The term »Unwille«, english »reluctance«, means absence of compliance or self-repression, but it can also be read as an absence of desire, aim or intension - terms that define will. Contrary to will, reluctance is often marked by an unmethodical approach in the beginning that might turn into a specific plan to unfold aversion or resistance.
It is common opinion that a person who really wants something can finally achive it. Which means that missing success or failure even after intensive trying can only be explained by a personal lack of will: if you fail, you did not really want to achieve your goals. Thus reluctance is a personal problem. Or, depending on your values, personal freedom.

An impressive example for reluctance is the slogan »Ne travaillez jamais.« (never work). It has been sprayed on a wall in Paris in 1953 and was programmatically published by french Situationists in their magazine in 1963. Mladen Stilinovics »Artist at work« (1978) deals with a similar topic. His photographic series shows the artist at work: lying on a bed. He also published the manifesto »The Praise of Laziness« (1993) in which he blames western artists for pursuing to many activities.

Following these established artworks, the exhibition »Unwille« presents contemporary works by young artists. Nearly all selected works follow the idea of romantic conceptualism and allow both a poetic or conceptual approach.

Based on their work most artists have been asked to develop new projects for the exhibition.

The artist team Andre Greif/ Matthias Hennig (Leipzig) deals with the situationist slogan Ne travaillez jamais! (Never work!). A video is shown, where they write the slogan onto a wall only to wipe it off
again. The reluctance expressed in this work is transformed into resistance in the 3-D animation Barrikade (Barricade), a work that is shown as framed prints. Both works refer to the involvement of the Situationist International into the Paris May 1968 fights.

Eiko Grimbergs (Berlin/Leipzig) Installation Madwoman in the Attic is about Ida Stieglitz Heimann who decided not to get out of bed anymore.
"What I noticed is that the word »mad« is always connected to the plural, and that it is meant to be so. Mad never applies to a single person. It is objectionable if the individual, one individual figure, one single person avails oneself of this word, belonging to the plural, and claims it. I don't like the plural, I like the individual. And now, and now, and now."

Photographer Claudia Lindner (Dortmund) focuses on people who express certain postures and gestures. These gestures can derive from contemporary dance repertoire as well as from everyday life, they appear both familiar and strange. From her collection she chooses portraits of a man and a woman that resemble an expression of reluctance.

invitation card ©:
photographs ©: the artists
Concept: Francis Hunger
Organisation: Francis Hunger and others

supported by: Sparkasse Dortmund, Kulturbüro der Stadt Dortmund