Melanie Gilligan – The Common Sense

What would happen if you could physically experience what another person touches? That is what Melanie Gilligan investigates in The Common Sense, an experimental drama that is situated in the future, when new technologies enable one person to feel another's sensations and experiences. The film is comprised of three parts, which will be shown at Casco in Utrecht, de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam, and De Hallen in Haarlem during 2014-15.

Also on view the exhibition Qualities of Violence by Michael Dean

Casco, de Appel arts centre, and De Hallen Haarlem are collectively presenting The Common Sense, the largest project to date by the artist Melanie Gilligan who is based in New York. The production takes the form of a sci-fi mini-series that unfolds across the three institutions and was made possible by this unique collaboration among two presentation institutions and a museum – the first partnership of its kind in the Netherlands.

See for full programme www.thecommonsense.org

Melanie Gilligan
Independently of each other, Casco, de Appel arts centre and De Hallen Haarlem shared an interest in the work of Melanie Gilligan, an artist whose work has been shown and praised internationally, but who still remains relatively unknown in the Netherlands. Gilligan's work deals with what is perhaps the crucial issue of our times, namely how technology and the economy instrumentalize everyday interactions and human relations.

New work
This experimental narrative drama, The Common Sense, tells a story of the future technology, 'The Patch', a sort of prosthesis which makes it possible to directly experience the physical sensations and feelings of another person. After a decade of transforming the conditions of work and social life, for the most part in accordance with economic demands, the technology’s networks suddenly fail causing massive disorientation. People withdraw into themselves, isolating themselves in their homes, since they no longer know how to communicate with one another in a meaningful way without the aid of the technology. When the system is again 'online', and The Patch is functioning again, the story splits into two separate parallel storylines. In one of the storylines after the rupture society undergoes a normalization and The Patch continues as a part of daily life. In the second storyline, groups come together to try to form social movements to resist the exploitative elements of the technology. In this way Gilligan raises questions about our present relationship to technology (mobile telephones, iPads, etc.), which increasingly define shapes our minds, our bodies, and the way we live and interact within a capitalist system.

The Common Sense will occur with different episodes shown in each space Casco will open with the initial episodes and background material while De Hallen Haarlem will host one of the parallel story lines on social unrest and de Appel will show societies return to order. The dates of the shows partially overlap with one another, so that for one weekend all three exhibitions are open simultaneously and will hold a bus tour to all three locations along with special events.

Discount for visiting De Hallen Haarlem and de Appel arts centre
Would you like to visit both exhibitions of the sci-fi movie project Melanie Gilligan in the Hallen Haarlem and de Appel arts centre ? With a ticket from one of the institutes you get 50 % discount at the other. This offer can not be combined with other discounts.

Time Line: The Common Sense
14 November 2014 – 25 January 2015
The Common Sense, Phase 1
Casco – Office of Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht

13 December 2014 – 1 March 2015
The Common Sense, Phase 2A
De Hallen Haarlem
Also on view: international group show Up, Close and Personal

24 January – 10 May 2015
The Common Sense, Phase 2B
de Appel arts centre
Also on view: exhibition by Michael Dean

On 24 January 2015, the three institutions are organizing a special bus tour to all the locations, and programmes with reference to this work are being organized in the institutions.

The Common Sense by Gilligan is a co-production of Casco, de Appel arts centre and De Hallen Haarlem.

The project The Common Sense is financially supported by Dommering foundation, Mondriaan Foundation and Fonds 21.

Courtesy Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf

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During the exhibition there is free entrance for fysical challenged people for the space have a lot of objects.