Lights, Camera, Magic

Chris Otchy

What will it take to activate widespread social change? If history has taught us anything, it won't be any one stimulus, but rather a range of triggers coming from disparate sources. On June 6, an art show at Frankfurter Kunstverein in Germany aims at effecting such a change by assembling like-minded artists for an exhibition called "The Great Transformation - Art and Tactical Magic." Magic is the central thrust of the show and refers to both slight of hand and the occult connotations imbued by Aleister Crowley and his legacy. Through their works, the artists play on the ability of artistic mediums to inhabit the grey zone between the rational and the irrational -- both expressing social transformation and simultaneously triggering it.

The exhibition includes a video by Allen Ruppersberg analyzing the work of Hungarian illusionist Harry Houdini, as well as an experimental film by French artist Aurelíen Froment. Also featured are the works of Mike Kelley and Berkley-based art collective Center for Tactical Magic. The exhibition runs from June 6 to September 7 at Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt, Germany.