Opening: Thursday, November 15, 6–9pm
Exhibition: November 16, 2018–January 26, 2019
Location & Hours:
Art in General
145 Plymouth Street
Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Wednesday–Sunday, 12–6pm
The exhibition School of Pain draws on the work of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Marquis de Sade, the first two thinkers of economies of desire. Sade with his ironic demonstrations may be seen as a predecessor to the attitudes of twentieth century modern and conceptual art. The libidinal economy, unleashed by modern reason, turned out to easily adopt such subversions in the constant mutations of advanced capitalism. The originally subversive imagery of Sade’s mechanised, accelerating and coldly executed desire therefore turned out to be a very literal image of our time. The exhibition poses the question of whether the related but oppositional position of Masoch, based on suspension and humor, couldn’t be the answer to both a return of contemporary art from theory to the sensual, but also meaningful art’s attitude towards an overly alienated world.
The exhibition features work by artists Than Hussein Clark, Anna Daučíková, Chiara Fumai, Mark Ther and BRUD (Aditya Mandayam) and is curated by Michal Novotný, Director of Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA in Prague. A public program series also accompanies the exhibition, including screenings and performance by the artists: Mark Ther’s films from the early 2000s–present negotiating complexities of identity; Than Hussein Clark’s feature-length film Love at the Frankfurt Autoshow; and musical performance, Locus Operandi, by Indo-Polish artist, filmmaker, writer, and musician, UMMO (Aditya Mandayam.)
