STOCKHOLM GALLERY OPENS ‘WAG THE DOG’ EXHIBITION
The Local
March 9 2010
Sweden
A multimedia exhibition by Armenian artist Azat Sargsyan on the
perception of reality presented by the mass media, marks the start
of the spring season at Stockholm art gallery wip:sthlm.
In Make History for a Pink Future, Azat Sargsyan, a visual artist based
in both Yerevan and Stockholm, explores the ways reality can be tweaked
and manipulated in order to suit purposes beyond the public awareness.
The multimedia montage exhibition takes as its starting point the
American film Wag the Dog that premiered in 1997 just a month before
the Monica Lewinsky scandal hit the mainstream news and presented an
uncanny link between fiction and reality.
Wag The Dog tells the story of a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer
trying to save the president, who is alleged to have had a sexual
affair. In order to steer the public’s attention away from the factual
events, a war is created in Albania.
The artist, who has spent the winter in residence at the gallery,
uses news clips, hyperlinks, texts, photos and video footage to fuse
the real with the imaginary and challenges the perception of reality
as presented through the lens of mass media.
Azat Sargsyan is the co-founder and artistic director of the Gyumri
Biennial that was initiated in 1998 and will open its seventh edition
this autumn. He has exhibited at the 1997 Venice Biennial, the 2002
Sao Paulo Biennial, and in 1999 at the After The Wall exhibition at
Stockholm’s Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Recent exhibitions include the
Thessaloniki Biennale, the Moscow Biennale and the Cerveria Biennale
in Portugal.
Wip:sthlm [work in progress] is a collaboration between 96 artists
based in Ã…rstaberg, Stockholm. Since its inception in 2006
wip:sthlm has developed four core activities: artists’ studios,
gallery, artist-in-residence programme and a bookshop.
The Make History for a Pink Future exhibition runs until Saturday
March 13th and is the first of a series of events taking place during
the spring.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
