Peter Fend
BET AND WIN
Way Out Too
“ To gamble go to the City, to nuclear gamble try Unit 2 ”.
Opening with performance by Peter Fend: Friday 30th November 2007, 6 - 8pm
1 December 2007 to 19 January 2008
Someone who has been labelled as an artist but has actually done much more in public light presents two new but contrasting works. Peter Fend’s BET AND WIN portrays geopolitical contests in ‘defined zones of conflict’. These zones are: ‘Europe’, ‘Africa’, ‘The Americas’, ‘East Asia’, ‘The Arabian Peninsular’, ‘Korea’ and ‘The Arctic’. Each zone is represented as a map which happens to fit within a trapezoidal football field.
For Peter Fend, the world is a stage for action. His résumé demonstrates this and he will practice it starting this June 2008, with projects sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Peter Fend says that art is not enough. The world as a stage needs more. Indications were shown by Fend at the Sharjah Biennial and a show at Galerie Christian Nagel in Berlin, titled ‘Parallel Projects – Proposals for Condoleezza Rice’.
The second and perhaps more hopeful part of BET AND WIN is the work called ‘WAY OUT TOO’ but with the slogan “Where Russian and US giant submarine designs are finally put to use”. This project, targeted towards the United Nations Environment Programme exhibition series, starting in June 2008, breaks away from the ‘defined zones of conflict’ to propose an ecological unit. This unit connects to the Arctic and Antarctic with the basins of the Atlantic Ocean. The threat addressed is less one of geopolitics than of global warming.
We do not know precisely what will be shown starting on 30th November 2007 because upcoming events will decide. However, with the Atlantic Corridor, an attempt will be made to launch a three-ocean reversal of global warming.
Will this work? Come and bet…and maybe win.
An illustrated poster/brochure including an essay by Peter Fend accompanies the exhibition. (ISBN: 978-1-899764-91-4)
Selected Biography
PETER FEND is the only person to have exhibited in Documenta and the Aperto
of the Venice
Biennale, along with other world-ranking venues like the Sharjah Biennial,
who has also:
•
published scientific papers presented in an international scientific conference
•
produced two press conferences at the UN, invited by the United Nations
Correspondents Association
•
produced an official report for the US Congress, commissioned by its Office
of Technology Assessment
•
produced imagery appearing as lead foreign news items in The Sunday Times,
The Observer, L’Express, Die Weltwoche, Vrij Nederland
•
produced in-depth ecological analysis published in New Scientist, with
other appearances published by the US Natural Resources Defense Council
•
lectured on military analyses at the Royal United Services Institute, London,
and the NY Military Affairs Society, US
•
sold a videotape exhibited in an art gallery in New York to a major TV
news company, which broadcasted it as news, not as art
•
been expelled from a member state of the European Union, due to these activities
He’s also probably the only exhibiting artist in London to publish
a renunciation, in Art Monthly, of his own exhibition (due to actions by
the gallerist, who left London soon after).
He played center halfback in US high school and college teams.
He is 57 and currently lives in Berlin.
Opening Times: Tuesday - Friday 12 - 6pm and Saturday 1- 6pm
Admission: Free
Exhibition: 1 December 2007 – 19 January 2008 Closed: 16 December 2007 – 2
January 2008
