How do we want to be governed? (Figure and Ground)

Miami Art Central (MAC) November 29, 2004– January 30, 2005

The exhibition is the third in the series Die Regierung (The Government) and is organized by Roger M. Buergel (Artistic Director of documenta XII) and Ruth Noack around the topic of governmentality, a term used by the late philosopher Michel Foucault to describe the tricky-sometimes beneficial, sometimes destructive-relations between individuality and contemporary power.

Each exhibition, in the series of five, explores a different aspect of the general theme by incorporating new works and adopting a fresh curatorial approach geared toward the specific site. The installation at MAC addresses the relational character of human existence-the fact that “being” is an ongoing mediation between “figure” and “ground.”

How do we want to be governed? The question was raised by Foucault almost a quarter of a century ago, when the great administrative apparatus began to dissolve, the European welfare state was showing signs of erosion, and the Soviet Bloc was on the brink of collapse. But its history extends as far back as the late Middle Ages, when Ambrogio Lorenzetti created his frescoes on good and bad government in Siena’s town hall. Like Foucault, Lorenzetti perceived government as exerting power indirectly and subtly, rather than directly and spectacularly, on its citizens.

In this light, government is seen as a structure of actions brought to bear upon other actions (or upon the actions of others), and to govern means to create a situation in which subjects are incited or constrained to act. Government, however, is more than the theme of these exhibitions; it provides each installation with its particular form. The series builds on changing constellations of artworks acting upon each other, thereby extending itself in time and space, much like a film in three dimensions. The aim of this ongoing mediation between works is to include the spectator in its unfolding. Viewers and artworks are actions upon actions, are “figure and ground” with respect to each other.

ARTISTS

Sonia Abian and Carlos Piegari, Ibon Aranberri, Maja Bajevic, James Coleman, Alice Creischer, Danica Dakic, Ines Doujak, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Harun Farocki, Peter Friedl, Andrea Geyer, Sanja Ivekovic, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Rainer Oldendorf, Florian Pumhosl, Alejandra Riera and Fulvia Carnevale, Martha Rosler, Dierk Schmidt, Allan Sekula, Andreas Siekmann, Imogen Stidworthy, Jurgen Stollhans, Tucuman Arde, Simon Wachsmuth, Francesca Woodman, and Olivier Zabat.

THE EXHIBITION

This series began at the Kunstraum der Universitat Luneburg in Germany in 2003 with three installations: Die Regierung (The Government), The University Is a Factory, and How Can We Know the Dancer from the Dance? The second in the series was recently presented at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) in Spain as Com volem ser governats?. Following the installation at MAC, the exhibition will travel to the Secession in Vienna, Austria and to Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2005.

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The exhibition was curated by Roger M. Buergel and Ruth Noack. At MAC, How do we want to be governed? (Figure and Ground) was coordinated by Rina Carvajal, MAC Executive Director and Chief Curator. The exhibition was sponsored by The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, and the Cowles Charitable Trust.