Being Moved Things Around. Deferral at Hillside. (EN)

Being Moved Things Around. Deferral at Hillside.
A solo exhibition by Stephan Blumenschein
6th of July, 2023 - 3rd of September, 2023

In the exhibition Being moved things around. Deferral at Hillside artist Stephan Blumenschein presents a new installation deriving from his research into anxiety, architecture and the extended medical gaze. The origin story of panic disorder as a medical category, which unfolded during early pharmaceutical experiments at Hillside Hospital/NY (1959-62), served him as a point of departure. What captured the artist’s imagination was the hallway of the Morris Lowenstein Pavilion, in which the changed movement of a patient became visible; and the role of an anonymous nurse who’s observations were the base of a new conception of panic. Blumenschein’s interest lies here specifically with the production of (in)visibilities. Looking back in time, back at the institution, and to the back – the artist challenges what is deemed unheard and unseen.

The exhibition is centered around a series of new sculptures, which incorporate different moments of his research. Inspired by a mysterious cabinet depicted in an image of a patient’s room, the works explore dynamics of ‘looking-into’ and ‘closed spaces’, alternating between promise and deferral. The works speak about the artist’s Kafka’esque experience with the current Hillside administration, the patriarchal production of absence in the archives, and his own movement through these spaces. Blumenschein thereby continuously questions the relationship between these insides and outsides without resolving it.

The artist draws from a variety of sources and is mingling a diverse set of relations: voicing archival material with his family, fusing historic and contemporary material, and relying upon employees within the institution as informants for his research. He thereby spins a web across times and spaces looking for echoes in the reproduction of hierarchies and (in)visibilities.

Blumenschein’s show at Beautiful Distress House comprises a series of sculptures, photographs and an architectural intervention. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication and a side program featuring a series of screenings co-curated with writer and organizer Janine Armin, and an iteration of the artist’s ongoing “We are listening to a record” gatherings.

About stephan blumenschein

In his practice Stephan Blumenschein takes up the spatial as a subject through the investigation of physical spaces as well as inner and imaginary spaces. With an interest in historical, socio-political and ideological conditions he examines how he/we imagine, make and organize spaces. How do we enter and manoeuvre through the different layers and relations of spaces?

His work has been published and shown a.o. at mistral (2022, Amsterdam), A*Desk (2021, Barcelona), P////AKT (2020, Amsterdam), ventil records (2020, Vienna), Contemporary Matters (2020, Vienna), New Jörg (2020, Vienna), Cosmos Carl (2019, online parasite platform), Marwan (2018, Amsterdam), and ACF Warsaw (2018, Warsaw).

program

Opening: Thursday 6th of July 2023, 17.00 - 21.00

Screening of "Dear..." (1998) by Ansuya Blom (english spoken): Sunday 23th of July, 16:00-18:00
Stephan has invited Heineken Prize winner Ansuya Blom to present her film “Dear ...” (1998, 48min). “Dear ...” portrays a woman cut off from the world out of fear of atomic radiation. She writes letters to “Dear…”, but there never seems to be a response to her letters. Slowly her life comes to a standstill. 

We are listening to a record #11: Saturday 12th of August, 19:00-21:00
 “We are listening to a record” is a series of listening sessions organised by Stephan since 2019. Each time he invites a person to share a music record dear to them. The aim of the session is to provide a collective listening experience. This event relates to the different notions of listening-to of Stephan’s research process.

Screening program by Janine Armin (english spoken) + Finissage: Sunday 3rd of September, 16:00-18:00
This screening is a collaboration with writer Janine Armin who comprised a selection of video works relating to Stephan’s research into anxiety, architecture and the medical gaze. She proposed works by Felicia Broberg von Zweigbergk (Manic Depression, 2019), Yashaswini Raghunandan & Arianna Zuanazzi (I Invite You, 2021), and Milena Bonilla (The Last Drink Is for the Sun, 2022). This screening will take place on the last day of the exhibition.

COLOFON

Artist: Stephan Blumenschein
Curator: Stephan Blumenschein
Production: Team Beautiful Distress

This exhibition is made possible in part by: Federal Ministry Republic of Austria, the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK).