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Metahaven
WikiLeaks Dark Store
A
WikiLeaks fundraiser at art berlin
contemporary 2012, organized
by
Artists Space, New York
Scarves and t-shirts for sale
14–16 September, with proceeds to WikiLeaks
Friday, 14
September: noon–8pm
Saturday, 15 September: noon–7pm
Sunday, 16 September: noon–7pm
art berlin
contemporary 2012
Station-Berlin
Luckenwalder Strasse
4–6
10963 Berlin
www.artistsspace.org
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The design studio Metahaven (founded by Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der
Velden) works at the intersection of research and design, particularly
addressing the manner in which branding and visual identity relate to
notions of statehood, social and political transparency, and informational
networks. Their projects stem both from direct commission and
self-initiated research, a relationship to a client actual or otherwise
emphasizing the position of design at a point between service provision,
critical inquiry, and polemical proposition.
Since mid-2010,
Metahaven have undertaken a body of research, discourse and production that
revisits the visual identity of WikiLeaks. With the nominal consent of
Julian Assange, this expansive design project has functioned on several
fronts, at the heart of which is an investigation into the politics and
aesthetics of transparency. Metahaven have sought to map the relations
through which WikiLeaks functions, looking not towards the mechanics of its
operations but to the media relations and reputational networks that have
sprung up around it. The organization is constituted by a necessary
opacity—employed in order to offer anonymity to the whistleblower and
abstract the leak from its source—while paradoxically asserting the
principle of transparency. Within a number of propositions for revisions to
the WikiLeaks identity, Metahaven references the image economy circulating
around the organization, alongside the notion of "transparent camouflage"
as both aesthetic gesture and political strategy.
As part of
Artists Space adjunct program for art berlin contemporary 2012, Metahaven
are presenting an installation that serves simultaneously as a mapping of
this research project, and a retail display. Applying the "The Dark Glamour
of Transparency" at work in their identity proposals, they have created a
number of products, including scarves and t-shirts that will be sold in
order to raise funds for WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks since 2010 is under a
financial embargo by MasterCard, VISA and PayPal, which prevents the site
from receiving direct donations. In the opaque sales context of abc,
Metahaven's project functions as a platform for a polemical mode of
commercial transaction.
For more information contact:
wl@artistsspace.org
www.artistsspace.org/programs/metahaven
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