IRWIN: Like to Like

Cornerhouse, Manchester, 6 March - 18 April 2004

Like to Like / The constellation of candles in the field corresponding to the constellation of the stars in the sky, 2004 Photo reconstruction of the group OHO (Milenko Matanovic) action The constellation of candles in the field corresponding to the constellation of the stars in the sky from 1970 photo: Tomay Gregoric

The collaborative artists' group IRWIN has been a dynamic force in contemporary Eastern European art for some 20 years. Comprising five artists from Slovenia, the group also co-founded the wider cultural collective, Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK). Like to Like focuses on three recent installations which cleverly unpick the idea of an artistic 'avant garde' in the context of Central and Eastern Europe.

Framed within the constraints and the legacy of a totalitarian regime, IRWIN's early activities involved appropriating the suprematist symbols of the Eastern Bloc. As self-styled state artists, IRWIN formed virtual embassies and performance based consulates, and crafted passports and other insignia. This served to undermine the symbols of ideological power, highlighting their paradoxical nature. This can be equated to what the philosopher and psychoanalytical theorist Slavoj Zizek (a fellow Slovenian) terms over-identification, revealing what he calls the hidden reverse within existing ideological structures.

East Art Map (2003-4) is an interactive (re)construction and mapping of Eastern European Art. Taking its cue from Alfred H. Barr's seminal diagram illustrating the development of Western abstract art, East Art Map sees IRWIN again appropriating the language of a canon, this time that of art history. The work highlights the seeming (im)possibility of an East European identity in art. Like to Like (2004) again involves a certain (re)writing of the history of Slovenian art. The work consists of photographs documenting apparent artistic interventions in landscape. These are in fact re-stagings of the activities of the1960s/70s conceptual group OHO, the only remaining evidence of which is meticulous plans and grainy black and white photos. IRWIN's piece augments this documentation with intriguing colour images, giving the happenings an apparent clarity and weight.

Corpse of Art, 2003
mixed media

The exhibition culminates in Corpse of Art (2003), a Cornerhouse commissioned installation that seeks to reconstruct the physical presence of the twentieth century artist Kasimir Malevich, who is a recurring reference point in IRWIN's work. Malevich's legacy can be read in this context as that
of a failed Utopia, whose vision came to be appropriated by the communist regime during its rise to power. This lying-in-state again recalls the symbols of totalitarian regimes, and is at the same time a re-enactment of a pre-existing artwork exhibited in Leningrad in 1937.

The exhibition will be complemented by a series of education events and an extensive resource area, placing IRWIN's activities within a wider context. The exhibition is supported by Arts Council England, North West and the Slovenian Ministry of Culture.

 
For further press information and images please call Rebecca Land on 0161 200 1515 or email rebecca.land@cornerhouse.org

For public information please print 0161 228 7621 and www.cornerhouse.org

Rebecca Land
Visual Arts Communications Officer
Cornerhouse
70 Oxford Street
Manchester
M1 5NH
t: +44 (0)161 200 1515
f: +44 (0)161 200 1506
e: rebecca.land@cornerhouse.org
w: www.cornerhouse.org