ORIENTATION IN 100 REVOLUTIONS

A group of artists and the audience will carry Siniša Ilić’s art work Orientation in 100 revolutions out of the Kunstraum to the Maria-Theresien-Straße / St. Anne's Column (Annasäule) and hang the 100m2 textile on the façade of City Hall. The action is accompanied by StreetNoise Orchestra and will be repeated in Kaufhaus Tirol. In the end, the art work will be brought back to Kunstraum. In case of heavy rain the action will take place only in Kaufhaus Tirol.

Siniša Ilić’s work, created in co-authorship with the theater maker and director Bojan Djordjev on the occasion of the centenary of the October Revolution, visualizes a possible memory of 100 revolutions suggesting orientation in times of disorientation. In this case, revolutions are not only historically recognized “revolutions” but rather numerous social movements that have contributed to the continuously changing world.

The performance action in public space and the image will be interpreted within the framework of fragments from the novel The Poem (1952) by Oskar Davičo, who was a Yugoslavian novelist, poet, revolutionary activist, and a politician. In it, Davičo lists various groups, identities, and entities whose critical thought and action were necessary for rebellion against the fascist occupation during the Second World War. The second text that adds an interpretive frame to the image is the chronological-geographical-historical list, compiled by the authors (on view in Kunstraum Innsbruck).

Staging Orientation in 100 Revolutions in the Alpine context in Tyrol links revolutionary political histories with current ecological movements raising questions about the future of mountains, glaciers, and different eco systems of survival. What if glaciers, forests, and microbes would make a revolution?

Orientation in 100 revolutions is a digitally printed picture on textile, one hundred square meters large. The image is an abstract, deconstructed world map. The narrative of the image and its artistic references, such as Russian avant-garde and related abstract art and collage, examine the relations between the image and the text. The picture was created as part of the performative structure in which it functions as a performative object.

The action in public space is organized as part of Siniša Ilić’s solo exhibition Un_controlled Territories, curated by Ivana Marjanović, director of Kunstraum Innsbruck. The exhibition is on view until October 10, 2020.

Please keep at least 1 m distance and use the face mask when necessary (also in public space).