Neon graffiti by Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson at AVL Mundo


Unveiling: 07/02/2019
Location: AVL Mundo

On Thursday 7 February during ART Rotterdam, ThE riGHt tO RighT/WrOnG by artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson will be permanently installed on the silo of AVL Mundo at Keileweg 18. The unveiling of the neon graffiti will be celebrated with a toast on Friday 8 February from 17.00 to 18.00 hrs.

About the work
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson created ThE riGHt tO RighT/WrOnG  for the 7th Liverpool Biennial exhibition The Unexpected Guest in 2012. Since then, the work has been shown at exhibitions including TENT Rotterdam. The project includes two iterations: a flashing monumental neon sign that illuminated the city from the south façade of St George’s Hall, a symbolic landmark of Liverpool; and a free newspaper distributed throughout the Biennial venues, in city libraries, cafes, bookshops, as an insert in the Liverpool Post and online.

The newspaper features an article commissioned to the British feminist writer and philosopher Nina Power, written in dialogue with the artists. This text addresses the subject of ThE riGHt tO RighT/WrOnG and current global political unrest in a critical and satirical manner. The newspaper also confronts us with the paradoxes of a document such as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by presenting us with another collaborative text work from the artists and Nina Power, ‘The Partial Declaration of Human Wrongs’.

Through this campaign, the artists assert that this fundamental right to right is the first step towards a real and communal socio-political emancipation: above and beyond the multitude of international conventions, declarations, protocols and constitutions that specify and regulate the rights that nation-states and transnational agencies have made available to, or withhold from, citizens.

The neon sign reads alternately ThE riGHt tO RighT and ThE riGHt tO WrOnG, and also introduces a new unspeakable word that blends RighT and WrOnG together, visualizing a conundrum. A provocative gesture that points among other at the painful paradoxes of law and justice. The project functions as a frame for other works, in which the fundamental ‘right to right’ and the conundrum of ‘rights/wrongs’” are further explored within specific cases.

About the artists
Libia Castro (1970, Madrid) and Ólafur Ólafsson (1973, Reykjavik) are based in Rotterdam and Berlin. They have been working together since 1997. Previous solo exhibitions include Dein Land existiert nicht (BOX Freiraum, Berlin, 2018), Su destrucción creativa se destruirá a si misma (La Casa Invisible, Málaga 2018), Asymmetry (TENT Rotterdam, 2013) and Under Deconstruction (54th Venice Biennale, Icelandic Pavilion, Venice, Italy, 2011). Previous groups exhibitions include Kunsthalle for Music (Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, 2018), The Future of Borders (1st Autostrada Biennial, Prizren, Kosovo, 2017), Bout (The Reykjavik Art Museum, 2017), Your Country Doesn’t Exist (Galeria Nova, Zagreb 2016), Welcome to the Jungle (KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2015), Take Liberty! (The National Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, 2014 and You Imagine What You Desire (19th Biennial of Sydney, 2014).

About AVL MUndo
ThE riGHt tO RighT/WrOnG will be revealed as part of Big and Plenty, a group exhibition taking place at AVL Mundo from 7 to 10 February 2019 during Art Rotterdam. The free newspaper will be available at AVL Mundo. In addition to ThE riGHt tO RighT/WrOnG, the exhibition features works by Wouter Paijmans, Neo Matloga and Atelier Van Lieshout. AVL Mundo is open daily from 12.00 to 18.00 hrs and can be visited free of charge.

Colofon
This project is initiated by BKOR and Atelier Van Lieshout. The light installation is executed by NeonTime. BKOR is a programme of CBK Rotterdam, www.bkor.nl.