March 3 - June 4, 2010
Organizer: David Horvitz
Golden Parachutes
Berlin, Germany
Artists
Haris Epaminonda, Marius Engh, Vlatka Horvat, Charlotte Moth, Kristina Lee Podesva, Lisa Tan, Oraib Toukan and Lucy Raven
In Farsi, کوشک (pronounced kušk), refers to an object that protects or is a shade maker. The kiosk has a history in the Middle East that spans over seven centuries. A word that was originally used to designate a place in the shade, or in the case of the Turkish kösk, a summer residence for the wealthy, has changed over time to encompass not only shaded vendors and newspaper stands, but also parking-lot ticket dispensers and photo printing machines.
Golden Parachutes is pleased to present Kiosk, a project organized by the American artist David Horvitz, and featuring Haris Epaminonda, Oraib Toukan, Marius Engh, Vlatka Horvat, Kristina Lee Podesva, Charlotte Moth, Lisa Tan, and Lucy Raven.
As a physical space, the non-electronic kiosk functions as a quasi-outpost in both urban and non-urban spaces. Both inside and outside at once (kiosks are usually makeshift structures and seldom proper buildings), the kiosk offers shade to the vendor, as well as possibilities for sustenance and communication for the passerby. While a ticket machine is not a shade maker, a photo kiosk returns to the etymological origins. Using a camera, a literal box of darkness (coming from camera obscura, darkened chamber), as a way of producing images, the photo-kiosk becomes a reproducer of images-literally from the shadows.
Twenty-four 13 x 18 cm prints will be exhibited at Golden Parachutes. These photographs, printed from a photo-kiosk at the German drugstore, Rossmann, will be available for open reproduction at the cost of printing (unless shoplifted by the visitor). Upon request, visitors from the gallery will receive the twenty-four image files, and can walk to the nearest Rossmann 0,8 km away to reproduce the exhibition. The image files will also be available to download from Golden Parachutes’ website for those not in Berlin. The photographs, dispersed from Golden Parachutes, will become a kind of “traveling show” through diffusive reproduction.