WE NEVER SLEEP

Can you keep your visit to the exhibition strictly confidential??

The Schirn exhibition team asks this question. Espionage is linked to obtaining rare secrets or confidential information without the permission of the beholder. If in the past, national governments spied on individuals or states, in times of digital communication private individuals are in the capacity of revealing hidden governmental secrets or whistle-blowers fight their government's spying their own citizens. This created perfect grounds for a renewed interest in the mechanisms of secrecy. This book is dedicated to the fascination of espionage as source of current artistic inspiration. International artists address the topic from a contemporary perspective with their works touching aspects of espionage such as surveillance, paranoia, threat, camouflage, cryptography, manipulation, cold-blood and betrayal. The book presents a multitude of artistic strategies as well as unexpected objects and touches the »golden age« of espionage during the Cold War as well as the context of media super-exposure.

Artists in the exhibition:
Thomas Demand, Simon Denny, Stan Douglas, Charles and Ray Eames, Forensic Architecture, Rodney Graham, Eva Grubinger, Alfredo Jaar, Gabriel Lester, Metahaven, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Schleime, Taryn Simon, Noam Toran, Suzanne Treister, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas et al.

Exhibition:
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 24/9/2020 - 10/1/2021