HOTEL THEORY
curated by Sohrab Mohebbi
in collaboration with Ruth Estévez
Redcat
631 West 2nd Street - Los Angeles
3/10/2015 - 20/12/2015
Hotel Theory is an exhibition that considers theory as an art form. For three months the gallery is a platform for performances, screenings, concerts, philosophical meditations, conversations, and other events that explore the uses and abuses of theory in contemporary art. In recent decades, art spaces, museums and galleries have offered more lectures, conversations, and public presentations that aim to explore the artists’ ideas and contextualize their work in relation to contemporary society. Art historical discourse aside, most of these events use the language that has been developed and adopted as the lingua franca of contemporary art, with its roots primarily in semiotics, post-structuralism, and critical theory. This is also the primary basis for the syllabi of art criticism and theory programs in art schools internationally. Artists in Hotel Theory use this language and divert it for their own purposes.
While conceptual art proposed a move away from the art object and popularized the notion of art as an idea that can be accessible without the intervention of mediators who explain what it means, contemporary artists also work with the critical and academic language that is used to teach, explain, and mediate art and artistic practices. The artists presented in Hotel Theory inhabit the various forms of academic discourse and infiltrate the traditional spaces reserved for it. While the scope of this realm is expansive, this exhibition focuses on performance works that concentrate on the aesthetics of discourse.
Borrowing its title from Wayne Koestenbaum’s blissfully confusing book of the same name, Hotel Theory features a wide variety of artistic disciplines, practices, and points of departure. With new works by emerging artists and seminal works by influential, established artists, Hotel Theory suggests a historical overview—however limited—of artists and practices that question how the art space contributes to current theoretical debates.
With contributions by: David Antin, Art & Language, Erick Beltrán and Bernardo Ortíz, José León Cerrillo and Sara Lunden, Chto Delat, Charles Gaines, Liam Gillick, Hanns Eisler Nail Salon (H.E.N.S.), Jackson Pollock Bar, Ian James, Steve Kado, Devin Kenny, Wayne Koestenbaum, Chris Kraus, David Levine, Snejanka Mihaylova and Lisa Holmqvist, Hila Peleg, The Red Krayola, Pedro Reyes, Bartholomew Ryan, Cally Spooner, Danna Vajda, V-Girls, Anton Vidokle, Claude Wampler, Ian Wilson and Tirdad Zolghadr
Image: Parker Ito, Idea For Life (SCUM) / My Desktop123456789, 2013-2015 (detail). Courtesy of the artist and Château Shatto.
curated by Sohrab Mohebbi
in collaboration with Ruth Estévez
Redcat
631 West 2nd Street - Los Angeles
3/10/2015 - 20/12/2015
Hotel Theory is an exhibition that considers theory as an art form. For three months the gallery is a platform for performances, screenings, concerts, philosophical meditations, conversations, and other events that explore the uses and abuses of theory in contemporary art. In recent decades, art spaces, museums and galleries have offered more lectures, conversations, and public presentations that aim to explore the artists’ ideas and contextualize their work in relation to contemporary society. Art historical discourse aside, most of these events use the language that has been developed and adopted as the lingua franca of contemporary art, with its roots primarily in semiotics, post-structuralism, and critical theory. This is also the primary basis for the syllabi of art criticism and theory programs in art schools internationally. Artists in Hotel Theory use this language and divert it for their own purposes.
While conceptual art proposed a move away from the art object and popularized the notion of art as an idea that can be accessible without the intervention of mediators who explain what it means, contemporary artists also work with the critical and academic language that is used to teach, explain, and mediate art and artistic practices. The artists presented in Hotel Theory inhabit the various forms of academic discourse and infiltrate the traditional spaces reserved for it. While the scope of this realm is expansive, this exhibition focuses on performance works that concentrate on the aesthetics of discourse.
Borrowing its title from Wayne Koestenbaum’s blissfully confusing book of the same name, Hotel Theory features a wide variety of artistic disciplines, practices, and points of departure. With new works by emerging artists and seminal works by influential, established artists, Hotel Theory suggests a historical overview—however limited—of artists and practices that question how the art space contributes to current theoretical debates.
With contributions by: David Antin, Art & Language, Erick Beltrán and Bernardo Ortíz, José León Cerrillo and Sara Lunden, Chto Delat, Charles Gaines, Liam Gillick, Hanns Eisler Nail Salon (H.E.N.S.), Jackson Pollock Bar, Ian James, Steve Kado, Devin Kenny, Wayne Koestenbaum, Chris Kraus, David Levine, Snejanka Mihaylova and Lisa Holmqvist, Hila Peleg, The Red Krayola, Pedro Reyes, Bartholomew Ryan, Cally Spooner, Danna Vajda, V-Girls, Anton Vidokle, Claude Wampler, Ian Wilson and Tirdad Zolghadr
Image: Parker Ito, Idea For Life (SCUM) / My Desktop123456789, 2013-2015 (detail). Courtesy of the artist and Château Shatto.
