t h e o b s t a c l e i s t a u t o l o g y

organized by Amir Mogharabi

Front Desk Apparatus is pleased to present the second iteration of ‘The Obstacle is Tautology,’ an ongoing project organized by artists Benoit Maire and Amir Moqharabi. Originally held in Vilnius, Lithuania, ‘The Obstacle is Tautology’ is repeated in different forms and locations. Each iteration, takes as its organizing principle, the successive content of an overarching conversation between the two artists.

A tautology [both a symbolic statement that is true by way of deductive logic, and a superfluous statement rendered arbitrary by its repetition] poses problems pivotal for commencing a paradigm shift away from the tenets of conceptual art. Although the existence of a tautology cannot be empirically asserted in the world, it is still apprehended by reason as an idea, as an object of the intellect, as pure referent repeated into being.

As such, there exists a disparity between reason and experience, whereby reason serves the imperative for what is otherwise impossible to define, impossible to objectify. And yet, we go on lying, we go on defining, we go on asking and answering why, we go on categorizing; when our responsibility may precisely be, to undermine the logic of experience, undermine the logic of love and the disambiguation of poetry. To resolve our ongoing dissatisfaction with explanations, by not asking for any more than what art has to offer as a limitless medium in itself, or beside itself. As a younger woman, or an older one. Either, or.

Artists:

Jesse Cohen | Guy de Cointet | Lucie Fontaine | Joelle Leandre | Benoit Maire | COCO DU NOM | Jeffrey Perkins | Adrian Piper | Soma Wingelaar | La Monte Young