Ars Viva 2012 / 13 Systeme / Systems

This year‘s ars viva Prize for Fine Arts from the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft sounds out the potential of art to reveal, cast doubt on, and creatively use systems of any kind

Systems provide structure and offer opportunities for comparison; no science can do without order, no society can dispense with organization. Art, on the other hand, undermines systems. Spontaneous creative force and inventive idiosyncrasy can subvert familiar everyday structures. This publication presents the works of this year’s prizewinners, who have developed alternative models and artistic strategies that question what we ostensibly know about the world. In his 35mm films, Melvin Moti (*1977 in Rotterdam) shows how the human brain processes information and is distracted at the same time by optical phenomena. In his video works and installations, Simon Denny (*1982 in Auckland) reflects on the media reception of images. The artist duo Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt (*1977 and 1978 in Ankara), on the other hand, use videos, sculptures, and photographs to research the various constructs of identity within the context of political systems.

Exhibition schedule: Neues Museum, Nuremberg, October 21, 2012–January 13, 2013 | Kunsthalle zu Kiel, February 9–May 26, 2013 | Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, June 28–October 6, 2013