Utopian Pulse – Flares in the Darkroom is a research exhibition by Ines Doujak and Oliver Ressler divided into 8 salons, curated by a group of artist-curators and perceived as places for the monstrous birth of new alliances. We understand »Utopia« as an always incomplete alternative, the invocation within the given world of something incompatible with, and hostile to, given condition, an assertion of the unrealized in and against the real.

The 7 Salons of Utopian Pulse – Flares in the Darkroom taking place from September 10 to November 2, 2014 are curated by Christoph Schäfer, Mariam Ghani, Bert Theis, Zanny Begg, AND AND AND, Pedro G. Romero/Máquina P.H., and Miguel A. López.

The first public appearance of Utopian Pulse – Flares in the Darkroom was Salon Klimbim, orchestrated by the artist-curator Fahim Amir and Ines Doujak on January 23, 2014 in correspondence with Oliver Ressler. Salon Klimbim presented a range of performances on utopian ice. No intellectual dress code applied, no Frontex patrolled the borders of contemporariness, and no police watched over this utopia. Instead, there were politics and party, dance and folly, screenings and seduction, intervention and agitation, in short: negotiations and entertainments.
Further information: http://utopian-pulse.org/salons/

Between February and September 2014 a series of 7 large-scale billboards – Urgent Alternatives: Utopian Moments – were displayed on the façade of the Secession. They represented the plight of migrants; showed the uprisings and social movements of recent years; and made poetic addresses to the present and future. Urgent Alternatives: Utopian Moments with Katarzyna Winiecka, Halil Altindere, Wealth of Negations, Nobodycorp. Internationale Unlimited, Etcétera, Oreet Ashery, Daniela Ortiz.
Further information: http://utopian-pulse.org/banners/

SALONS AT SECESSION

Salon Public Happiness
10 — 16 September 2014
Christoph Schäfer with Videoccupy; PlanBude St.Pauli; Esso-Häuser Filmteam (Bude, Jörg, Sobczak); Echohäuser (The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Frank Egel); Esso-Häuser Echo (Megafonchor/Sylvi Kretzschmar), Der Investor (Die Goldenen Zitronen, Gaier, Duve, Schierhorn)

Salon -e-Gird bad (Salon of the Whirlwind)
17 — 23 September 2014
Mariam Ghani with Afghan Films Archive (Juwansher Haidary, Abdul Khalek Halil, Nassima Jalal, Faqir Nabi, Eng. Latif Ahmadi, assorted newsreels & photographs), Afghanistan Center at Kabul University (Louis Dupree,
Nancy Hatch Dupree, Jean Stewart), Nabila Horaksh, Arzoo Waseeq, Edith Poirier & Daniele Rossi, Abassin Nessar.

Salon Orizzonti Occupati
24 — 30 September 2014
Bert Theis with Isola Art Center collective and friends: Aufo, Bad Museum, Zanny Begg, Tania Bruguera, Cooperativa Nuovo Cilento, Comune di San Mauro Cilento, Fornace Falcone, Mariam Ghani, Grupo Etcétera, Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Isabell Lorey, Philippe Nathan /2001, Nikolay Oleynikov, Creative Olive, Maria Papadimitriou, Dan Perjovschi, Gerald Raunig, Oliver Ressler & Dario Azzellini, Christoph Schäfer, Superstudio, Stefano Taccone, Nikola Uzunowski, Jiang Zhi and others.

Salon Fluchthilfe
01 — 07 October 2014
Zanny Begg with Barat Ali Batoor, The Silent University, Katarzyna Winiecka, Mindj Panther, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson; Pen and Papers Drawing Workshops: Safdar Ahmed, Mona Moradveisi, Murtaza Ali Jafari, Tabarak Abdellatif, Isslam Abdellatif, Sayed Hadi Husseini, Neda, Parastoo, Parissa, Mohammad, Mansoora Gulzari, Lanka Daminda, Vijaya Kumar, Anjali Vishwanathan.

Salon DADADA
08 — 14 October 2014
AND AND AND with Ben Morea and friends.

Cuartos de utopía
15 — 22 October 2014
Pedro G. Romero / Máquina P.H.with María García Ruiz, Antonio Marín Márquez; and Marco de Ana, Javiera de la Fuente, Stefan Voglsinger presenting Tomás de Perrate & Amador Gabarri, Ocaña, Charo Martín, Israel Galván, Rocío Márquez, La Esmeralda de Triana. Pie Flamenca, LaFundició, 4Taxis, Los Flamencos, flo6x8, Ketani, Weinklub*.

Salón de Belleza
22 October — 02 November 2014
Miguel A. López with Carlos Motta, Sandra Monterroso, Giuseppe Campuzano, André Masseno, Sergio Zevallos, Virginia de Medeiros, Jaume Ferrete, Open Barbers (Greygory Vass and Felix Lane).

The sequence of exhibitions will be linked with large-scale banners on the façade of the Secession for the use of the artist-curators.

Project descriptions and further information: http://utopian-pulse.org/salons/

Utopia is secession without instructions.

Secession, Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Wien, Austria; www.secession.at

For the numerous events and opening dates within Utopian Pulse – Flares in the Darkroom please check the attached pdf.

The project will be continued in a new configuration at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart in 2015.

Funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) AR 183-G21.