Rirkrit Tiravanija included in Schirn Kunsthalle’s Power to the People

March 21–May 27, 2018 
 
Democ­racy appears to be in crisis; the post-demo­c­ratic era has already dawned. The symp­toms are mani­fold: populist leaders, fake news, auto­cratic back­lash, total­i­tarian propa­ganda, neolib­er­alism. However, tendencies toward a re-politi­cized society have been palpable for some time now. Artists, too, are increas­ingly raising objec­tions. They create works that they see as instru­ments of crit­i­cism and which expressly pursue polit­ical inten­tions. 
 
In a major exhi­bi­tion, the SCHIRN brings together artistic posi­tions which can be read as seis­mo­graphs of contem­po­rary polit­ical activity. It focuses on funda­mental issues and the exam­i­na­tion of the phenomena and possi­bil­i­ties of polit­ical partic­i­pa­tion. The works call polit­ical posi­tions into ques­tion, illus­trate forms of protest, and set their sights on artistic involve­ment. Instal­la­tions, photographs, videos, paint­ings, and sculp­tures docu­ment the erosion of demo­c­ratic achieve­ments and the active pressure of the new mass move­ments. They analyze discourses on domi­nance and noncon­formist inter­jec­tions, develop strate­gies of oppo­si­tion, and reflect the imag­i­na­tive ways of the new protest culture. 
 
Artists: Halil Altındere, Phyl­lida Barlow, Guil­laume Bijl, Julius von Bismarck, Andrea Bowers, Osman Bozkurt, Tobias Donat, Sam Durant, Omer Fast, Mark Flood, Foren­sic Archi­tec­ture, Dani Gal, Katie Holten, Adel­ita Husni-Bey, Hiwa K, Edgar Lecie­je­w­ski, Jona­than Monk, Ahmet Öğüt, Ricarda Roggan, Mari­nella Sena­tore, Rirkrit Tira­va­nija, Nasan Tur, Jens Ullrich