In this exhibition, the curator Laura Carlotta Gottlob presents two European artists, Marc Adrian and Ben G. Fodor. Both the two artists in this exhibition are tenacious and consequential in pursuing the totality of their objectives, however far apart they may be in the way they use their chosen medium, in their intentions, and in the generation they belong to.
Since the late fifties, Marc Adrian has been investigating shapes, sounds and colours via the medium of technology. In the sixties he began to explore conceptual dimensions and the poetics of kinetic art, the precision of which he preserved in his creative activity in the years that followed. His work continued to be one of rational progress, scrupulously considered and communicated.
Ben Fodor's research employs photography, drawings and installations as a means to investigate, enhance and pursue the artificial dimension of reality. In this exhibition, he makes use of the clichés of dictatorships: once devoid of their original messages, they take their place among the many unusual aspects of the world, combining both the past and reality. Elements of political and metaphysical order are merged in a work based on time rather than history, even though it does also make use of history. Just as Roland Barthes would have liked it.
This exhibition is organised by St John's College Oxford and ZKM | Center for Art and Media - Karlsruhe with support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture.
Opening: at 6pm on Friday 14 February
Location: The Barn in Kendrew Quad, St John's College
Open Saturday 15 February until 28 February, 1pm - 6pm