Projects 2001

Two exhibitions on communication and power structures and nine free handouts available to the public in dispensers throughout the city of Geneva.

Participating artists:
Jeremy Deller (UK), Karl Holmqvist (SE), Gunilla Klingberg (SE), Matthieu Laurette (F), Swetlana Heger & Plamen Dejanov (AT), Katja Valanne & Jarno Jokinen (FI), Tuomo Tammenpää (FI), Claude Closky (F) and KLAT (CH).

Curated by Cristina Ricupero (NIFCA) and Paula Toppila (FRAME)
Organised by NIFCA, FRAME and the Centre d'edition contemporaine in collaboration with Forde, Geneva.


The first edition of Social Hackers consisted of a series of three exhibitions that took place at the artist run gallery MUU in Helsinki during the autumn of 2000. Each exhibition project involved a confrontation or a collaboration between an artist from the Nordic region and one from continental Europe. The second edition of Social Hackers will be held in the Centre d'edition contemporaine in and Forde in Geneva. The artists have been chosen by two curators from Nordic art institutions, Cristina Ricupero (NIFCA) and Paula Toppila (FRAME). In addition to the use of the two gallery spaces a project initiated by the artist Brett Bloom from Chicago entitled Dispensing with Formalities, which consists of dispensers situated in a public space including artists' projects given out for free, will also be presented in different locations in the city of Geneva. All of the artists involved will do a special project for the dispenser. A catalogue in English will be published for the occasion.

This series of projects deals with various phenomena in the field of contemporary art that both comments and analyses social and political issues. These works relate strongly to the communication system and power structures in society problematising both the system and its message. The artists presented in Social Hackers use everyday familiar codes from the all-around advertisement, information flow, television, newspapers and magazines. But they use these signs innovatively, subverting their original message and context, making fun of these through literal interpretations of the messages and bringing art into the focus of different contexts - consumerism, commercialism and manipulation.

There are certain differences between social art of the seventies and these examples of social art of the nineties. The artists of today do not seek to make critical comments coming from the outside, but propose projects that are closely intertwined and function within different social structures. This slightly hacker-like mentality produces works that disturb our everyday reception of society. These works contrast with the monumental political comments of the seventies for they are very subtle, infiltrating the cityscape. This formal modesty also functions as a political stand, by criticising the commercial structure and the art work as a commodity.

Social Hackers is a collaboration between NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, FRAME, Finnish Fund for Art Exchange and the Centre d'edition contemporaine. This event has been made possible through a special invitation by the Centre d'edition contemporaine and with the support of: la Ville de Geneve-Departement des affaires culturelles, Arts Council of Finland, Fondation Nestle pour I'Art, Office Federal de laCulture, Pour-centculturel Migros, Loterie Romande et Alain Choisy.

For more information contact: Tuulikki Koskinen, NIFCA

A catalogue in English will be published for the occasion.

Social Hackers exhibitions in detail:

Centre d'édition contemporaine
18, rue Saint-Léger
1204 Geneva
tel. +41 22 310 51 70

From 13 September to 11 November, 2001.
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 14.30-18.30, Sat 14-17 (open day: Sun 11 November 14-17)

Participating artists:
JEREMY DELLER (GB)/KARL HOLMQVIST (SE)
PLAMENDEJANOV (AT)/SWETLANA HEGER (AT)
JARNO JOKINEN & KATJA VALANNE (FI)


Jeremy Deller from London and Karl Holmqvist from Stockholm, who have already collaborated on previous works, will present a joint project. They will use the gallery space as an info stand for the distribution of free hand-outs and documentations of public interventions commenting on issues such as economic and social order and spiritual quest.

Swetlana Heger and Plamen Dejanov from Berlin are interested in economic structures which influence the artistic production and discussion. They'll show two items from their famous Plenty Objects of Desire collection, the very part they contributed with their production budget.

Jarno Jokinen and Katja Valanne from Helsinki are interested in language, a message (visual or written) both being used and abused. They will show their new video work where a little girl is creating imaginative worlds by renaming ordinary things and giving them new meanings.
Forde, espace d'art contemporain


Forde, espace d'art contemporain
4, place des Volontaires
1204 Genève
tel. +41 22 321 68 22

From 13 September to 28 October, 2001.
Opening hours: Thu-Sat 14-19

Participating artists:
GUNILLA KLINGBERG (SE)/MATTHIEU LAURETTE (FR)
CLAUDE CLOSKY (FR)/TUOMO TAMMENPÄÄ (FI)

Gunilla Klingberg from Stockholm will show a computer animation commenting on consumer society and the numbing effect of consumerism via the multitude of signs and symbols, ads and slogans that surround us.

Matthieu Laurette from Paris will develop his ongoing research Citizenship Project a bit further by working with the local context. Help me to become a Swiss citizen! is a "How to project", an attempt to first become a Swiss permanent resident to finally be naturalized.

Throughout the last few years, Finnish artist and new media designer Tuomo Tammenpää has been busy setting-up an obscure and/or concrete "product". He will propose a new presentation of his long-term webbased project NEED.

Claude Closky from Paris has been dealing with the world of advertisement and the mechanics of consumer society for many years. He has compulsively analysed corporate language and design and will decorate one of the walls of the gallery with a special wall-paper.

The group KLAT, composed of 4 young artists from Geneva, will only participate in the project Dispensing with Formalities. They have decided to distribute to the public a ready-made : paint spray bombs, with no indications and for the use of supposed, possible future taggers. The act of making available to the public something that is usually used in illegal, anti-establishment interventions is a direct response to the recent instructions given out by the city of Geneva prohibiting any association or cultural institution to communicate their activities by displaying posters on public spaces. This critical act characterises the essence of their artistic practice, which puts its main focus on finding new ways to interact with its audience rather than simply producing objects. In fact, most often, they displace and re-create situations deriving from subculture, alternative and marginal activities, such as the event where the artists set up camp in an urban waste land during 24 hours exhibiting to the voyeuristic public their communal way of life or their tattoo studio or even their fanzinotheque.