Trained Impulse

Curated by Adi Gura and Yael Caron

Participating Artists: Shai Azoulay (Israel), Oren Eliav (Israel), David Korty (USA), Gabi Kricheli (Israel), Marlene Mocqet (France), Jakob Roepke (Germany), Avi Sabah (Israel). As a medium, painting has a lengthy tradition, laden with mythical potency. Trained Impulse steps away from this tradition. Instead of addressing the act of painting as an act of “spiritual” dedication, the show finds painterly dedication to be part of a conceptual methodology. This approach addresses material, process and the product itself as individual focal points. At the same time, the contemporary tradition seems to be governed by a system of statements and declarations. The question that arises is whether the artist can act without surrendering to either of these traditions. As Jan Vertwoert notes, ” unprotected by a legitimate apparatus of programmatic declarations, in fact becomes fully exposed to the desires of others”. This exposure leads to an obligation (or debt) to respond to these desires. Vertwoert offers a strategy to face this debt, asking “what would it mean to, conceptually, in art practice, move away from a stance of declaration towards one of dedication?”* In response to this question, a variety of techniques are present in the exhibition, highlighting dedication to artistic practice through degrees of familiarity with, and reflection on, the medium. The diverse materiality offer alternative ways of dealing with painting’s laden history.

* Jan Verwoert is an art critic based in Berlin. He is a contributing editor to Frieze magazine and also writes regularly about contemporary art for such art magazines as Afterall, Metropolis M. Teaches at the MA Fine Arts department at the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam