UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA

Almanac

Tuesday, September 17, 1996 Volume 43 Number 4

Beyond Belief

A spiny cylinder made of 2000 books towers 15 feet to the ceiling, where the viewer who peers inside finds a cheerful mystery ...Barbie morphs to middle-age, and suddenly she's 'Ken's Aunt', all struggling flesh against her own underwear...a giant styrofoam baby is both 'Untitled' and featureless as only a supermarket bar code can make it... .

These are just three of the 50 high-impact installations on view at the Institute for Contemporary Art, where the full title of the show is Beyond Belief: Contemporary Art from East Central Europe. Brought here from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the show clusters the work of 13 artists and groups around the concept that they who have witnessed an era in which "commonly held" values shifted and reconfigured with each new regime, will respond by questioning the validity of all ideologies.

Beyond Belief will be here through October 27, and the galleries at 118 S. 36th Street are open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thursdays, which are "late nights" open until 7. Tours are scheduled Sundays at 1 p.m. and Thursdays at 5:15 p.m., but can also be arranged by appointment. Admission is free for PENNcard holders, ICA members, children under 12, and everyone who comes Sundays between 10 a.m. and noon. Otherwise: $3 general admission, $1 for students, artists and senior citizens.

Note for PENNcard holders: the ICA terrace welcomes brown-baggers.


Pictured: Above, Idiom, Matej Kren, Czechoslovakia 1994; Assembling the piece anew for each of its 12 showings to date, the artist works in the language of the country--using, in this case, 2000 hardcovers on loan from the University of Pennsylvania Press and Van Pelt Library.
At right, Ken's Aunt, Zbigniew Libera, Poland 1995; detail from an Untitled Installation of modified Barbie dolls and Untitled, David Cerny, Czech Republic 1995; an oversized infant, approximately 8' high, in styrofoam and plaster.


IN THIS ISSUE

From the President: Minority Recruitment and Retention at Penn
SAS Acting Dean: Walter Wales
Minority Presence: Announcing Four Initiatives
Trustees: Buying the Sheraton
Council Topics for September 24
Bulletins: Date Changes for Women's Studies and Lab Safety, GSE Series on School Children, and Delco VanPool
Graduate Education: 8th Annual Career Conference
Applying for Biomed Studies On-Line
Deaths: Dr. Dale, Mr. Browne and Mr. Brown
The Sellin Collection at Van Pelt
Convocation: The President and Provost Welcome the Class of 2000
Speaking Out: