PRESS RELEASE: hi-res image:[DOWNLOAD ]

Berlin, 1. August 2006

CONTRAGOLPE: Reenacting a Failed Operation

a concept group show conceived and assembled by
INSTITUTO DIVORCIADO - SANTIAGO / BROOKLYN / BERLIN

Featuring new works by 69 international artists:

Francisca Benítez
Carlos Bogni
Marlous Borm
Lutz Braun
David Henry Brown Jr.
Angie Butler
Jorge Cabieses
Hugo Cárdenas
Juan Céspedes
Tomás Daskam
Andreas Diefenbach

Godfried Donkor
Solvej Dufour
Benjamín Echazarreta
Kelly Fancher
Claudio Fernández
Diego Fernández
Lars Friedrich
Francisca García
Cristina Gómez Barrio + Wolfgang Mayer
Mark Grubstein
Nicolás Guagnini
Tony Hamboussi
Barbara Hilski
Jackson
Steve Johnson
Thomas Kilpper
Ingo Kniest
Sali Landricina
Cristóbal Lehyt
Fabian Marti
Felipe Mujica
Iván Navarro
Mario Navarro
neuroTransmitter
Angel Nevarez
Nutria
Bettina Nürnberg
Itziar Okariz
Rodrigo Pereda
Katrin Pesch
Dirk Peuker
Pedro Pulido
Juan Cristóbal Pulido
Kimberly Reinhardt
Rodrigo Salinas
Giovanna Sarti
Martin G. Schmid
Karin Schneider
Thomas Schroeren
Kerim Seiler
Cristián Silva
Ania Siwanowicz + Ludovic Poulet
Courtney Smith
Peter Stoffel
Megan Sullivan
Emily Sundblad
Ian Szydlowski
Valerie Tevere
Claudio Torres (CTR)
Johanna Unzueta
Rodrigo Vergara
Manuela Vieragallo
Miriam Visaczki
Paulo Vivacqua
Peter Wächtler + Friedrich Lissmann
Axel Wieder
Klaus Winichner
Camilo Yañez
Mateo Zlatar

Opening – Saturday 30.Sept. 2006, 20 - 01 hrs.
With a rare live appearance by local music ensemble Die Band

KARL MARX ALLEE 87, BERLIN, 10243.
Open Hours: 12 – 19 hrs. 1-4 Oct. 2006
M. +0178-5177540
T. +030-612 87 026
Additional performances & schedules to be announced at:
WWW.CONTRA-GOLPE.ORG

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ian Szydlowski, Iván Navarro and Diego Fernández first met in the early
nineties, while attending PUC Fine Arts School in Santiago de Chile; in
these first fifteen years of friendship they have collaborated in several
art projects, of which INSTITUTO DIVORCIADO is the newest and most
ambitious:

“...a flexible group of three or more artists, thinkers and the like,
decided to put energy, time and some money into planning, design and
production of pseudo-ephemeral art venues and their discussion”.

Contragolpe is their first exhibition.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contragolpe (counter-strike) is a concept show without a theme, but a
premise to which the artists can relate at different levels and in different
intensities: referred to the details of Operation XX Century –a failed
attempt to kill General Pinochet, then "president" of Chile, in September of
1986– the artists were introduced to a set of concepts to work around
(failure, broken dreams, unaccomplished revenge, anti-climax, stereotypical
politics…). The objective of the show is to explore the consequences of this
“loose” curatorial proposal and see how the resulting pieces will correlate
as a group and within each particular work line. There is a big risk in the
fact that the show is almost planned on site, and works will remain unknown
until the last minute.

By reuniting this large and heterogeneous group of contemporaries, we aim to set the basis for a fertile field of future collaborations and networking.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1986: A group of "extremists" ambush and attack the passing presidential
convoy in an attempt to kill the head of government of strategically
valuable little country of Latin America // 2006: A group of " avant-garde-ish"
artists arrange an exhibition to confront the affluence of art lovers
induced by massive art fair at the center of the European Union. Both groups
average age is 30.

examine the proposed parallel in this paragraph. (extracted from "Just for the record" in the "History" section of this website):

“…Strategically, the most direct way of mining the base of the dictatorship,
established on the absolute authority of Pinochet –head of government and
military after violent coup d’etat on September 11th 1973– creating
dissidence and contradictions inside the military over the subjects of his
succession, economical policies to follow and decisions about weather
enduring repression or favoring aperture programs in the future. Tactically,
it meant a repositioning of the FPMR, now fronting a morally renewed popular
offensive, pushing to obtain a significant change in the correlation of
forces, making evident the government's vulnerabilities and strengthening
for future negotiation.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organizing an international art collaboration inspired by such a traumatic
event –violent, disgraceful and failed (although, it's discussable how
influential it actually was in the funneling of events towards the end of
the regime)– has a certain degree of exorcism over the figure of Pinochet
(and/or equivalents) for those of us who witnessed the facts without
actively participating or being physically harmed. The political and
ideological implications of this idea are active in a wide range of fields
where we are not "playing politics”, but rather using the tools of art to
expose a political notion of committed collaboration and self-production,
towards demise of stationery commercialism and cynical, ubiquitous greed.

ID