Ines Doujak en la Documenta12

Ines Doujak

*1959 in Klagenfurt (AT), lives in Vienna (AT)

Exhibitions: Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2007 (DE), Salzburger Kunstverein,

2005 (AT); MAC – Miami Art Central, 2004 (US)

General Introduction

In her photographs, posters, collages, installations, and performances, Ines Doujak examines stereotypical notions and constructions of genders and identities. She asks how attributions, clichés, norms, and marginalisation come about, what it means, for example, to be a woman, a homosexual, a migrant, or a Jew. She addresses political issues and image politics from a feminist perspective. Her analysis of the racist and sexual manipulation of images is visual. At the same time, she analyses the power structures that have been dominant for centuries.

The expansive modern colonialism produced the normative gaze that “determined what is human, beautiful, cultivated, and intelligent [...] The abject self was displaced onto the exotic other, and deported to the colonies: the always unfinished, always creative, that which always disrupts its own limitations, the copulating, being pregnant, giving birth, dying, eating, drinking, and secreting.” Doujak disrupts the authoritarian collective regimes of the gaze. Struggles are fought on bodies. Suppression is linked to the potential of resistance and rebellion. This is also true for images. They can never be completely appropriated, but are always crossed. Apart from that, staged, forceful visual ideas characterise her work. Against conventional, idealised images of women, strong, lusty images prevail. Activity is eroticised. Gay, lesbian, or heterosexual relationships overlap and live the confusion of genders. They revoke the usual images and thus also have the potential for producing political pleasure. Her work moves in the field of tension between artistic production and political action, renouncing conventional notions of oeuvre.

Documenta 12 Works

In her Siegesgärten (Victory gardens; 2007), Ines Doujak examines the neo- colonial practice of “internal land-grabs” after the “external land-grabs” of colonialism. The aesthetic as well as ethical “diversity of life” becomes a factor of economic value-creation, and capitalisation has destructive effects on local communities. In a bed with shaky legs, a small natural landscape is thriving. Many colourful seed packets are stuck into the soil. However, the pictures and texts are quite explosive. On the front are plant photographs and collages that also show a queered sexuality.

The description on the seed bags: “autonomous service for intellectual property“, “non-coded DNA”, or “biodiversity”. The conditions and consequences are printed on the back. So biodiversity is going to be destroyed by the inclusion of genetically altered plants, through monocultures and the trade with endangered resources. “Biopiratism/external and internal land-grab“ are the major themes: “the appropriation of nature and the knowledge about its use are currently operated by trans-national corporations” – and that without consent or financial compensation. Market interests do not allow it. The botanical gardens, too, work with resources and make them available for commercial uses. The first partially patented human will have equally few rights of profit participation. The originals of the collages will also be shown: floral patterns are the background in front of which sexually charged women, men, and animals roam about in exotic nature pieces. Next to it, a wall collage shows colonialism, and its current continuation, from a second perspective. Certain motifs are carried on chic bags.

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Fuente: Documenta12