Le Truc @ Project Arts Centre, Dublin

I have absolutely no idea why this intrigued me so much. I guess I'm a sucker for 'imagined spaces' and as such, a fool for Chuck Palihniuk...'what if' always knocks me out;

If you had a choice, would you stay in a society built around transactions, which commands: "Flash. Give me adoration. Flash. Give me a break" (Chuck Palahniuk)? Imagine that - through a collapsing of personal and metaphysical circumstances - you become suddenly invisible to the world. What if this isn't personally catastrophic, but more symptomatic of finding yourself in the perpetual twilight of a predictably fast-but-not-furious society, where you are stuck between e-fluxing (basis for a common $ space) and the proto-dread of the forthcoming (the one-man cult) - would you look for a way to reinvent yourself? And knowing what you know, would it be possible to live this life unpredictably, randomly? Could you opt for chance operations, a free-floating existence, a complete derangement of the contemporary control that inhabits bodies, imaginations, ideas and futures? Or, would you prefer to be activated by Flash?

If "the best way to predict the future is to invent it" - as asserted by Bureau of Inverse Technology a few years ago - what might emanate from a show curated around "unpredictability"?

Perhaps a big pile of 'The Financial Times' subdued by a genuine crystal ball (Karl Holmqvist); a naked guy, spinning like a top on a table belonging to a Korean secret society, who hides his ID behind an eye-punched sack (Donghee Koo); a mini-skeleton's macabre dance to be discovered behind a penthouse sized Harlequin curtain (Ulla von Brandenburg); a Chemical Scratch Film made by chemically altering celluloid, as if it was driven by Black Noise (Amy Granat); an invisible plinth to be honoured by who-knows-what subsequent artwork (Mario Garcia Torres); Silvia's italian phone number to be dialed in case you want to talk to someone you don't and won't know (Paul Elliman); two written exposures (Ina Blom, Aaron Schuster); a board game inspired by the 16th century Royal Game of the Goose for which rules have been formulated by chance with a dictionary and closed eyes (Olivia Plender). All are exposed and could be suddenly recovered by a group of zombie pre-electronic voices (Luc io Battisti) that could make Le Truc a creepyminimalistic show which takes chances galore to make you aware of what you know but don't know that you know.

- Alexis Vaillant

Le Truc
Project Arts Centre
Dublin

14 September - 20 October 2007
Opening 13 September at 6pm


Artists: Ulla von Brandenburg, Paul Elliman, Mario Garcia Torres, Amy Granat, Karl Holmqvist, Donghee Koo, Olivia Plender
Special Dead Guest: Lucio Battisti
Texts by: Ina Blom, Aaron Schuster
Curated by: Alexis Vaillant