Irwin

The internationally acclaimed Irwin group was established in Ljubljana in 1983 by 5 artists: Dušan Mandič, Miran Mohar, Andrej Savski, Roman Uranjek and Borut Vogelnik. Along with the Laibach music group, the performance group Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre (which later evolved into Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet) and the design section Novi kolektivizem (NK), the Irwin group is part of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) movement.

One of Irwin's main principles is building one’s own artistic position out of one’s particular circumstances. They believe that by being particular, art can become truly universal so they construct their own conditions. In the work of the group two fundamental attitudes may be observed: the first is the emphasis on collective working rather than privileging the individual personality of the artist; and the second is the NSK working procedure, so-called the ‘retro-principle’, whereby works become a collage of quotations and allusions to various sources, such as past symbols, images and philosophical ideas. The group explained the paradoxical position of retroavantgardism in an official statement The Future is the seed of the past in 1987. Irwin’s art is complex and has a traumatic and provocative effect.

The name of the group Irwin comes from a reference to Marcel Duchamp (Rrose Sélavy) and was initially Rrose Irwin Sélavy but was soon shortened to R Irwin S.

Projects

During the 1980s Irwin created a specific visual language and produced predominantly painterly projects using various materials and references, for example Red Districts (1987), Was Ist Kunst (1984), a series on the ideology of art, Four Seasons (1988) etc. Since the 1990s the group has been concentrating on critical examination of the art history pointing out the artificiality of Western art historical structures that continue to exclude contemporary Eastern European art to this day. Irwin's projects actively and concretely intervene in social and historical activities and have redefined the status of art in Eastern Europe.

Among the most important projects realised by Irwin there are Retroavantgarda (1994–2000), mapping specific artistic practice on the territories of ex-Yugoslavia, Transnacionala (1996), a journey across along the lines of colonization from west to east across of the United States, NSK Embassy Moscow (1992), Black Square on Red Square (1992), a guerilla action that took place on Moscow's Red Square, Kapital (1991), an exhibition in Clock Tower Gallery in New York, and the East Art Map.

East Art Map(EAM)

The project aims to critically (re)construct the history of contemporary art in Eastern Europe (from 1945 on). The project is based on the idea that the history is not given but has to be constructed and the fact that documentation of contemporary art scene in Eastern Europe has been very poor. In EAM artists are taken out of their national frameworks and presented in a unified scheme of Eastern European art scene. In collaboration with New Moment Irwin invited a group of eminent art critics, curators and artists from different ex-socialist Central, Eastern and South-Eastern countries to create the basic database. It was first published in a New Moment magazine in 2002, than a CD was made and, in 2004 EAM was put on-line as a truly participatory project open for contributions. Since Irwin does not seek to establish some ultimate truth the map is still being upgraded by public proposals. The website is part of the e-flux projects and includes instruction on how to participate. In 2006 a book East Art Map: Contemporary Art and Eastern Europe edited by Irwin was published by Afterall.

International exhibitions

Irwin has presented its work at about 150 solo exhibitions in Europe, Russia and America, and participated at several international exhibitions, for example, the First Manifesta in Rotterdam in 1996, the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, the 9th Istanbul Biennial in 2005; Eye on Europe at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2006; Das Scharwze Quadrat. Hommage à Malewich at the Hamburg Kunsthalle in 2007).

IRWIN–NSK Passport Office was presented in MoMA Print Studio in New York in 2012 and the Red Districts, a painting that commemorates history and work, art and totalitarianism, was on display at Manifesta 09 in Genk.

In November 2007 the Irwin exhibition Monokromi ('Monochromes') was presented at the Gregor Podnar Gallery in Ljubljana.

Public Movement Greets Irwin of  N.S.K.mov by digitalartlab on YouTube

The Eye of the State, an exhibition curated by Avi Pitchon for the Israeli Center for Digital Art was staged in cooperation with the Public Movement in 2010.

One of Irwin's most recent projects Was ist Kunst Hugo Ball (2010) was presented in Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich and in Gregor Podnar Gallery in Berlin where Irwin's Monochromes were on display in 2008 as well. Time for a New State took place in Moscow in 2011, Leipzig and London in 2012. It started in Lagos where Irwin members found signs Time for a new state on advertising hoardings.

Irwin received Rihard Jakopič Award in 2004.

External links

Official websites

General references

On projects and artworks

Irwin

Contents

Projects

East Art Map(EAM)

International exhibitions

See also

External links

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