Chris Evans
Militant Bourgeois: An Existentialist Retreat
18 January to 17 February 2007
AT: International Project Space, Birmingham
This exhibition presents the third and final section of Chris Evans’ project ‘Militant Bourgeois: An Existentialist Retreat’. ‘Militant Bourgeois’ began with an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam during June 2006, and then between September and December 2006 a residency programme operated for the ‘Existentialist Retreat’ in a black Portakabin that was stationed between two busy roads in Amsterdam’s Sloterdijk business and industry area. This temporary structure functioned as the nexus of Evans’ ‘Retreat’, which was commissioned in the context of a city council-subsidised project investigating the possibilities of ‘community art’.
Essentially a no-frills hut where wealthy artists could go to suffer in order to facilitate a more authentic artistic experience, the retreat offered a Spartan environment for its programme of artists’ residencies. Apart from a bed and a desk, the only other thing occupying the shack was a wood burning stove and a copy of J.G Ballard’s Concrete Island (1974), which was left by the first resident of the retreat, Pedro Bakker.
If Evans appears to be distorting existing forms of ‘relational’ practice, or pointing towards a dystopian context by deliberately not doing things ‘straight-up’, then we might look at Xander Karskens’ commissioned essay for the exhibition’s leaflet for an explanation of the artist’s intentions. Karkens writes ‘The realisation of ‘Militant Bourgeois’, as a rudimentary, ‘existentialist’ artists’ retreat, is the ultimate consequence of Evans’ continuing research into the social, political and economic structures that form the foundations of art production in general, and the relationship between patronage and artistic autonomy in particular. […] The artist’s opposition of existentialist notions on individual freedom, suffering, and angst, to the Dutch funding system’s ambition to facilitate (financially) comfortable environments for great art creation, could be considered as artistic research-cum-provocative statement – putting the finger on the sore spot, so to speak, in a process that was authorised and completely funded by the same system it set out to critique.’
The exhibition in Bournville deals with a complex narrative surrounding art history, philosophy and arts patronage, and will comprise photographic documentation of the Dutch residency programme, an extended version of the film – whose script was co-written by Evans, the writer-curator Will Bradley and the philosopher Nina Power – together with posters, airbrush drawings and the wood-burning stove that provided warmth for occupants of the retreat in Sloterdijk.
In addition, a new publication Militant Bourgeois: An Existentialist Retreat has been co-commissioned by IPS, Bournville and Black Diamond Press, New York to coincide with the exhibition. It includes contributions by Alex Farquharson, Robert Garnett, Nina Power (edited by Will Bradley and Chris Evans), and Jan Verwoert. It is published with generous support from Arts Council England; University of Central England, Birmingham; Galerie Juliette Jongma; STORE Gallery; SMBA; and Dot Dot Dot, in an edition of 600. ISBN 978-0-9554923-0-3. Available from International Project Space priced £12 plus £2 postage and packaging. Cheques payable to ‘UCE’.
Militant Bourgeois: An Existentialist Retreat is part of a four-part touring project that is organised by Studio Voltaire, London in collaboration with International Project Space, Birmingham; Chapter, Cardiff; and Outpost Gallery, Norwich.
www.internationalprojectspace.org
Supported by Arts Council England and University of Central England, Birmingham. With additional support provided by Arts Council Wales, The Henry Moore Foundation and STORE Gallery, London.
