Opening on the 16 September 2010
17 September – 31 October 2010

Ehemalige Bäckerei
Goldgasse 4 / 39057 St. Michael – Eppan (BZ) Italy

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To stroll through the unused shopping mall of St. Michael in Eppan-Appiano is a disconcerting experience, almost adventurous and at the same time absolutely mundane. The historic building from the 17th century that houses the shopping mall has been reconstructed in order to prepare it for its new and as-yet unfulfilled function. The newly renovated shop windows attract our attention and lead us inside, where we encounter nothing but desolate salesrooms. From September to October 2010 within the walls of these empty rooms we will organize an exhibition that explores the public lifestyle. Roughly 400 square meters, spread across several floors, will be filled with works of contemporary art in order to initiate an investigation into the premises of our living together within one communal space. Which is the role of the individual here? What drives us and seduces us in our everyday life? Which processes of cognition lead us on and what kind of knowledge prevails in terms of building our opinions and shaping our actions? By raising these questions, art inevitably reveals itself as an ideological as well as individual and collective practice. Due to the unique set up of the exhibition it will be possible to view the art works on display in the shop windows 24 hours a day. This art space will thus become an integrated part of the daily praxis in the village, while at the same time remaining essentially „out of place” – a foreign body that offers and even provokes questions regarding everyday life and the social conditions of communal living. Our aim is to intensify the dialogue about the relationship between art and community, by presenting a diverse program of performances, video and film projections, installations and workshops for students. Together with the local and international artists we have invited, we intend to transform the building into an art space of the globalized world and finally to focus on our own culture, which suddenly appears strange and incomprehensible enough to re-discover it again from a completely novel point of view.