Barbara Seiler
SUNDAY 2015

A YES SCREAMING NO
The Glomar Response refers to a term that confirms a ‘neither yes nor no’ answer to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (US), a way to avoid acknowledging whether or not a piece of information even exists. Imagining the resulting frustration of ‘glomarization’ in a broader context, this grouping of inter- national artists by Barbara Seiler, Zurich approaches a precarious situation filled not just with uncertainty but with glaring NOs underlying every YES and vice versa, to be repeated ad infinitum in all binaries (think GOOD screaming EVIL). This simultaneous admission is not an avoidance (the implied intention of the Glomar Re- sponse) but a direct movement forward that is full of complexities. In hindsight, Donald Rumsfeld’s statement that ‘At this moment what we know is that we don’t know with certainty if the Iraq has nuclear weapons’ can be seen as the feeble launch of what would become viral across politics, advertising, corporate policy, and public behaviour. The creeping impact on society can be found dwelling across these works, an affective resistance articulated in shades of good humour, confusion, and collapse. The works in this selection address the frustration, joy, resistance, and embracement of this contemporary conundrum after a summer that has been ripe with contradictions.

Artists:
Dina Danish
Cécile B. Evans
Shana Lutker
Yuri Pattison
Aude Pariset
Dora Budor