20.07.–10.09.2006
Exhibition

Soleil Noir
Depression and Society

Opening: July 19, 2006, 8 p.m.
The Klub - Part 6: July 19, 2006, 9 p.m.

Curator’s Talk: August 8, 2006, 7 p.m.

In the exhibition Soleil Noir the connection between depression and society was investigated. People are increasingly complaining about “The Exhausted Self” to quote a book title by french sociologist Alain Ehrenberg, who has been working on the topic, the developement of the term and the definition of depression. The daily phenomenon of “burn out,” depression and the administration of anti-psychotic medication even for mild depressive moods can be described as a social process of “taking care of oneself” which is delegated to each individual. The increasing emancipation of the subject of regulatory institutions, such as the family, political movements and the nation, leave a lot of empty spaces which can not simply be filled with the notion of “self-responsibility.”

Beyond the romantic idea of the artist as an exemplary sufferer, being especially productive in a melancholic condition, this exhibition was an investigation into the correlation between society and the individual and the activation of the subjects in a neo-liberal society. Within the exhibiton the Austrian painter Otto Zitko created a wall painting for the Ring Gallery of the Künstlerhaus, the work was on view until the end of 2008.

Artists: Maria Bussmann, Olga Chernysheva,
Doris Frohnapfel, Dan Graham, Lynn Hershman, Maryam Jafri, Gülsün Karamustafa, Paweł Książek, Anita Leisz, Maria Lieb, Gerd Löffler, Antje Majewski, Ioana Nemes, Fritz Rücker, Miroslav Tichý,
Simon Wachsmuth, Ingrid Wildi, Otto Zitko (Ring Gallery)