A comparative reading of the complex literary œuvre of the Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges lies at the point of departure for this exhibition. Borges’s oeuvre and its conceptual as well as narrative landscape is used as a methodology to build up a sequence of potential narratives (and fictions), continued (as if) en abîme in a collective archive of visual imaginary, based upon the collection. Within this labyrinthine context, the collection takes on a mode of one of the most enigmatic Borges’s symbols, Aleph – the point that includes all the times and all the spaces of the universe, an abstract and at the same time concrete sphere where they are contained. It cannot be grasped through “normal” perception because it encloses infinity but anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping or confusion. As such, the collection is a Model, a primary Structure, unfolded into infinity, in a circular choreography of fiction and reality.> >

The exhibition presents a range of works, most drawn from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary collection, that reference either the immediate personal space that surrounds or serves the artists’ actions and experimentation or the space that unfolds through the artwork itself. These works allow for an examination of how various spatial orders are constructed along a shifting scale from intimate (body), to private (home), to interpersonal (social), to material / institutional (economic, political, cultural) — all based on an interdependent notion of the self.> >

Amar Kanwar’s new work The Lightning Testimonies, 2007 is a multi-channel video that reflects upon a history of conflict in the Indian subcontinent through experiences of sexual violence. In this exploration, multiple submerged narratives are revealed, sometimes in people, images and memories, and at other times in objects from nature and everyday life that stand as silent but surviving witnesses. In all the narratives, the body is central – as a site for honor, hatred and humiliation and also for dignity and protest.> >

“Keeping the edge” on Lopud (Financial Times, Aug 18, 2007): Having earned great critical acclaim and enthusiastic responses from more than 4,000 visitors in 2007 Your black horizon Art Pavilion opens for a second season on the Croatian island. This distinctive location of the Art Pavilion on Lopud – just a few nautical miles away from the UNESCO world heritage city of Dubrovnik – establishes the potential of the project to interact with the site it inhabits.> >

The selection of artworks drawn from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation explores the question of artistic representation of today’s ever more precarious work spheres within advanced economies. The dramatic but also humorous “work histories”, as narrated or represented by Julian Rosefeldt, Allan Sekula, Andreas Siekmann, Los Carpinteros, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkácová result from radical shifts in production and work processes, such as the outsourcing of services to migrant workers, often “sans papiers”, and from larger social re-stratifications reflecting the changing orders of social representation. These histories are the symptoms of transitional states, where larger, planetary readjustments create localized distortions and conditions of morbidity and entire sectors of skilled labor are at risk of displacement or disappearance.> >

This new large installation continues the artists’ explorations in creating sculptural and physical sound. 100 audio speakers are mounted around the space creating a minimalist flocking of speakers. Cardiff/Miller are working with two composers, Freida Abtan and Tilman Ritter as well as creating soundscapes to create a 3-part composition that physically affects the listener and envelops them in a moving space of sound. The installation is structured like a play or film but with images created only by voice, music and sound effects that use 3-D movement around the space to accentuate the emotional effect of the sound. Duration: 29 minutes.> >