About the work I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT THIS PLACE BUT I'M GOING TO PROMOTE IT:
In 2008 the magazine of the German Max Planck Research Institute wanted some traditional Chinese calligraphy as nice decoration for its focus
on China and published 5000 copies with a cover of a scripture advertising a brothel. Indeed one fabulous example of an idiotic western fable for
the “exotic China touch”, and a great intro for this work. Thank you! Being on a three month art residency in Chengdu in 2008 was my first stay in
China and I found it hard to follow my usual procedures and standards of artistic research in a context I know hardly anything about. It’s quite a short
time to get to know this _fill in a billion attributes of projection_ place. I decided I’d rather state my own disarray and a (self-)critique of Western artists
cannibalizing on “cultural difference” (and an economic, at that). The first problem might be speaking of an intervention and public space in the urban
context of Chengdu. Or so I found out in the preparations, getting permissions and collaborating for the translations of the banners. The problem of
translation, transposition and communication is also at the base of this work: during my stay in China I was impressed by my own disability to read
the countless writings all over the city, especially the ubiquitous red banners hanging everywhere. They’re propaganda, commercials, welcomes and
announcements, but also poetry, and they bring together the two histories of both the traditional chinese use of public scripture and socialist propaganda.
And most often they’re red, a distinct color of both mythologies. The intervention in Chengdu was aimed at two pretty diverse audiences: directly at the
passers-by and - through documentation and later exhibitions - at a more or less specialized (mostly western) art audience: eight flying dragons in this
symbolic grey sea.
Titles of the image files:
ihaveno.jpg - I have no idea about this place but I'm going to promote it
imagine.jpg - Imagine a Western curator seeing a photo of this banner
to_a _foreigner.jpg - To a Westerner like me this banner looks exactly like all the other ones
emailadress.jpg - I asked someone to translate this text into chinese - can you tell me if you are able to understand it? write to: rrralo@gmail.com
hello.jpg - Hello I am a western artist and I just wanted to let you know that I'm quite fascinated by all the banners (that i cannot read)
multiplex.jpg - I always wondered if these banners are propaganda or poetry or advertisements or announcements
so I thought I just give it a try as well. www.was-ist-multiplex.info
drachen.jpg - I heard that chinese is a very metaphoric and symbolic language, and then I saw red dragons in a grey sea.
born 1976 nearby the Iron Curtain, lives and works once more in Vienna. Studied literature, linguistics and conceptual art in Vienna and Copenhagen.
From 2003 - 2008 researcher at the self-organized Manoa Free University in Vienna. Employing a methodology of "performative reserach", Mayer's artistic
works investigate aspects of social reality like migration, globalization and post-Fordist production, breeding unruly monsters in various substrates like
film, performance, installation and text. Recent interests include higher dimensional geometries and space colonization. A considerable interest in the
widespread quirk of HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORLDS has lead to a dedicated eponymous research series at MFU; since 2006 publication of
"multiplex fiction", a shapeshifting science fiction magazine in the literal sense of the words. Currently working on a translation of "The Ninth Biospherian",
a historical SciFi novel about Biosphere 2, the almost forgotten hermetic crystal palace in the Arizona desert.
http://was-ist-multiplex.info
http://manoafreeuniversity.org/howtodothingswithworlds
