Stardust Boogie Woogie
Tania Antoshina, Mo Foster, Marcela Iriarte, Christian de Lutz,
Jane Mulfinger, Bob & Roberta Smith, Jessica Voorsanger
Curated by Francesca Piovano



Opening 29 October 2009 8PM
Exhibition runs 30 October - 28 November 2010, Fri- Sun 2-6PM and by appointment
Finissage with a reading by Mo Foster: 26 November 2010 8PM
Special event: 30 November 2010 A reading by Mo Foster at the
East of Eden International Bookstore, Schreinerstr. 10,
10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain - www.east-of-eden.de

When Andy Warhol declared that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, he probably didn't realized how true that was going to be.

In a very short time the media industry has made it incredibly easy for people to become famous. It is no longer necessary to have a particular talent, nowadays absolutely any one who is prepared by whatever means to be entertaining, can become a 'celebrity'. Then mass media, along with popular culture, will see that celebrities are consumed as spectacle giving them a package of meanings that has nothing to do with their intrinsic value.

This is particularly true today in Western countries where the boundaries between stars and fans have dissolved: a celebrity is such, as long as fan clubs, gossip columns and TV reality shows say so.

It all started with the personality cult as advanced by the Soviet regime. At last the leader was no longer somebody anointed by divine rights, but somebody who was the icon of ordinary people. The Soviet leaders and popular heroes were, in a way, the other side of the coin of the Hollywood star system - both embodied dreams of a better life.

To explore the issues of celebrity cult and modern heroes and to put them in a multifaceted international context, the exhibition Stardust Boogie Woogie has brought together 7 artists from different countries and backgrounds. Their work is around the notion of stardom and its related lifestyle (Jessica Voorsanger, Jane Mulfinger, Marcela Iriarte), of socialist personality cults (Christian de Lutz, Tania Antoshina) and of popular culture (Bob & Roberta Smith, Mo Foster).

-Francesca Piovano