CAC TV
Sture Johannesson
EvaMarie Lindahl
5 May–4 June 2006
Opening Friday 5 May 7-9pm
Signal is pleased to present Every program is a pilot, every program is the final episode, an exhibition project involving the Lithuanian TV programme CAC TV and Malmö-based artists Sture Johannesson and EvaMarie Lindahl.
In 2004 the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius was invited to produce a TV programme for the new Lithuanian commercial TV channel TV1. CAC TV was started and has since produced a 30-minute programme screened on TV1 every week.
CAC TV marked the birth of a new TV genre: the “reality metashow” – a homemade TV programme about making a TV programme with the motto Every program is a pilot, every program is the final episode. Something new is tried out with every episode and every imaginable format that a TV programme can have is tested.
CAC TV is run by a nucleus of (non TV) professionals in the field of art and culture in general with open production teams for the individual episodes. The programmes consist of directed and improvised reality TV, intellectual entertainment, round table discussions with public figures invited to evaluate previous episodes, art videos, animations, etc. Anything is possible on CAC TV.
EvaMarie Lindahl ’s interest in group activities is connected with her interest in how the design of a room influences the atmosphere that governs the way in which social activities develop. At Signal she has designed a set providing a framework in which material from CAC TV is presented. Can TV function as a social group activity? In that case, how can one activate the TV audience so that people take the step from being consumers to becoming producers?
As a further step in commenting on issues pertaining to freedom of speech, freedom to publish and media freaking Signal has invited Sture Johannesson to design the invitation card and poster announcing the exhibition. Sture Johannesson combines an acute critical eye with a subtly playful approach to the use and meaning of symbols while his graphic work almost always contains historical references. In this way he succeeds in commenting on contemporary life in a very incisive manner. Also on show at Signal is a panel which forms part of Mark di Suvero and Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Peace Tower which is currently being shown at the 2006 Whitney Biennial in New York. The Peace Tower was originally erected in Los Angeles in 1966 by artist Mark di Suvero who invited artists to contribute a panel as a collective protest against the Vietnam War. Now, forty years later, it again stands against the current war and the policy of the US government.
