IN TRANSFER – A New Condition

Exhibition to be presented in the Möllerei (Esch-Belval) as part of the European Capital of Culture Esch2022 from the 3^rdof September until the 27^th of November 2022, organised in collaboration with Ars Electronica and curated by Martin Honzik, co-curated and produced by Laura Welzenbach.

The Möllerei is the starting point of the (his)story of the region and its people, a monument of a world order in transition. This former steelwork is transforming itself into a place for culture and art. The surrounding industrial area right on the border of Luxembourg and France has become a new district, the university district of Esch-Belval, a place for people and knowledge.

These are the attributes that Ars Electronica is highlighting in the exhibition IN TRANSFER – A New Condition. It approaches these concepts and wants to explore what the nature of change is. What are the issues compelling us to change as a society and which ones are in urgent need of change? What are the mechanisms that drive change, why is it prevented, by what means can it be accomplished? And what role can art play in this?

If we take a brief look at the daily press, it quickly becomes clear how great the everyday complexity of human existence has become and what contradictions result from it: the cruel war against Ukraine initiated by Russia, the increasingly dramatic climate change, the pandemic, the issue of exclusion and minorities, the question of distribution, energy, and resources; also, the question of culture in the digital realm, the digital transformation and ethics for artificial intelligence. The dramatic need for action inherent in all these issues, together with the elementary and existential dimension of these challenges, requires a renegotiation of the present that makes commonality and collaboration indispensable.

Art as a neutral space and as a social laboratory

The difficulty of responding to these contradictions reveals social tendencies that polarise and exclude. How can we recognise change not as compromise, provocation, or personal limitation, but as quality, skill, and empowerment? Can art play a role in this? Certainly not in the sense of overall responsibility. But art can try to offer a space, an alternative, a neutral place, in which change in its contradictory complexity can be experienced. Art and culture can thus represent an offer to society, an artistic, social laboratory in which reality and the future are simulated. In this way, it offers a space of experience that takes on the issues that force us to make fundamental changes, but which also has the quality of being a guide for change itself.

IN TRANSFER – A New Condition presents the work of artists operating in the space where art, technology and society intersect, artists who are always in the places where transformation is happening. In the exhibition, visitors will meet a generation of artists who, as citizens of this world, wish to contribute new perspectives that can help us make farsighted decisions.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a rich programme of guided tours and workshops. An exhibition catalogue will be published by Hatje Cantz.

Artists

Adam Harvey (US/DE)

Agnes Meyer-Brandis (DE)

Another Farm (JP)

Bjørn Karmann & Tore Knudsen (DK)

Climate Action Tech (EU/INT)

Cod.Act: André Décosterd & Michel Décosterd (CH)

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (DE/UK)

DISNOVATION.ORG (FR, PL, CA)

Etsuko Ichihara & ISID OPEN INNOVATION LAB. (JP)

h.o (INT)

masharu (NL/RU)

Mimi Onuoha & Mother Cyborg (Diana Nucera) (US)

Quayola (IT/UK)

REMIX EcoDesign (ES)

Simon Weckert (DE)

Špela Petrič (SI)

Tega Brain (AU), Julian Oliver (NZ) & Bengt Sjölén (SE)

tranxxeno lab (US)

Images of the art works can be found here: 

https://platform.crowdriff.com/m/s-TNMC9UhbACC1f3uV

Curators

Martin Honzik (curator)

Martin Honzik is an artist, CCO and Managing Director of the Ars Electronica Festival, Prix and Exhibitions. After studying visual experimental design at Linz Art University and earning a master’s degree from the University of Linz and ICCM Salzburg, he joined the production team of the OK Offenes Kulturhaus in the OÖ Kulturquartier in Linz. From 2001 to 2005 he worked at the Ars Electronica Futurelab where his responsibilities included exhibition design and project management among other things. He has curated several exhibitions including 40 Years of Humanizing Technology, Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Shenzhen (2020), human (un)limited, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, Seoul, Moscow (2019) and the Ars Electronica Festival theme exhibitions since 2006. He contributes regularly to round tables and publications.

Laura Welzenbach (co-curator and producer)

Laura Welzenbach is Head of Ars Electronica Export where she manages international collaborations with the aim to connect art and science through creating new experiences. She holds a master’s degree in theatre, film and media studies as well as in European studies and was the recipient of a research scholarship from the Austrian Federal Art Management Program. She has ran the artist residency programme at Eyebeam in New York and was executive manager of the sound:frame festival in Vienna. She has collaborated with distinguished art organizations such as the Guggenheim Museum and the Austrian Cultural Forum in
New York, tiff Toronto International Film Festival, MAK Museum of Applied Arts, MuseumsQuartier and k/haus Kuenstlerhaus in Vienna. Recent exhibition projects include Translation of Complexity, sound:frame x improper walls (2019), Step into Space, Ars Electronica Festival (2019) and CIVA Festival, Vienna and internationally (2021).

In Collaboration with Ars Electronica

Ars Electronica is a platform working at the intersection of art, technology and society through organising exhibitions, educational programmes, and research projects focused on the future of our societies. Founded in Linz as a festival in 1979, it has since expanded to include a laboratory, an award, and a museum dedicated to the study and promotion of media arts as well as digital culture. www.ars.electronica.art.

IN TRANSFER – A New Condition is the third of the four Esch2022 exhibitions in the Möllerei in Esch-Belval. They are organised in collaboration with internationally renowned museums or centres of excellence. The full programme, which covers all disciplines and takes place across the Esch2022 region, is available on www.esch2022.lu.

The Möllerei

The Möllerei is a large industrial building originally used to store the raw materials (coke and iron ore) before they were fed into the blast furnaces to produce cast iron and slag. With a total length of about 160 meters, the Möllerei is a characteristic feature of the former Belval steel plant and local area. Opened to the public in 2018 after extensive transformation work, the North section is now home to the Luxembourg Learning Centre. The South section has recently undergone thorough restoration work. It now connects to the Blast Furnace A via a metal footbridge and accommodates a 500 square meter exhibition space over three floors.

Practical information

Exhibition 3^rd of September – 27^thof November 2022.

Vernissage 2^nd of September 2022 18:00 – 21:00.

In September & October open from Monday through Sunday & bank holidays 11:00 – 19:00

Closed on Tuesday.

In November open from Monday through Sunday & bank holidays 11:00 – 18:00

Closed on Tuesday.

Prices

7€
5€ Reduced (21 – 26 years old / over 60 / ICOM card holder)

12€ Combined exhibitions at Massenoire and Möllerei
8€ Reduced exhibitions at Massenoire and Möllerei

Free Below 21 / students below 26 / interpreter guides / press card holders / Kulturpass holders

Free entry from the 3^rd of September until the 11^th of September.

Guided tours without booking

Saturday & Sunday at 15:00

Guided tours upon request

(LU, FR, DE, EN, PT, IT, ES, sign languages)

reservation@esch2022.lu

Entrance via the Esch2022 Visitor Centre

3, Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette

The exhibition is complemented by guided tours and workshops.
Registration on the website Esch2022.lu / reservation@esch2022.lu