Speech Tanja Isbarn at opening MATTER IN TRANSIT - April 1 2012

Matter in transit in kunstruimte 09 1 april-5 mei 2012

After a week working together with Jacob here in his rooms the dance with , around and in the works of six artists is over. They have sent their treasures from far away or brought them along and then left us playing with them.
I am particularly glad to be able to welcome the artists here today in Groningen. For people to get an idea who is who and what belongs to whom I would like to call the participating artists by name and point out their works:
Franziska Goes-Germany, Rikka Horn-Estonia and the Netherlands, Margie Livingston-vs., Sophie Schmidt-Switzerland, Betty Simonides-the Netherlands
Philip Miner is expecting his second child and is moving house at the moment.
He sends his greetings and thanks to everyone concerned.
I won’t go into detail about any concepts for the reason that the artists are present.
Also the presentation is accompanied by a hand out offering some theoretical aspects about this specific selection of artists and their work.

Two weeks ago I have read a short text in an invitation by gallery Tania Wagner/Berlin. It dealt with the philosophical construction 'metamordernism'. I would like to read you just some phrases out of that particular statement:
Metamodernism is the concept used in recent philosophy to describe the period after postmodernism.
The prefix ‘meta’ here stands for metaxy (μεταξύ): oscillation.
Metamodernism oscillates, swings back and forth, between the global and the local; between concept and material; between postmodern irony and a renewed modern enthusiasm. It yearns for a truth it knows it may never find, it strives for sincerity without lacking humor, it engages precisely by embracing doubt.
The term metamodernism was introduced by the cultural philosophers Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker in the late 2000s .

Matter in transit, is an extension of the vice versa platform, founded in 2006.In my eyes Vice Versa can be seen as an engine for exchange of thoughts and things which could generally be called MATTER.The platform tries to create the opportunity for physical meeting and linking among artists from divers countries and people concerned with the arts.
To me there has never been time for cynicism in the sense of resignation.. Life is too challenging to leave time nor space to take a position of playing with the values of others.
In that sense I generally feel drawn to the leading concepts of metamodernism .

I would like to thank Joke and Jacob from Kunstruimte 09 for their support and contribution concerning the funding application to the Kunstraad Groningen, the set up of the presentation and all other matters such as the design of the invitation and the administration around an exhibition.
Vice versa 2 , matter in transit, is financially supported by the Kunstraad Groningen which I also gratefully want to thank.
I am looking forward to future projects of this kind some possibly resulting from this particular presentation here in k09.
Please take your time and meet the artists and their works.
Thank you.

Heute bezeichnet man als Zynismus zum einen eine Haltung, die in (oft absichtlich) verletzender Weise die Wertvorstellungen anderer herabsetzt oder missachtet und zum anderen auch eine Haltung, die moralische Werte grundsätzlich in Frage stellt und sich darüber hinaus manchmal auch über sie lustig macht. Auch eine hieraus folgende berechnend-amoralische Einstellung und Verhaltensweise kann Ausdruck dieser Haltung sein. Zynismus kann Folge und Anzeichen von Resignation sein.