MAGIC AND HAPPINESS

18 NOVEMBER - 22 NOVEMBER 2009
PRIVATE VIEW 18 NOVEMBER 6 PM

VULPES VULPES
UNIT 4, PROUT ROAD, E5 9NP, LONDON

Ceylan Projects is pleased to present Magic & Happiness, a group show curated around an essay by Giorgio Agamben.

BEN CATON, STAN IORDANOV, ED LEHAN, ROY NNAWUCHI, ANNA MARGRETHE PEDERSEN, BEN SCHUMACHER, EMMA SHERIDAN

‘Whatever we can achieve through merit and effort, cannot make us truly happy. <...> What a disaster if a woman loved you because you deserved it! <...> [T]here is only one way of achieving happiness on this earth: to believe in the divine and not to aspire to reach it (there is an ironic variation of this in a conversation between Franz Kafka and Gustav Janouch, when Kafka affirms that there is plenty of hope - but not for us). That apparently ascetic thesis becomes intelligible only if we understand the meaning of this “not for us”. It means not that happiness is reserved only for others (happiness is, precisely, for us) but that it awaits us only at the point where it was not destined for us. That is: happiness can be ours only through magic.’

- Giorgio Agamben, Magic and Happiness

Famous for his original readings and interpretations of texts, Giorgio Agamben is a contemporary Italian philosopher. His work, be it political theory or his early essays on art, stems from an interest in the relationship between the notions ofwork and happiness. Magic and Happiness, from which this exhibition takes its name and vocation, is an essay that brings Agamben’s thought to its very roots and now more than ever appears as a strikingly accurate criticism of the modern condition. In a moment where currencies like merit and effort are devalued precisely because they no longer stand as guarantees for the Western ideal of happiness, we are once again to reconsider what happiness is and how to achieve it.

Magic & Happiness group show showcases new work by seven artists who have challenged mainstream perception of happiness through different mediums including sculpture, installation, painting and sound. The work is as naive as it is cynical expressing both fascination and distrust towards the decadence of contemporary culture.

Curated by Aliina Astrova / Ceylan Projects

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