Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United alternative energies

Aarhus Art Building, Centre for Contemporary Art,
Århus, Denmark, 22 January–3 April 2011

Photo: Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, still from ‘A Road Not Taken’ (2010). Courtesy: the artists
Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies’ was one of five exhibition proposals selected from approximately 600 submissions received in response to the Aarhus Art Building’s open call for their 2011 program, entitled ‘Imagine: Towards an Eco-Aesthetic’.

The Swiss duo has investigated the concept of energy for several years. One of their main areas of interest is the history of oil and its competing alternatives, notably solar energy. Often involving historical research, remembrance, performance and film, their projects focus in particular on the politics of oil, energy crises, and the pursuit of new technology.
The exhibition will be the most comprehensive presentation of the duo’s work to date. It will include works such as ‘No.1 Sun Engine’ (2008), which concerns the world’s first industrial-size solar power plant built in 1913 in a Cairo suburb; the choir performance ‘Postpetrolistic Internationale’ (2006–ongoing) recently presented in the context of the Latitudes-curated commission series ‘Portscapes’, and the documentary essay ‘A Road not Taken’ (HD film, 66 min., 2010), which follows the story of the solar panels installed on the roof of the White House in 1979 by the then President Jimmy Carter and subsequently removed by Ronald Reagan in 1986.

The artists use the panels as a backdrop to explore American oil dependency and the lack of political will to pursue alternative energy sources – see trailer.

FROM LATITUDES www.lttds.org