TIME CODE: Kochta / Kalleinen / Vidal

MAMbo is happy to present the third appointment with TIME CODE, a project curated by Fabiola Naldi and Alessandra Pioselli. Following the previous two events which took place in November and December, TIME CODE plans six further occasions devoted to video to take place from now until 12 June 2008, presenting six pairs of Italian and foreign artists who have devoted part of their work to the analysis and elaboration of various time codes.

Following the success of our previous exhibitions of Loulou Cherinet, Kjersti Sundland, Pavel Btraila and Roberta Piccioni, it is now the turn of Oliver Kochta Kalleinen (Dresden, Germany, 1971) with Tellervo Kalleinen (Lohja, Finland, 1975) and Alejandro Vidal (Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1972), who will present their works, accompanied by the curators of the exhibition, in the Sala Conferenze of the MAMbo on Thursday 7 February at 6.30 p.m. The videos of the three artists will be on display in the entrance halls of the museum until 9 March 2008.

Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta Kalleinen Complaints Choir (video, 2005-2007)

A group of citizens is singing in chorus. The tune is that of a lively folksong, but the words are mournful. Complaints Choir is a project resulting from an invitation by the artists to the people of a number of cities to give public expression to what they consider reasons for being downhearted, and to get together and sing them. This invitation is open to all, and recruitment is effected by means of leaflets and posters. There is a Finnish word, “Valituskuoro”, which means “complaining in unison”, or “lamenting together”. Complaints Choir sets out ironically to channel the energies of people into a public form of communication, putting shared complaints in the place of those that don’t work at the individual, local or global level. Complaint Choir is a work in progress begun in 2005. Until now it has happened in Birmingham, Helsinki, Hamburg, St Petersburg, Budapest and in many other towns in Europe, USA, Canada and Australia. The choruses are recorded on video. A selection of them will be presented for TIME CODE at MAMbo.

Tellervo Kalleinen was born at Lohja (Finland) in 1975. She lives and works in Helsinki. She works with video, performance and the production of projects often based on notions of collaboration and participation. Oliver Kochta Kalleinen was born in Dresden (Germany) in 1971. He lives and works in Helsinki. He works with video, performance and the creation of projects which frequently investigate the theme of the creation of utopian communities. Tellervo Kalleinen and Olive Kotcha Kalleinen have been working in collaboration since 1993.

Alejandro Vidal One second burns for a billion years (video, 2007)

An ambiguous situation. Two young women are dancing alone in a nondescript landscape. They get dressed, put on some make-up, count their money, read something. Aircraft fly overhead. They listen to music, lost in their isolation. There’s a young lad there as well. We have no idea why they are there or what they are waiting for. We don’t know whether something has happened or is going to happen. Vidal puts together a syncopated, fragmentary story, reinforced by the sound track, using codes typical of advertising or video-clips to present us with a youthful, urban world that has its dreams and its mischief, that is both naïve and uninhibited. Above all, Vidal puts the viewer in the position of the voyeur of a scene without any reference points, compelling him to face up to his own fears, prejudices and expectations.

Alejandro Vidal was born at Palma de Mallorca in 1972. He lives and works in Barcellona. He works in video, photography, design and installations. His work is centred on subjects involving violence, social conflict and activism. He studies forms of protest and communication such as punk, rave or cult movies, with a view to showing how marketing, politics and the mass media distort our view of violence and urban life.

TIME CODE
Kuratoren: Fabiola Naldi, Alessandra Pioselli

mit Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Tellervo Kalleinen, Alejandro Vidal