The project ‘Go I Know Not Wither and Fetcch I Know Not What’ is a new collaboration between UK artists Samuel Dowd and Florian Roithmayr. Centred around the concept of the treasure hunt, the work on display is a reflection on cultural institutions and their specific role in constructing shifting contemporary versions of histories. The relationship between cultural practices and varying models of social formation are presented here as an open proposition to an enquiring public.
The project is a result of research which was developed during the artists’ residency in Zagreb in March and April 2007.
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GO I KNOW NOT WHITHER AND FETTCH I KNOW NOT WHAT
The title of the project is taken directly from a fairy tale by Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev in which the hero embarks upon a journey in order to fulfill a mission. In such stories, belonging to the so-called ‘quest literature’, the seeker leaves the ordinary world – travelling to a land of supernatural wonder where he must face fabulous forces and impossible tasks in order to attain magical rewards, powers or treasures. In the Russian fairy-tale, the hero’s quest is based on a search for false quest-objects: these objects might not exist or there might not be a place where the seeker could find them – the journey might appear to be in vain. In this story, it remains unclear what defines a place and what could make a false object a true object – how the aimless wander, the ‘derive’, might incidentally become a quest.
Samuel Dowd and Florian Roithmayr spent their residency searching through the archives, museums and public spaces of Zagreb. Their research assumed the form of a ‘hunt’ for versions of quest objects – true or false, that could be used or misused as trophies of social formations, artefacts of communal identity and history or as legends intended to inspire a national awakening.
Based on exhibition design and display architecture from the Croatian and ex-Yugoslavian representation at World Fairs in the 20th century, as a form of official national representation in an international contexts, the exhibition at Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic presents a display structure that frames the artists’ interpretations and personal versions of ornaments, events, forms and objects discovered on their treasure hunt.
Commencing on the 25th of May, their journey through institutions and sites in Zagreb will be the prompt for a re-tracing and exploration of these places by visitors of the gallery- a catalyst for beginning their own quest or hunt.
This is the first collaboration between Samuel Dowd and Florian Roithmayr.
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Samuel Dowd graduated in 2000 with a BA in Fine Art (Sculpture) from Wimbledon School of Art, and is currently completing an MA in Visual Performance at Dartington College of Arts. Recently he has been invited to take part in a number of overseas projects such as Manifesta, Asia-Europe Mediations and the Alytus Biennial. He lives and works in London and Devon.
Florian Roithmayr studied at Slade School of Fine Art and gained his MA at Goldsmiths College in 2005. Recent exhibitions include Vilma Gold, Berlin, New Contemporaries at Liverpool Biennial, Chelsea Project Space, London and Galerie Neue Alte Bruecke, Frankfurt. He lives and works in London.
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G-MK thanks the following institutions for their collaboration on the project: Archeological Museum, Zagreb, Ethnographic museum, Zagreb, Croatian History Museum, Croatian Natural History Museum, Hunting Museum, Modern Gallery, Zagreb, Museum of the City of Zagreb, Arts and Crafts Museum.
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Supported by: the British Council, the Henry Moore Foundation and Galerija Miroslav Kraljević.
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g-mk | galerija miroslav kraljevic is an independent and not-for-profit contemporary art center and gallery in Zagreb, Croatia. Its program (includig exhibitions, lectures, workshops, residency program) supports projects that investigate a variety of phenomena of contemporary culture and society.
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The program of Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic is suported by: City of Zagreb – City Office for Education, Culture and Sport, Republic of Croatia – Ministry of Culture, INA – Industrija nafte d.d.
