• Ed Young "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young "It's Fun Without You" 

  • Ed Young "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young "It's Fun Without You" 

  • Ed Young "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young "It's Fun Without You" 

  • Ed Young "The #$@&%*!" message salon embassy Zine Nr. 18

    Ed Young "The #$@&%*!" message salon embassy Zine Nr. 18  

  • Ed Young "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young "It's Fun Without You" 

  • Ed Young "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young "It's Fun Without You" 

  • Ed's fresh tattoo

    Ed's fresh tattoo 

  • Ed Young "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young "It's Fun Without You" 

  • Ed Young, Installing "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young, Installing "It's Fun Without You" 

  • It's Fun Without You, by night

    It's Fun Without You, by night 

  • Ed Young "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young "It's Fun Without You" 

  • Ed Young, Installing "It's Fun Without You"

    Ed Young, Installing "It's Fun Without You" 

It’s Fun Without You

Vernissage Donnerstag 22. August, 19 bis 23 Uhr
Es erscheint message salon embassy Zine Nr. 18 von Ed Young

–
Ausstellung im Schaufenster bis 30. September 2019, 24/7
Die Diele , Sihlhallenstrasse 4, 8004 Zürich

At the invitation of Madame l’ Ambassadeur Esther Eppstein, the South African artist Ed Young currently resides in Zurich and presents an exhibition in the shop windows of “Die Diele” on Sihlhallenstrasse in District 4 as part of the exhibition series “Die message salon Diele”.

The artist has become known for socially critical interventions in galleries and art institutions, as well as co-operating the experimental project space Youngblackman in his hometown of Cape Town. Ed Young is connected to Zurich and its art scene through various artist residencies. In 2013 he worked on the Veli&Amos billboard on the terrace of Perla-Mode, last summer the artist was a guest of the Index Freiraumstipendium in Zurich.

The opening of the intervention” “It’s Fun Without You” in the two shop windows on Sihlhallenstrasse is marked by the publication “The #$@&%*! message salon embassy Zine Nr. 18”.

Ed Young’s text works are disturbing and uncomfortable.
Are they provocative advertising slogans, tweeted hate messages or political propaganda? The texts, always designed in the same typography, do not reveal any emotions, seem almost harmless optically, but the statements are brutal, maliciously vulgar and sinister in their effect.

The title of the exhibition “It’s Fun Without You” is initially funny and “fun”, which has become a kind of currency in the modern world. The statement plays with the cynical promises of advertising, which keep consumer society alive with ever new seductions, but also with the addiction to endless pleasure and the longing for attention and recognition in the age of social media.

“The #$@&%*!” is a pamphlet, a crude text shot from a Twitter machine pistol, a breathless string of disturbing statements and provocations. Who is the narrator in this text? Are they real fragments from the comment sections on news portals or from Donald Trump’s Twitter account, from Emmanuel Macron’s speeches or from an Antifa website? Or perhaps the spawning of an unleashed algorithm, fed with the daily obscenities of the Internet?

The artist’s attitude to the content of the text is no longer recognizable, moral absolution is sought in vain. Ed Young leaves this unpleasant task to the readers of the text.

message salon embassy Zine No. 18 – Edition of 70 Copies

The #$@&%*!
Ed Young

Madame l’Ambassadeur Esther Eppstein
©2019 Ed Young & message salon

message salon thanks for the support: Livio Baumgartner (Die Diele), Stadt Zürich Kultur, 25hours Hotel Langstrasse, Pro Helvetia Johannesburg. Special thanks to Basil Kobalt for technical support