I Can't Tell You Because I Can't Tell You

About

601Artspace is very pleased to present I Can’t Tell You Because I Can’t Tell You, a group exhibition curated by Gabriela Vainsencher, featuring work from Tacita Dean, Constance DeJong, Thomas Demand, Christian Marclay, Roee Rosen, Roman Signer, and Kerry Tribe. 

This will be the inaugural exhibition in 601Artsapce’s new location on the Lower East Side. A series of events are planned in conjunction with the show, including a performance in the gallery by Constance DeJong on October 15th and a screening of Roee Rosen’s film The Confessions of Roee Rosen on November 11th. In partnership with Marian Goodman Gallery, 601Artspace will also host a presentation of Tacita Dean’s Event for a Stage on November 4th at Metrograph Cinema, followed by a Q&A with the artist and Hal Foster.  

I Can't Tell You Because I Can't Tell You deals with the inherent problematics of shaping human experience into a linear story. Reality, as it is happening, is an overwhelming nonlinear smear: past, present, and future interlace, events mix with emotions, and focus shifts from one thing to another. Maybe this is why people have invented stories in which effects have causes, things happen for a reason, and narrators can be trusted to tell a story straight, with a beginning, middle and end– and in that order. 

The artists in this exhibition, however, work in photography, video, film, sculpture and performance to explore the limitations, flaws, and impossibilities of the narrative structure. They crack open the conventions of their fields to engage the questions: What happens if we agree that every story is an artificial construct that by definition distorts and lies? What if we acknowledge that no narrator is reliable? In lieu of solid narrative ground this exhibition presents us with works that expose the machinery of story-making, and then throw a wrench in the works.