mystopshow (Radio Version)

LAPDOGS OF THE BOURGEOISIE PRESENTS: THE STOP SHOW by Dirk Fleischmann. Conceived by Nav Haq and Tirdad Zolghadr. This broadcasting event is to serve as the launch of the long-term research and exhibition project Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie. The project investigates the latent issue of class underlying the field of contemporary visual art. What role does class structure play in production, presentation and reception? These are issues that have been overlooked in the current era, where artists, even when coaxed into anthropological or self-reflexive approaches, leave the socioeconomic hierarchies of the artworld unexplored. What was it that made gender, sexuality, ethnicity and nationality eclipse the class issue with such ease? Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie presents a collaborative project with a number of practitioners that also scrutinise their own positions, bias and gaze within the strata of cultural production. It seeks to identify the hidden anxieties involved, and examine the levels of affect that class still has in the field - from artists through to curators, funders, institutions and even audiences. As part of the project, the artist Dirk Fleischmann, known for his astute engagements with issues of service work, profit and socio-symbolic hierarchy will present a new version of his ongoing project The Stop Show, specifically for a radio format. Fleischmann's project, in which competitors must accurately determine ten-second time spans, does not illustrate or 'map' the exhibition theme in the usual manner of a group show. His Stop Show, a degree zero playing field of fundamentally equal opportunity, offers no more and no less than a simple competition with the most rudimentary of rules, allowing audiences to participate via phone and internet. Revisiting the aggressive drama of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? or live football commentary, The Stop Show will include the participation of authorities and connoisseurs on the subject of social class, live in the studio. The Stop Show is conceived to be the first in a series of events as part of the Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie project, including an exhibition at Gasworks, London, and other institutions internationally in 2006 and 2007. The Stop Show. Part of Radio Gallery. Monday 24 July 2006, 8-9pm. Resonance 104.4FM