Peter Friedl

From 13 June to 8 September 2002, the Institut d'art contemporain in Villeurbanne is presenting luttesdesclasses, Peter Friedl's first individual exhibition in France. Born in Austria in 1960, Friedl lives in Berlin and works in situ. He has participated in major exhibitions such as Documenta X in Kassel, 1997, and Au-delà du spectacle at the Musée National d'Art Moderne (Centre Georges Pompidou), 2000. The aim of luttesdesclasses is to take a new look at the "genre" of the retrospective exhibition and its conventions: linear, chronological interpretations, the adaptation of the underlying concept and the mode of presentation to each venue, the catalogue and the list of works exhibited. This proposal follows on from similar experiments already carried out by the artist at the Casino Luxembourg–Forum d'Art, the Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst in Bremen, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Cape Town and the museum of Linz. Peter Friedl will be showing some twenty recent works and projects in a composed and contextualised form, among them the film King Kong, 2001, the projection Playgrounds, 1999-2002, the installations Tiger oder Löwe ("Tiger or lion"), 2000, 40 Acres and a Mule, 2001, H.E.L.P., 2001, La Bohême, 1997, 20 Years of Resistance, 2000, and Corrupting the Absolute, 2000, along with projects in progress begun in 2002: Home Tree Home and Cedar Stump Home. The title of the exhibition refers to the former school (dating from the days of Jules Ferry) which now houses the Institut d'Art Contemporain, but also to a project for the reinvention of an art that spoke of the urgencies of its age, namely the films made by collectives of directors working in the aftermath of 1968. Friedl makes use of the work done by the Dziga Vertov collective which, between 1968 and 1970, turning its attention from pure fiction to the political events of the day, invented new dramatised forms of documentary that combined reality and fiction. Friedl's working method always consists of taking on problems by shaking up or overthrowing the kinds of logic of thinking that are embedded in cultural and ideological habits. With each project, he returns to and renews his probing of an individual practice of critical autonomy and the disarming of power. Dziga Vertov's output will form a background of references for the other works presented in the exhibition.

Lecture: "The intelligence of the French, or, the truth about Peter Friedl" by Roger M. Buergel (Vienna), exhibition curator and critic. Roger M. Buergel is the author of a Peter Friedl catalogue that was co-published in 1999 by the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon; and in 2000 he co-curated the exhibition Dinge, die wir nicht verstehen / Things we don't understand at the Generali Foundation in Vienna. The same year, he was responsible for Austria's artistic contribution to the Hanover Expo, the exhibition Art in conflict with the international hyperbourgeoisie and the national petty bourgeoisie. Thursday 13 June, 7:00 pm

Publications: Two texts by Peter Friedl, in the collection Les Cahiers–Mémoire d'Expo.

Documentation: Visitors are provided with a free information sheet. Documentary files and press reviews are available for consultation. Pressetext

Peter Friedl - luttesdesclasses