SOLO SHOW by Natasha Sadr Haghighian at MaMBo

MAMbo-Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna is proud to present the exhibition SOLO SHOW.
Opening: September 6th, 7:00 p.m.


SOLO SHOW
Robbie Williams

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SOLO SHOW
Achim Kayser
Alberto Storari
Alexander Niklasch
Andrea Schmidt
Andrea Viliani
Anna Rossi
Anne-Pascale Frohn
Arash Mohtadi
Bertram Sturm
Cajus Pietschmann
Detlef Brall
Elisa Maria Cerra
Erik Wiegand
Eva Fuchs
Fabio Di Camillo
Frank Kiefel
Franz König
Gerard McGettrick
Gianfranco Maraniello
Giulia Pezzoli
Hengst
Ines Schaber
Jennifer Chert
Jens Queren
Jeremy Carden
Jo Hany
Jörg Wambsganß
Juliane Bauer
Kathleen Knitter
Kirsa Geiser
La Vina
Markus Schmacht
Michael Müller
Mynou Dietrichmeier
Neville Reichman
Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Otto
Pierre Maite
Pollux
Rainer Jordan
Robert Schlicht
Roger
Sandy Kaltenborn
Sebastian Summa
Stefan Kessels
Stefan Pente
Steffen Puschke
Stephan Hempel
Thomas Huesmann
Thomas Wendler
Tirdad Zolghadr
Uliana Zanetti
Ute Waldhausen
Uwe Schwarzer
Viola Eickmeier
William Wheeler

SOLO SHOW is a research-based exhibition project initiated in 2006 by artist Natascha Sadr Haghighian upon MAMbo's invitation to present a one-person show in its premises.

SOLO SHOW was developed by Sadr Haghighian jointly with mixedmedia berlin, a renowned Berlin-based production company. mixedmedia berlin produces works for well-established, international artists but usually stays unnamed and invisible to the public. On the occasion of SOLO SHOW the artist collaborated with mixedmedia berlin's head, Uwe Schwarzer, to create a project that reflects on the terms of production in contemporary art.

By inventing a completely fictional artist named Robbie Williams ("the artist, not singer!") and premiering at MAMbo his first museum presentation, the exhibition project conceived by Sadr Haghighian with mixedmedia berlin renders the ways of producing art with a production company discernible and scrutinizes the myth of the ‘Solo Artist’.

The exhibition is divided into two separate halves with entrances from opposite ends. An introductory wall text indicates the first exhibition as the solo show of Robbie Williams while the second carries a list of over 50 names. Five objects that resemble fences for a jumping contest are installed in the first space. Instead of having a classical wood structure, they refer to Williams' biography and playfully quote from the history of modern and post-modern art. The other space is empty apart from a set of eight speakers that play the moving sound of a horse galloping around the room and jumping over imaginary fences.

SOLO SHOW is at once a fictional solo show and its real deconstruction. It reflects on the critical contradictions and narrative potentialities of this specific exhibition format within the context of contemporary artistic practices and investigates the ambiguous role of the solo show in the institutional framework and in the art market with its increasing demand for the huge and spectacular.

Working as Williams' first monograph, an artist book edited by Natascha Sadr Haghighian was published by Koenig Books London to coincide with SOLO SHOW , including documentation and contributions by the artist, Seda Naiumad (for the critic and curator Tirdad Zolghadr), exhibition curator Andrea Viliani as well as two extended conversations respectively with Uwe Schwarzer and the fictional artist Robbie Williams.

SOLO SHOW is part of the MAMbo Practices (No Dance Lessons) curatorial program, launched upon a different title by MAMbo in the two years that led up to and accompanied its opening. Aiming to explore the contemporary role of art institutions and to launch a lively debate between the institutional activities and the practices of contemporary artists, critics and curators, MAMbo Practices (No Dance Lessons) is an ongoing series of solo shows, seminars, events and books.

SOLO SHOW
September 7th - November 2nd, 2008
MAMbo-Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna
Via Don Minzoni 14
40121 Bologna
Italia
info@mambo-bologna.org
http://www.mambo-bologna.org