Halway between the catalogue and the conceptual publication, Road to Victory presents Pittas' re-reading of exhibition designer Herbert Bayer's 1942 eponymous propagandist show at MoMA. It gathers works by Pittas stemming from his reflection on this historical exhibition, archives, and an anthology of essays by acclaimed authors.
Published in conjunction with Antonis Pittas's exhibition at Hordaland Art Centre, in Bergen, Road to Victory is a conceptual publication that extends Pittas's artistic practice as well as an anthology of essays reflecting on his work and its various contexts. Together the book and exhibition present an artist-initiated re-reading of the seminal work of exhibition designer, Herbert Bayer, whose 1942 exhibition “Road to Victory” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented a highly aestheticised and celebratory representation of the American involvement in the Second World War.
In revisiting this moment in the history of exhibitions, Pittas draws our attention to the embedding of propagandistic elements in artistic display conventions, ranging from the Russian avant-garde to the contemporary moment. Bringing into constellation a history of affect and abstraction in the exhibition space, the Road to Victory project brings together archival fragments, spatial transformations, new sculptural works, and textual contributions by a host of acclaimed authors. Each component is integral to the entire project, and intentionally sustains the suggested relationships between economic, historical, political and aesthetic trajectories.
Published following the eponymous exhibition at the Hordaland Art Centre, Bergen, from January 27 to April 9, 2017.
Antonis Pittas (born 1973 in Athens, lives and works in Amsterdam) mainly creates context-sensitive installations, informed by architecture, art-historical references, the performative aspects of installation art, and its social dynamics.
Edited by Clare Butcher and Kris Dittel.
Texts by Anthea Buys, Clare Butcher, Nikos Papastergiadis, Galit Eilat, Charles Esche, Boris Groys, Jelie Bouwhuis, Joram Kraaijeveld, Jennifer Steetskamp, Steven ten Thijle, Natalie Hope O'Donnell, Rebecca Uchill.
