Cars don’t talk back

Heine Thorhauge Mathiasen
James Bridle
Gitte Løkkegaard/Vibeke Heide-Jørgensen
Ben Burgis
Jimmie Durham
Gimpo
Mette Hammer Juhl

Curated by Mette Hammer Juhl
in collaboration with IFB

August - October 2021

Rul ned for dansk

Lending its title from British rock band Queen’s song ”I’m in love with my car” which seems to imply that it will cause you less trouble to have a car than to have a lover.
The idea for the exhibition Cars don’t talk back took its offspring in artist Mette Hammer Juhl’s brilliantly rebuilt Citroen Berlingo. Which, with its build in bed and kitchen setup seems to further reinforce the promise of freedom and control initially associated with the car.

From here on the show drifts further into the complicated emotional waters produced by the co-existence of humans and cars - and dwells on ideas of boredom where the car becomes the prop for an escape - the bittersweet sexy loneliness of a solitary night drive with your favourite track on the stereo superbly framed by its own setup.
Finally the show takes a sneak peek at the future and starts wondering – if the inventions of Henry Ford initiated a capitalism without which we are completely incapable of rendering the world as we know it – what will then be the consequence of the autonomous car? What kind of impact may it have on the infrastructure – urban planning – insurance – the economy – surveillance etc?

And what will happen to the idea of freedom and control?

Cars don’t talk back låner sin titel fra queen-sangen ”I’m in love with my car” - hvilket synes at antyde, at du vil få mindre bøvl i din relation til en bil end til en elsker!
Ideen til Cars don’t talk back tog sit udgangspunkt i Kunstner Mette Hammer Juhls brilliant ombyggede Citroen Berlingo, der med sin indbyggede soveplads og køkkenudstyr underbygger det løfte om frihed og kontrol som bilen som sådan indstiftede for 100 år siden.

Herfra driver udstillingen videre ud i de komplicerede følelsesmæssige relationer, som gennem tiden er opbygget mellem mennesket og bilen, og dvæler ved bilen som forløser og forlænger af kedsomhed og ensomhed. Den bittersøde sensation af ensomhed og dyb tilfredsstillelse, som en aftenkøretur med dit yndlingsmusik på anlægget kan producere.
Og endeligt kaster udstillingen et blik ind i fremtiden og spørger – hvis Henry Fords vision om bilen har indstiftet en kapitalistisk prisme at se verden igennem, uden hvilken vi ingen mulighed vil have for at begribe verden, som vi kender den – hvordan kommer verden så til at reagere på den fuldt selvkørende bil?
Hvilke konsekvenser kommer den til at have for verden - infrastrukturen – byplanlægning – forsikring – overvågning – økonomi etc.

Og hvad kommer den til at betyde for forestillingen om frihed og kontrol?

Institut Funder Bakke programmet 2021
er generøst støttet af

Roskilde Fesitval Fonden
Knud Højgaards Fond
Augustinus Fonden
Statens Kunstfond
Silkeborg Kommune
Det Obelske Familie Fond

Heine Thorhauge Mathiasen
Posture, Emplacement (2021)
Photograph

The photograph was shot around 1990 when a travelling monster truck show from Germany came through Fjerritslev in Northern Jutland. The photo was shot in the morning. Later in the afternoon the truck crushed a few cars in the parking lot by the city church. ’Big Chief’ is a racist slur commonly used by white people in North America against (the native population) Native Americans. It is unknown what the owners of the truck were referencing when naming the vehicle

James Bridle
Gradient Ascent (2017)
Single Channel Digital Video. 12 minutes

The film Gradient Ascent follows a drive by a self-driving car up Mount Parnassus in Greece: the classical home of the Muses and thus art and knowledge. The journey is accompanied by a narrative on mythology and technological progress inspired by René Daumal’s surrealist novel Mount Analogue (1952).

Mette Hammer Juhl
Hands off (2021)
Ceramic Steering Wheel 45 x 45 cm

Mette Hammer Juhl
Learning To Live Together (2021)
Mat

Jimmie Durham
The White Man’s Car
poem

Gitte Løkkegaard & Vibeke Heide-Jørgensen
Kusselygter og Goe Jader (1998)
Video 27 minutes

Minidocumentary series follows a group of young car-enthusiast in a town called Instrup in northern jutland.

Gimpo
Gimpo's 25 Hour M25 Spin (1997-ongoing)
Sticker, Poster and Photoscreen.

Annually Gimpo organises a 25-hour drive around the M25 (an orbital motorway that circumnavigates London) called the M25 spin, repeated every year on the weekend closest to 23 March. The first time this took place was in 1997 when he was accompanied by Bill Drummond and artist Dave Green