DOUBLE EXHIBITION: DAVID KERR & INA WUDTKE
David Kerr: A noose around your neck until you die
Ina Wudtke: The Fine Art of Living
5 October - 3 November 2017
BAZA, B. Adžije 11, Zagreb
opening and guided tour by the artists: Thursday October 5 2017, at 7 p.m.
working hours: Tuesday - Friday 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. / Saturday and Sunday 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Saturday, 14th of October 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
We conclude this year's season of Artists for Neighbourhood with an exhibition by two artists who put the housing issue at the center of their artistic interest and political engagement. David Kerr and Ina Wudtke looked for the causes and consequences of the housing problem at local examples of Glasgow and Berlin, linking the housing crisis to processes of urban transformation that reveal its deep political and economic roots. They are most visible in the privatization of public services and commodification of housing. Contrary to the still dominant attitude that the housing issues can be solved by small shifts in governance policies, the works of these two artists show that its political and economic background requires a radical response. This is why a special emphasis is placed on the class dimension of housing, calling for organizing of tenants in the struggle for quality and widely accessible public housing.
A noose around your neck until you die (which is one of the definitions of the French origin word 'mortgage'), brings a selection of comic books and illustrations by David Kerr. Three stories from Kerr’s work encompass a long period, from first subtenants’ strikes in Scotland during the First World War to this day. The author examines the historical legacy of labor struggles and their connection to contemporary organizing, while placing the current mechanisms of housing commodification, driven by great cultural and sporting events, into an extended historical context: capitalist development and its deeply destructive character.
The Fine Art of Living, by the artist Ina Wudtke, cuts into a specific East German context: the privatization of the public housing fund after the fall of the Wall and the gentrification that followed. The mechanisms to expel the poorer population so that buildings could be adapted into luxury goods on the real estate market. The artist felt at first hand and used her own experience as an entry into Berlin's housing problem at the system level.
On Friday, November 3 2017 at 7 p.m. Ina Wudtke will give a lecture under the title Poetic Agitation: On revolutionary communist workers writers in the Weimar Republic.
David Kerr (1982) is a Scottish comics artist, illustrator, graphic designer and activist. He has exhibited at numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, and his comics were released in the UK, USA, South America and elsewhere. He is engaged in teaching as a part time tutor, guest lecturer and workshop leader. As an illustrator he regularly collaborates with the Lancel Journal, the New Internationalist Magazine, the Greencity Wholefoods workers cooperative and others. From 2006 to 2008 he curated several exhibitions and educational programs at the Market Gallery, an artist run space in Glasgow. He graduated at the Glasgow School of Art and Royal College of Art in London and has participated in numerous residences. He received several awards for his work. He is currently based in Glasgow.
Ina Wudtke (1968) is a German artist. From 1992 until 2004 she edited the queer-feminist artist magazine NEID and in this context she organized several music and spoken word events, readings, exhibitions, screenings, debates etc. In her work, Ina Wudtke questions hegemonic political and societal discourses and tries to strenghten counter-discourses on themes such as gender, work, city and housing. In 2011, she released a conceptual album on gentrification entitled 'The Fine Art of Living' under her pseudonym T-INA Darling. With the Belgian philosopher Dieter Lesage, she wrote the book Black Sound White Cube (Vienna, Loecker, 2010). She has exhibited at numerous group and solo exhibitions in Germany and abroad. Since 1998 lives and works in Berlin.
EXHIBITION DESIGN: Nina Bačun i Roberta Bratović - Oaza
financial support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City Office for Education, Culture and Sport of the City of Zagreb, Foundation "Kultura nova", Goethe Institut Kroatien (participation of Ina Wudtke)
sponsor: Hotel Laguna
