Vectors of the Possible

Between 12 September and 28 November, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht proudly presentsVectors of the Possible, a group exhibition with works by Matthew Buckingham, chto delat/What is to be done?, Freee, Sharon Hayes, Runo Lagomarsino & Johan Tirén, Elske Rosenfeld, Hito Steyerl, and Ultra-red, curated by curator and critic Simon Sheikh.

The exhibition Vectors of the Possible examines the notion of the horizon in art and politics and explores the ways in which art works can be said to set up certain horizons of possibility, how art partakes in specific imaginaries, and how it can produce new ones, thus suggesting other ways of imagining the world. In this exhibition Sheikh suggests that we understand the notion of the horizon as an "empty signifier," but one that holds certain worldviews together, and unites political struggles, giving them a sense of direction. The horizon is that which has to be reached and indeed surpassed for another world to emerge. The art works in this exhibition examine this idea of the horizon as a limit concept, and explore its placement and function within political imaginaries. Art works can be seen as vectors, reckoning possibility and impossibility in (un)equal measures, but always detecting and indicating ways of seeing, and thus of being, in the world.

Vectors of the Possible is a research exhibition within the framework of the project FORMER WEST, an international research, education, publishing, and exhibition undertaking (2008–2013). In its consideration of the notion of the horizon, it is conceptually linked to the 2nd FORMER WEST Research Congress in Istanbul (4–6 November 2010) as well as On Horizons: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, the fourth publication in BAK's Critical Reader Series (forthcoming February 2011). For more information on FORMER WEST, please visit www.formerwest.org.

Vectors of the Possible
Kurator: Simon Sheikh

Künstler: Matthew Buckingham, Chto Delat? , Freee , Sharon Hayes, Runo Lagomarsino & Johan Tiren, Elske Rosenfeld, Hito Steyerl, Ultra-red