a kind of forever present
A public talk inhabiting the form of a theatrical performance to explore what ever happened to postmodernism.
Written and organized by James Voorhies
Salon für Kunstbuch 21er Haus
(today Belvedere 21)
Vienna, Austria
October 10, 2012
Made in collaboration with Nicholas Hoffman, Nate Padavick, with Alice Bayandin, Lena Rosa Händle, Michèle Pagel, Mario Strk, Cassandra Troyan
Made possible with support from Bernhard Cella, Salon für Kunstbuch and 21er Haus; realized while I was working as an independent curator
a kind of forever present culled and combined citations from texts by writers and theorists Jennifer Allen, Fredric Jameson, Jean Baudrillard, Jürgen Habermas, and Clement Greenberg, among others. The figures come together anachronistically in a fictitious conversation to ponder the repercussions of postmodernism into a continual stream of social media content and information capital.
a kind of forever present was made in response to an invitation by Salon für Kunstbuch 21er Haus (today Belevedere 21) to talk about the creative place of writing and publications in curating. The performance-reading was part of experiments with different approaches to critical writing and the catalogue essay. Recent books published by Bureau for Open Culture had simultaneously documented, contextualized, and performed some of the ideas under investigation in the projects. a kind of forever present developed from these interests, specifically the book published for Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven for which a screenplay-as-catalogue essay was written.
At 21er Haus, a host of collaborators helped produce a kind of forever present using rather rudimentary theatrical tactics that broke down distinctions between audience, props, characters, scripts, and performers. The reading featured original musical scores by Brooklyn-based band Umbrella Men whose lyrics were based on citations from George Orwell’s 1984. It was followed by a conversation with curator Bernhard Cella of Salon für Kunstbuch.
Book, Documentation
...