Press release

The Ephemera(l) Institution

An Evening with Visualist-in-Residence, Martin Gantman

January 11, 2014, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. –Yogi Berra

The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) presents the Ephemera(l) Institution, a public presentation of Martin Gantman’s practice-based research at the ICI through its Visualist-in-Residence Project. The findings of his “archeological” undertaking will be presented at a public event at the Institute on January 11, 2014 from 7 – 9 pm. The evening will include an artist action in the ICI garden at 8 pm: the permanent interment of Matchboxes-in-another box: testimony, a work completed during his residency. Transformations to physical elements of the Institute that have materialized as a result of Gantman’s tenure will also be on display.

According to Gantman, a long-time Associate of the organization, the ICI is unique in how it co-opts cultural artifacts for use as foils to pierce the veil that constrains contemporary thought. He asks how the method of the Institute contributes to such results? And in the long term, how does the Institute frame itself so that its contributions, and in particular its singular methods, contribute to the production of knowledge after its demise?

Martin Gantman is a Los Angeles based artist and writer who has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. In 2012, he chaired a panel session entitled: Tracking the Movement of Investigatory Art at the College Art Association Conference in Los Angeles. In trying to address these issues, Gantman brings his interest in investigatory art to service during his residency. Digging into the Institute’s distinct approach to its organizational construct, language, and activities, he has fashioned a commentary on the Institute’s practices and devices. What does it mean to have an Ephemera Kabinett, which has the potential to contain evidence of almost anything? And how is it mobilized in the effort to produce knowledge? These are questions that Gantman has attempted to answer.

Martin Gantman’s VIR workspace and the materials associated with his residency will remain on display (by appointment only) until January 31, 2014. For appointments or questions regarding the Visualist-in-Residence project or other ICI events, please contact info@culturalinquiry.org

Press Release

Mit dem anderen Blick

ICI-VIRchristel

May 18, 2013, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
At the Institute of Cultural Inquiry
Presentation and Discussion will begin at 6:30pm

The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) presents Mit dem anderen Blick, a public presentation of our current Visualist-in-Residence, Christel Dillbohner’s practice-based research at the ICI.

The ICI’s “Visualist-in-Residence” (VIR) program offers artists, art theorists, writers, and other visual researchers and culture producers a chance to participate in studio-based visual research in a richly layered and mutable environment. The VIR ‘laboratory’ may function as an artist’s studio, a writing room, a space for gathering data or a quiet space for evaluation and contemplation depending on the needs of each individual project. At the Institute, VIRs are actively encouraged to expand current definitions of visual research and to borrow freely from ICI research practices as they develop aspects of their project in one or more of the following areas: Field work and Data Acquisition; Research and Analysis; Manipulation and Experimentation; Knowledge Transmission and Production; and Public Presentation and Publication. At the end of each residency, the VIRs are invited to present their ‘research’ in a public event/discussion session.

Christel Dillbohner’s VIR workspace and the materials associated with her findings will remain on display (by appointment only via info@culturalinquiry.org) until May 25, 2013. New applications for the Institute of Cultural Inquiry’s VIR program are being accepted through May 31, 2013. To apply, please send a detailed letter of interest to info@culturalinquiry.org.

All ICI public programs are free. Prompt arrival prior to program time is recommended. For questions regarding Mit dem anderen Blick or other ICI events, please contact info@culturalinquiry.org.

Phantom Worlds – ICI Research and Publication Theme for 2011-2014

The ICI is pleased to announce the launch of Phantom Worlds a long-term research theme prompted by a growing cultural interest in worlds that double, mirror and reflect our own. We anticipate a number of significant exhibitions or performances built around this theme, some of which will develop through curatorial projects and at least one that will culminate in our fourth book through ICI press, Barthes’ Myopia.

Phantom Worlds

Phantom worlds can be duplicate worlds but not necessarily alternate universes; they are ones that exist beside our own. We seek out places where these phantom worlds leak and bleed through, where they can be seen or can’t be seen but can be sensed. Our theme grows from our fascination with reflections – with twins, with Dopplegangers, with invisible friends. Is it the phantom one talks to when talking to oneself? And what about worlds written by other beings, by animals, by objects. Sometimes these worlds can only be sensed through a shiver down our spine or a row of goosebumps on our thigh. Phantom Worlds play with our attraction to mirrors, our fascination with reflections, with our feelings of déjà vu, deja connu, deja trouve, something that has already happened, was already known, someone you feel you’ve already met. Phantoms are located where the familiar becomes strange, jamais vu, or within a world of slips – presque vu. We are intrigued by photography’s ability to ‘notice’ these phantom worlds and we wonder if our world is photography’s phantom, not the other way around. We think these phantom worlds might be the places of dreams. We hope to find pathways to their playgrounds, to visit them often, to share their wisdom while keeping the secrets of their most cherished tomes—The Unsayable and The Unsaid. It is said that phantoms follow us, here at the ICI, for a while yet undesignated, we will follow them.

Projects that have emerged within the Phantom Worlds theme include the 100/10 (100 days/10 visions) research-based exhibitions and Speculative Pentimenti: Painting in an Age of Endarkenment.

Past Display – A Museum of Infinite Possibilities

A Museum of Infinite Possibilities

February 25 – April 15, 2012

“I am familiar with the surface of things…Fraying, tattered, cracked, flattened, swollen, dried, scrawny, bristling, moldy, clenched, tangled, punctured, battered, bashed-in, scooped-out, withered, engorged, trampled, toppled, crushed, bald, listing, leaning, twisting hanging, buried, wedged, jammed, impaled, straggling, stretched, disjointed, disembowled, skinned, docked, gnawed, entrenched.” (Rosamond Purcell, Owl’s Head: On the Nature of Lost Things, Quantuck Lane Press, NY, NY, 2003, p. 29)

Inspired by Rosamond Purcell’s imagined museums, the ICI opened the drawers to its Ephemera Kabinett and invited the public to unleash its many secrets.

Museum of Obsolete Tools
Museum of Wires
Museum of the Croquet and Musket Ball
Museum of Natural Disasters
Museum of Ruined Landscapes
Museum of Failed Attempts
Museum of Filthy Mail
Museum of Bisected Objects
Museum of Corrosion

Visitors had the opportunity to suggest new categories for the ICI’s Ephemera Kabinett database (“fraying, moldy, trampled, skinned, withered”) as they re-arranged objects from the archive into ever-changing, new ‘museum collections.’