TG @ KW
Industrial Annual Report

 

 

31 December 05 – 29 January 06

 

 

Opening: December 30, 2005, 8 - 11 pm

There will be two rare performances of the legendary and groundbreaking band Throbbing Gristle on December 31, 2005 and January 01, 2006 at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. The band performs in original formation, comprising Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, Peter Christopherson and Genesis Breyer-P-Orridge. These events coincide with the imminent CD release of PART TWO, their first regular studio album for 25 years (distributed by Mute Records in March 2006).

In addition an exhibition titled Industrial Annual Report, curated by Markus Müller in collaboration with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Cabinet, London, opens on December 30, 2005, 8 - 11 pm at KW Institute for Contemporary Art. The exhibition documents the strategic and conceptual development of Throbbing Gristle and their own independent label Industrial Records.

Throbbing Gristle did not only break with nearly all existing conventions of contemporary music, but consequently violated the rules which normally establish a civilising consensus. Their public appearances, which could be seen as having parallels to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty were quite literally bordering on the edge of legality but are, without doubt, one of the most important contributions to late 70's performance art.  With just a handful of album releases between 1976 and 1981, TG invented the genre nowadays called Industrial Music and laid among other things one of the foundations for the development of Techno culture.

With the exclusive contributions from the private archives of the band, the exhibition will incorporate photographs, manifestos, letters, and other examples of TG's myriad modes of communication such as mailings, recordings, newsletters, fanzines and street propaganda. The exhibition will therefore present the conceptual processes and iconographies which were successfully utilized by TG to subversively undermine both the worlds of contemporary music and art. By employing classical strategies of institutional critique, the band realized micro-capitalistic forms of organizing the commodification of its products. These strategies and Throbbing Gristle's label Industrial Records will be one of the main foci of the exhibition. In addition, KW will exclusively present the first TG film Heathen Earth as well as, after its world premiere at the cinema Arsenal on December 29th, 9 pm, the new film TG live at the Astoria, London (working title).

KW would like to thank Paul Smith and express its gratitude towards all members of TG and especially towards Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter as well as Cabinet, London, for generously supporting the exhibition in every conceivable way and last but not least Christoph Gurk, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, who had the idea in the first place.