Reinigungsgesellschaft

"Risk Society" - the End of Industrial Society?
Scholarship holders at the Edith Russ House for Media Art present their project

Friday, July 10, 2009 starting at 8 p.m.

Risk increasingly determines the development of our society. As part of their scholarship residency at the Edith Russ House for Media Art, sponsored by the Foundation of Lower Saxony, the artist duo "Reinigungsgesellschaft" is planning the project "Risk Society". A video installation will depict the structural change in society and the redistribution of risks. On Friday, July 10, 8 p.m., Martin Keil and Henrik Mayer will present their new project at the Edith Russ House for Media Art, Katharinenstrasse 23, and give a first insight into their artistic work processes. The artist group will then be in Oldenburg for a month in the fall to realize their project.

The works of the artist duo "Reinigungsgesellschaft" address the interconnectedness of economic, cultural and political processes. In doing so, the artists explore the question of how society is formed against this background and what the relationship between cultural identification and professional life looks like. The research project is kept flexible: Social and technological processes are examined from different perspectives. One focus is on the individual and group dynamic relationships between consumer and producer cultures. The video installation is intended to make the connection between personal and social needs transparent.

The doctrine of economics that has prevailed in recent decades is beginning to falter under the impact of current developments: the global crisis is not without its effects on human identification with work. A tendency is emerging to shift economic risks from overall responsibility to the individual. Sociologist Ulrich Beck describes this phenomenon, which occurs in the course of processes of social change, as a "risk society," while sociologist Anthony Giddens describes risks as consequences of general human actions. A central theme of the "purification society" is the definition of an artistic perspective on these processes, which appear primarily in the worlds of work and consumption.