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Ina Wudtke:
A Portrait of the Artist as a DJ
18 May – 10 June 2007, Thursday to Sunday 1 – 6pm
Preview: Thursday 17 May 2007, 6 – 9pm
Studio Voltaire is pleased to announce Ina Wudtke’s first solo exhibition in the UK. The exhibition has been realised as a part of the International Residency Programme, which is made in collaboration with the Berlin Senate’s Department of Science, Research and Culture, the Whitechapel Gallery and Studio Voltaire. Each year, a Berlin based artist is provided with a studio, stipend, accommodation, professional development and a public exhibition.
Since finishing her visual arts studies in 1995, Ina Wudtke has formed a multilayered practice that includes DJ’ing, publishing and editing. In 1992, during her DJ residency at the Soul Kitchen in Hamburg, Wudtke’s DJ alterego, or ‘multi-ego’, as Kodwo Eshun would call it, was born. As the visitors of the club, mostly African immigrants and asylum seekers, didn’t understand her German name ‘Ina’, she changed it into ‘T-Ina’ and became ‘DJ T-INA’, which was not only easier to understand, but also looked graphically much more like the heteronyms of other DJ’s and rappers in the hip hop scene that she belonged to. The practice of DJ’ing as DJ T-INA has had a defining impact on Wudtke’s artistic practice, with particular references such as hip hop crossing over into the context of the gallery. In addition to this, Wudtke is also the editor of Neid, a magazine of contemporary writings on gender and identity.
In the video work A Portrait of the Artist as a worker (rmx.), Wudtke performs a poetic essay by the Belgian philosopher Dieter Lesage about her work. The essay deals in a both ironic and sympathising way with the multiple layers out of which artistic work nowadays often consist, as well as with the whole range of activities many artists perform, in order to make a living as an artist - in Ina Wudtke‘s case her work as a DJ, a promoter, a magazine editor, etc. The work can be seen as provocative plea for the worker in the contemporary art world. The exhibition will also include photographs, drawings, archive materials and audio. To coincide with the exhibition, Dieter Lesage wrote a new book reflecting on the artist’s practice. A Portrait of the Artist as a DJ. Notes on Ina Wudtke (Brussels, VdH Books) will be available at the exhibition.
The exhibition has been financially supported by the Berlin Senate, Department of Science, Research and Culture. In collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
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