COMMAND-ALTERNATIVE-ESCAPE

From 6 to 13 May 2017, the School of Curatorial Studies Venice will present, “COMMAND-ALTERNATIVE-ESCAPE”, a site specific exhibitionin in garden Thetis, Venice coinciding the 57th Venice International Art Biennial.
 
Curated by the young curators of the School’s 24th edition, “COMMAND-ALTERNATIVE-ESCAPE” will exhibit works by international contemporary artists affirming  an individual perspective contingent on constructed communities emerging from current modes of connectivity.
 
Inspired by Venice’s public and private community dynamics amongst the large influx of foreign individuals filtering through the city daily: “COMMAND-ALTERNATIVE-ESCAPE”calls to a critical shift in perspective towards the archetypal dichotomy between liberty and security. “Security [specifically] in the sense of knowing where you are, who you are, on what kind of future you can count [on], what will happen, whether you will preserve your position in society or whether you will be degraded and humiliated … this sort of security … [which for] a rising number of people — looks at the moment more attractive than more freedom” (Zygmunt Bauman).
 
In a context burdened by manipulative collective ideology of the present: Skepticism of mass media, controversies instigated by fake news, and filter bubbles and echo chambers calling into question the democratizing potential offered by connectivity—even so in a time parallel to virtually limitless geographical and cultural confines—“COMMAND-ALTERNATIVE-ESCAPE” will confront how individuals default to their own bubble of security.
 
By recalling invented nostalgia, which trace collective narratives of a time that may never have existed; or reconstructing a sense of identity and belonging, which hasdissolved in an age of swift global interchange of people, information, and culture; “COMMAND-ALTERNATIVE-ESCAPE” will expose works by artists that assert, and realize their individual modes of expression amongst the polarization between liberty and security. Exhibiting “glimpses” of real cultural, religious, economic and social practices currently at stake in society, visitors are invited to discover inherent conflicts, ironies, faults, and opportunities lying in the exhibited personal truths.
 
Strategically located in a Venetian garden—guarded from the public and excluded from the daily city activities and traffic—“COMMAND-ALTERNATIVE-ESCAPE” will offer members of the public an exclusive opportunity to intimately assess their personal truths, while directly confronting diverse exhibited perspectives in the secret site.
 
The School of Curatorial Studies Venice is an institution active since 2004 with A plus A Gallery. Leading intensive courses for students from all over Italy and the world, in each edition students create and execute a curatorial project reflective of the city and traditions of Venice through a contemporary lens.

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