Elin Kard, curatorial text to a solo exhibition at Hobusepea gallery 24.08.–5.09.2011:

LIINA SIIB's (1963) personal exhibition Sylt without Ulrike will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on August 24, 2011.

Sylt is the largest island of the North Sea in Germany, being among the most popular destinations of domestic tourism. Since the beginning of 20th century, the island of Sylt has been characterized by the keywords such as eminence and  wealth. Also, numerous intellectuals have been spending their summer vacations here, including writers Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig and Hans Fallada; artists Käthe Kollwitz, Max Liebermann and Emil Nolde; film stars Brigitte Bardot and Romy Schneider; composer Richard Wagner and German ex-chancellor Willy Brandt. Roman Polanski's „The Ghost Writer“ has been filmed at the dunes of the island.

The flawless facade of the popular resort among the eminent crowd of the last century started to crack during the Second World War - Rudolf Franz Ferdinand  Höß, chief and founder of Auschwitz concentration camp, came to the island in order to escape the  Nurenberg Trial. Yet, perhaps the most controversial person spending her summer vacation in Sylt after the war was Ulrike Marie Meinhof (1934-1976), former journalist and editor of the magazine „konkret“ and co-founder of New Left Movement terrorism organization RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion, also known as Baader-Meinhof group).

Current exhibition project presents Liina Siib's documentation of the daily life of the resort island – the place that corresponds to the requirements of welfare society. The artist is studying Meinhof's references about the former German society and values, while bringing together images of film and photography about the atmosphere of welfare and leisure. Siib's choices have been based on the parallels to Meinhof's columns about West Germany in 1960s. According to RAF, Western society has lost its understanding about the positions of the repressed and the exploited; all they can dream about is a car, a tiled bathroom and going on a vacation. At the present exhibition, Liina Siib is concentrating on the dream about vacation. What is the difference between work and vacation? Is there any difference at all when we motorically perform the same movements during our summer vacation and when being at work?

Exhibition will be open until September 5, 2011.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Thanks to: Stiftung kunst:raum sylt quelle, Indra Wussow, Giedre Bartelt, Tiit Rammul, Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia.