Antwerp - Objectif Exhibitions - Agency

Agency
Assembly (Objectif Exhibitions)
22 October - 17 December 2011

For "Assembly (Objectif Exhibitions)", Agency calls forth a selection from its List of Things, speculating on the question: "How can ideas be included in art practices?" The law states that "(I)n no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." Copyright law distinguishes the categories of ideas and expressions. It defines ideas as incomplete building blocks. Many art practices that involve schematic, incomplete, sparse, malleable or changeable expressions, get classified as ideas and are thus exempt of protection. A selection of things will convene an assembly at Objectif Exhibitions in order to bear witness to this question.

Agency is the generic name of a Brussels-based agency that was founded in 1992 by Kobe Matthys. Agency constitutes a growing list of things that resist the division between ontological categories of culture and nature. These things are derived from juridical processes, lawsuits, cases, controversies, affairs and so forth, around intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc...). Agency calls things forth from it's list via varying assemblies inside exhibitions, performances, publications, etc., most recently at The Showroom, London (2011), "Speech Matters" at the Venice Biennale (2011), Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2010), "Watchmen, Liars, Dreamers" at Le Plateau, Paris (2010), "Animism" at Extra City and M HKA, Antwerp, Kunsthalle Bern and Generali Foundation, Vienna (2009 -11).

On Saturday December 17, 4-6pm, Agency convenes a group of concerned guests (a lawyer, philosopher, physicist, artist and art historian) to respond.

This exhibition is part of Circular Facts, supported by the European Union Cultural Programme. www.circularfacts.eu

Image: Thing OO1032 (Transparent Color Sheets)

More information: www.objectif-exhibitions.org