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Octafish

(55,745 posts)
34. Speak Art to Power
Sat Nov 7, 2015, 06:21 PM
Nov 2015


Art Before Power

New Jenny Holzer Exhibition
Showcases Archive's Documents;

Artist Projects Former Secrets onto
Buildings, Walls, Floors, Memories


Posted - June 17, 2004

Washington D.C., June 17, 2004 - Noted modern artist Jenny Holzer, whose signature "xenon" film projectors have cast monumental light images of texts and truisms on the sides of buildings and landscapes from Florence to Buenos Aires, features the National Security Archive's declassified documents in her latest exhibition, which opened on June 11 in Bregenz, Austria, through September 5.

Holzer's texts for the Bregenz show, titled "Truth Before Power," include more than 30 former secrets obtained by the National Security Archive through the Freedom of Information Act (primarily on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, especially Iraq), as well as an essay by the Archive's director, Thomas Blanton, titled "The World's Right to Know," from the July/August 2002 issue of Foreign Policy.

The texts appear in a series of projections, from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. each night between June 11 and June 18, onto such surfaces as the façade of the Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Rhomberg rock quarry, the Vermunt reservoir dam, and the "West Side Story" floating stage on Lake Constance. In addition, the top three floors of the Kunsthaus feature Holzer's electronic sign arrays as they stream extracts of the texts.

"Jenny Holzer does for the digital age what a nail and broadsheet used to do, for example when Martin Luther pounded his theses onto the church door," commented Thomas Blanton, the Archive's director. "She turns every surface into a page, she illuminates not only texts but perception, and by projecting these secrets into the night she transforms the words of power into transitory bolts of lightning."

SOURCE: http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/20040617/index.htm

PS: You are most welcome, monicaangela. Thank you for the kind words.

We will win because the warmongers, plutocrats, kleptocrats, kakistocrats and traitors who've hijacked Wall Street-on-the-Potomac can't kill an idea, Democracy. Their rule is based on the bullet. That got old long ago.

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Signs of the times..... Sherman A1 Nov 2015 #1
Exactly Sherman.. monicaangela Nov 2015 #13
I heard Thom Hartmann attribute this to Ilsa Nov 2015 #2
And this is feeding the white nationalist movement. Kablooie Nov 2015 #4
Well they better hurry with that ... Trajan Nov 2015 #28
I'd say it started with Reagan. moondust Nov 2015 #17
It might have been the beginning for many people. Ilsa Nov 2015 #18
But republicans wanting to raise SS retirement age say we are living longer? B Calm Nov 2015 #3
Which is a crock of shit - when you disregard lower childhood mortality, we've only gained MillennialDem Nov 2015 #8
Death rate "soars?" Really? Orrex Nov 2015 #5
I can't read the link to the WSJ since it appears to be premium content. TexasTowelie Nov 2015 #6
Weird--I was able to get right to it. Orrex Nov 2015 #7
Half a percent over 15 years? Yeah not so much. Half a percent annually over 15 years? Yes soaring MillennialDem Nov 2015 #9
If you got a 0.5% raise annually for 15 years, would you describe your income as "soaring?" Orrex Nov 2015 #11
Well, death rates in middle age should be going down (slightly). The fact that it is going up is MillennialDem Nov 2015 #14
"At this rate, non-whites might eventually start to be slightly less in the minority! The horror!" lumberjack_jeff Nov 2015 #21
Jayzus, that is horrifying. hifiguy Nov 2015 #30
^^^^ THIS ^^^^ Tarheel_Dem Nov 2015 #27
When contrasted to the decreasing death rates worldwide for other groups, Thor_MN Nov 2015 #31
"Only HIV/AIDS in contemporary times has done anything like this" - wrong, unfortunately GreatGazoo Nov 2015 #10
This is truly sad... monicaangela Nov 2015 #12
Monicaangel I agree. BUT for the election results that occured in KY bonniebgood Nov 2015 #15
My sentiments exactly bonniebgood monicaangela Nov 2015 #16
It isn't that people couldn't stand up and fight back, hifiguy Nov 2015 #19
Excellent Post!!! I have to say hear, hear monicaangela Nov 2015 #23
I've been riding this pony of actually READING HISTORY hifiguy Nov 2015 #25
They had monicaangela Nov 2015 #29
Same group who tried to overthrow FDR in 1933 had kids. Octafish Nov 2015 #32
THANK YOU! monicaangela Nov 2015 #33
Speak Art to Power Octafish Nov 2015 #34
You are welcome TexasTowelie Nov 2015 #20
I agree with your comment... monicaangela Nov 2015 #24
"I can imagine..." Shandris Nov 2015 #22
Vivid it is.. monicaangela Nov 2015 #26
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