Book launch Blind Spots

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani

Location: Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam

Time: March 28 at 5 p.m.

Language: English

Free admission

Reservations at mail@smba.nl

Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam proudly presents the publication Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani - Blind Spots. It is the first large survey of the work of the Berlin artist duo. Within the framework of this book launch Merijn Oudenampsen will give a lecture at SMBA, followed by a short introduction to the publication and the presentation of the first copy by the artists.

Blind Spots is the first large overview of the work of Nina Fischer (1965) and Maroan el Sani (1966). Since the end of the nineties they have been internationally active as a duo with installations, film and video projects in which specific locations are subjected to artistic research. These works focus on the architectural remains of modernist society and the way these manifest themselves in our current epoch. Fischer and El Sani were one of the first to direct their artistic production towards examples of modernist architecture and the ideologies that came with it. These edifices include, for instance, the former Palace of the Republic in Berlin, the National Library in Paris, as well as the more recent Viňoly building in Amsterdam. In addition to their focus on ideologically loaded sites, their work unmistakably refers to the neo-avantgardist cinema of, amongst others, Antonioni, Pasolini and Tarkovski. This combination results in a precise analysis of the deficit of modernism after the fall of the Berlin wall and the ideological vacuum that followed.

In Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani - Blind Spots, nine of the most ambitious projects of the duo are discussed by several theorists, curators and critics. Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam initiated the publication together with the artists and is also one of its publishers.







Within the framework of the book presentation on Friday March 28th, researcher of urban development Merijn Oudenampsen will give a short lecture entitled 'The Glass City'. In it he will give an impression of traditional urban development in Amsterdam and the way in which the Zuidas project deviates from this. After that, the short film The Rise, with which Fischer & El Sani finished their residency at the Zuidas in March 2007, will be screened. Jelle Bouwhuis, curator of SMBA, will wrap up with a short introduction to the book in the presence of the artists, followed by a celebratory glass of champagne.

Nina Fischer (1965) and Maroan el Sani (1966) have worked together since 1993. As a duo, they have participated in numerous exhibitions, including the Gwangju biennales in Korea in 1995 and 2002, the Berlin Biennale of 1998, the 1999 Liverpool Biennale, Manifesta IV in Frankfurt, 2002 and in the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media in Japan, 2005. In 2006/2007 they resided at the Amsterdam Zuidas, as a commission by SMBA and the Professorship of Art & Public Space. The result, The Rise, was exhibited in Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam from March until May 2007. Recently this film installation was also presented in the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.

Merijn Oudenampsen (1979) is a researcher of urban development with a special interest in topics such as the creative city, city branding and large-scale project development such as 'de Zuidas'. He has been involved in organising political projects and debates around flexibility and precariousness, such as the PrecairForum (2005), Mayday symposium (2006) and Migrant/Media/Metropolis (2008). Also, he has published articles in Mute Magazine, Archined, Variant and Waterland and contributed to My Creativity Reader (2007, Institute of Network Cultures) and Urban Politics Now! (2007, NAi Publishers).

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani

BLIND SPOTS

Editors: Jelle Bouwhuis, Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani

Graphic design: Mevis & Van Deursen, Amsterdam

General introduction: Gabriele Knapstein

With contributions by: Jennifer Allen, Nada Beros, Anthony Bond, Jeroen Boomgaard, Jelle Bouwhuis, Marc Glöde, Boris Groys, Hou Hanru, Nicolas Trembley, Krystian Woznicki.

Bilingual: English / German

Size: 210 x 285 mm, 200 pages, soft cover

Price: 30 Euro

ISBN: 978-3-905829-18-1

Published by: Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Galerie Eigen+Art Berlin, Yamaguchi Center of Arts and Media (YCAM), Japan

Distribution: JRP Ringier, Switzerland