Allora & Calzadilla’s Apocalypse Now opens Friday at CCA Wattis Institute

Martha Rosler, <i>Prototype (God Bless America)</i>, 2006. DVD projection, color, sound, 1 min. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, New York.

The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco presents the exhibition Apocalypse Now: The Theater of War beginning Friday through January 26, 2008. The show is inspired by the Bay Area’s history of antiwar activism and by Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film of the same name. It is co-curated by Wattis Institute Director Jens Hoffmann and Season 4 featured artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. An opening reception takes place this Thursday from 6‚Äì8 p.m.

Apocalypse Now responds to wars around the globe, both past and present, but it also addresses how the language and iconography of war are embedded in everyday life and our broader social consciousness. The show includes works by a number of international contemporary artists as well as a diverse range of cultural artifacts, not all of which are directly related to war per se, but which do, within the exhibition environment, function as tools or even weapons of attack. The show is at war with itself, examining how struggle, conflict, and resistance can be built into each element of an installation. The viewer sees the unpalatable side of humanity, and scenes and situations that repel, while examining how exhibitions can test not only visual but also personal boundaries.

Participating artists: Antonin Artaud, Max Beckmann, Margaret Bourke-White, Mathew Brady, Jacques Callot, Bruce Conner, Leonardo da Vinci, Otto Dix, Ernst Friedrich, Francisco de Goya, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Ernst Jünger, Jon Kessler, Käthe Kollwitz, Lewis Milestone, Bruce Nauman, Pino Pascali, Pablo Picasso, Alain Resnais, Alexander Rodchenko, Martha Rosler, Luigi Russolo, Kurt Schwitters, Richard Serra, and Mark Twain.

Apocalypse Now is presented concurrently with Allora & Calzadilla’s solo exhibition Sediments, Sentiments (Figures of Speech) at the San Francisco Art Institute, on view through December 15.

Read the full press release and view additional images here.