After Neurath: Like sailors on the open sea.
February 25 - April 8, 2007
Location: Hogewal 1-9
'We are like sailors who have to rebuild their ship on the open sea,
without ever being able to dismantle it in dry dock and reconstruct it
from the best components.' - Otto Neurath
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the work of the Austrian utopian philosopher Otto Neurath
(1882-1945), in fields as various as fine art, design, philosophy,
cultural theory and urban studies. With the ‘After Neurath' project
Stroom poses the question what Neurath, this architect of modernity,
this social engineer, can teach us today. The exhibition 'After Neurath: Like sailors on the open sea'
brings together a group of artists whose work engages with the
implications of the work of Neurath. They investigate the possibilities
of collectively building a better future, the unification of different
fields of knowledge and emancipation through organisation. Subjects
closely linked to the social-democratic ideals from the past, which
now, at the start of the 21st century tend to be submerged in a culture
of individualism, consumerism and indifference.
The participating artists are:
Gerd Arntz (G/NL) who collaborated with Otto Neurath and Marie
Reidemeister (AUT) on the development of Isotype. The exhibition also
shows examples from the International Foundation for Visual Education
in The Hague, founded by Neurath during the years he lived in The Hague
(1934-‘40).
The Bureau d'études (F) shows the latest in a series of works
that make the usually invisible links between the institutions that
shape our lives (industry, governmental agencies) visible.
website Université Tangente
Alice Creischer & Andreas Siekmann (USA/G) show a series of
collaborative works that use the forms and language of Neurath and
Arntz to ask questions of contemporary relevance.
© Generali Foundation Collection.
Stephan Dillemuth's (G) recent work is concerned with groups
that came to be collectively known as the Life Reform Movement. Within
them they held the kernel of contradictory ideas, like bohemianism,
modern socialism and nazism.
website Society of Control
Chad McCail (UK) puts up a discussion about a money-driven world using cartoon-like imagery.
website Chad McCail
Oliver Ressler (AUT) engages with concepts and models for
alternative economies and societies, which all share a rejection of the
capitalist system.
website Oliver Ressler
Thomson & Craighead (UK) question the idea that the use of templates - for example for the web - generate knowledge.
website Thomson & Craighead
Curator: Steve Rushton.
The exhibition is made possible in part by: Mondriaan Stichting,
gemeente Den Haag, Embassy of Austria, Goethe-Institut
Rotterdam, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
An exhibition on the occasion of the project After Neurath.
- 25 Feb '07 - 08 Apr '07
- Hogewal 1-9, The Hague