “"Truth" is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extends it. A "regime" of truth.” 3*  It is therefore not enough to be able to speak but rather what is said must be sustained and amplified. Likewise what is seen must be reproduced and distributed and it is within this process that the artist has immense agency.

The project therefore asks artists to reflect upon the conditions in which censored images and information are produced; exposing the apparatus of production; and to critically think what censorship means today and the many forms it takes."

1* Hito Steyerl, “Truth Unmade: Productivism and Factography,” 2009.
2* Michel Foucault, “Truth and Power,” 1977.
3* Ibid.

Read more in blog

 

Submissions
The call is open to all artists who are 2011 'Prize' members.
Works can be in any medium; do not necessarily have to be new and can have been exhibited previously. Submit max two works in the Producing Censorship box in your personal admin in Celeste. You do not have to particpate in the 2011 Celeste Prize in order to submit works to the open call. Submissions must include images of the works, description, and notes or a statement.

Selections and Exhibitions
The curators Aria Spinelli and Jason Waite will select 10 works for the Milan exhibition and 10 works for the New York exhibition. Each exhibition will have a different selection of artworks. Artists invited to exhibit their works will be responsible for their personal travel costs; all costs related to transport of their works to and from exhibition locations; installation and video-installation works will be produced, mounted and dismounted by artists at their expense.

Deadline
Submission of works for ‘Producing Censorship’ Milan and New York, directly online no later than midnight 7 August 2011.
Selected works were announced on 31 August.

Catalogue
A Producing Censorship catalogue containing images of all selected works for Milan and New York as well as brief artists bios, and critical texts by the curators with be published to accompany the exibitions.