LEVIATHAN

[anna balint]

(text folder and trailer available at http://www.cyberleviathan.com/)

re: LEVIATHAN - Visual Forms of Governmental Power
December 4, 2002 - January 26, 2003 :: 1pm - 8pm daily
Freiraum / transeuropa in the MQ Wien - Quartier 21  
re: Leviathan
Visual Forms of Governmental Power

The structures of governance, social power, and legitimate force are being redefined. 
A confrontation is taking place between the principle of territorial states with 
hierarchical structures and concepts like supranational networks, global citizenry, 
and temporary collectives.

The exhibition re: Leviathan will present images that are significant for these 
ideologies. Taking the ambignous metaphors of two exemplary texts as a starting point 
- Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire 
(2000) - the show explores the visual forms in which power and community manifest 
today.

The exhibition will include materials from:
Adbusters, anonym, Joseph Beuys, Linda Bilda,
dt. BKA, Abraham Bosse, Bureau d`études, Georg Bussmann, Marcel Broodthaers, Peter 
Fend, Buckminster Fuller, Andreas Gursky, Ingo Günther, Hans Haacke, IRWIN, Johanna 
Kandl, Kursbuch Verlag, Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Otto Neurath, noborder Zone, museum in 
progress, Lisl Ponger, SUPERREAL, Markus Wailand, Stephen Willats et al.


Selection: Richard Brem, Cosima Rainer, Vitus Weh

The frontispiece of the eponymous book Leviathan has been transformed into a three-
dimensional object for the exhibition. A choir of voices emanates from its "belly" 
(design: Superreal).

A total of six listening stations installed in the Leviathan object play back 
interviews with Hobbes experts and academics.

The speakers include Michael Hardt, Quentin Skinner, Richard Tuck, David Runciman, 
Slavoj Zizek, Mary Midgley, Joseph Vogl, Paulina Borsook, John Gray, Geert Lovink, 
Klaus-Michael Kodalle, Chantal Mouffe, Noel Malcolm, and Stewart Home.

Their statements are structured as follows in the exhibition:

    * Visual interpretations: Statements on the motif of Leviathan/"homo magnus" and 
the origin of the copper engraving by Abraham Bosse.

    * Hobbes's Leviathan in a historical context.

    * Leviathan and its relevance today.

    * Thomas Hobbes: Remarks on his biography and intellectual development.

    * Core sentences from Leviathan: "Homo homini lupus", "War of all against all", 
"Life is brutish, mean, nasty, and short", etc.

    * Pop culture: A sound collage consisting of interviews with personages including 
comic authors Alan Moore and Peter Blegvad (creator of the Leviathan cartoon) and 
various samples from films and TV series that refer specifically to Leviathan (for 
example David Cronenberg's Shivers, Robocop, Hellraiser, Harsh Realm, and Session 9).



December 4, 2002 - January 26, 2003:
Freiraum/transeuropa, MQ Wien

April 13 - May 11, 2003:
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

Thanks to: Thomas Edlinger, Ulrike Groos, Andreas L. Hofbauer, Jan Knikker, Rainer 
Metzger, Herbert Rainer, Diane Shooman