By asking people to Remember Revolution we are not mourning the death of radical political possibility. Rather we are asking how the events of ’68 inform our own forms of protest. While interest in traditional democracy is waning can the past help activate new forms of political participation? What alternatives exist to the global dominance of the ‘Neo-Liberal’ economy, whose freedoms keep two-thirds of the world’s population in poverty and threaten the survival of the planet? If power is increasingly immaterial and beyond the grasp of nation states, what strategies have been developed to counter it?
Nottingham Contemporary is examining these and other questions with a season to commemorate May ’68, the month when a million people took over the streets of Paris.
Web:www.nottinghamcontemporary.org
A documentary that gives a rare glimpse into the life and wisdom of one of the most extraordinary spiritual leaders of our time, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Coinciding with the Dalai Lama’s June 2008 visit to Sydney, the film will be screened in preview
IN SYDNEY at the Dendy Opera Quays on Tuesday June 3 to raise funds for the Australian Himalayan Foundation. The show starts at 6.30pm with a pre-screen performance by the world renowned Tibetan flautist Newang Khechog.
IN MELBOURNE at Kino Dendy on Wednesday 4th June to raise funds for the Australia Tibet Council, Guest Speakers include the Chairman of Australia Tibet Council George Farley, who has been heavily involved in Tibet issues for over 30 years, and Kesang Wangmo, a Melbourne based Tibetan Activist who every Sunday until the opening of the Beijing Olympics, is leading members of Melbourne’s Tibetan and Buddhist communities in a peaceful vigil outside the Chinese Consulate in Toorak.
Tickets $16 per person.
*$7 from every ticket will be donated to the charity of the evening.
There are very limited seats. To book please call
SYDNEY: Dendy Opera Quays on 9247 3800
MELBOURNE: Kino Dendy box office 03 9650 2100
“This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” – Adam Curtis
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud’s theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their “engineering of consent”.
Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the “father of the public relations industry”. Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, one of the main opponents of Freud’s theories.
Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.
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If anyone is familiar with monsters, it is American artist Chet Zar. He explores them every day. They are part of his life, both professional and private. As a designer, special effects make-up artist, sculptor, and 3D animator for major Hollywood studios and rock bands such as Tool, he sketches, creates and builds them on a day to day basis – if you know the movies Hellboy, The X-Men, The Ring, or the Oscarwinning Guillermo del Toro film Pan’s Labyrinth, you have seen his creatures come alive.
As a painter, Zar portrays them as they are: ugly. When you look at Chet Zar’s paintings, you will realize an inescapable truth: We are the monsters.
Zar’s creations represent how we all occasionally feel on the inside but rarely admit to the outside world, and despite their ugliness, his monsters retain a certain degree of sensitivity, even humanity about them, a vulnerability that is unexpected and thus only discovered by those allowing themselves to look beyond the surface. The artist’s intimate relationship with his subjects is revealed by overcoming our own initial resistance: If we can move beyond our revulsion and dive into our – and Zar’s – subconscious, we may be surprised to find that ugliness does not ultimately have to lead to rejection. We may come to find that we feel compassion for these creatures who smoke, cry, smile, and play like humans – in short, we may discover the Other in ourselves.
Using different, more vivid colors than his usual earthy tones such as blue, purple and pink, Zar’s latest body of work titled Ugly American is politically motivated – as Zar says, the metaphorical Ugly American never looked uglier to the rest of the world. Thanks to the policies of the Bush administration, the once good standing the Americans enjoyed in the world community is gone.
Keeping this in mind, it seems only natural that the Ugly American show premiers in London and not his native Los Angeles, although the era of Bush’s tight grip on public American opinion has weakened significantly as his presidency is drawing to a certain close, and Zar’s criticism of current American politics would be more likely to find whole-hearted support than anything else.
Strychnin Gallery London – 65 Hanbury Street – London E1 5JP
Web: www.strychnin.com
This exhibition marks The Hayward’s 40th anniversary as one of the world’s most architecturally unique exhibition venues. Taking its title from a book by artist Martin Kippenberger, the exhibition brings together the work of artists who create habitat-like structures and architectural environments that are mental and perceptual spaces as much as physical ones.
Viewers enter and explore a series of atmospheric, spatially dynamic constructions that use elements of light, colour, smell and design to trigger profound visceral responses that heighten their attention to the relationship between the individual and their surroundings.
The exhibition spills out onto The Hayward’s three outdoor sculpture terraces, and features major installations by participating artists. Artists include: Atelier Bow-Wow, Michael Beutler, Los Carpinteros, Gelitin, Mike Nelson, Ernesto Neto, Tobias Putrih, Tomas Saraceno, Do-Ho Suh and Rachel Whiteread.
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