World Premier of INFLIGHT!
Anthony d'Offay Gallery is delighted to launch Johan Grimonprez' magazine INFLIGHT.

It is conceived as a single issue of an inflight magazine representing an imaginary airline company, and its design and concept is a spin-off from the standard airline magazines one finds in any aeroplane seat pocket - complete with motion discomfort bag, safety instructions, inflight entertainment, flight routes, shopping specials, passenger information and a series of feature articles. However, the actual content of INFLIGHT tells quite a different story: the visual and written account of aeroplane hijacking, seen through the history of its indeterminate relationship with news media. Further articles zoom in on the recent shift from 'skyjacking' to 'cyberjacking', featuring data-hostages caught in digital hijacks. At the same time hijacking is being gradually replaced by the fear of the political unknown. Alien abduction, in particular - on which there are numerous articles in the magazine - has come to be seen as a symptom of the repressed unconscious of the depoliticised 1990s.

INFLIGHT elaborates on the themes of the artist's award-winning film dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, star of Dokumenta X and shown at Anthony d'Offay Gallery in 1998. The film is based on research into the historical representation of worldwide aeroplane hijackings and sabotage, beginning with the hijackings on the first transatlantic passenger flights and continuing up to the anonymous suitcase bombs in the 1990s. By analysing news coverage, the real story behind the film focuses on how this television spectacle has fundamentally altered the representational nature of these events during only a relatively short span of media history. Television's complicitous claim to the story results in the narrator himself becoming a key player in shaping the events. This exploration is set against a fictional narrative, consisting of a discussion between a novelist and a terrorist, written by Don Delillo, author of Underworld, White Noise and Mao II.

INFLIGHT is created as an artist edition that can be printed on an unlimited number of copies by the institutions and museums that wish to participate in the project. INFLIGHT is also to be distributed internationally from newspaper stands, thereby extending the boundaries of the art world.

INFLIGHT LOUNGE

As a setting for INFLIGHT magazine, Johan Grimonprez has created an inflight lounge, painted 'airline blue' and featuring the INFLIGHT logo. Comfortable seating, drinks and a large selection of 'inflight movies and commercials' sourced by the artist are placed at visitors' disposal. Guests of the INFLIGHT lounge are invited to settle into a chair and select any number of videos to watch. Viewers have the option of following Grimonprez' suggested watching sequences, or may devise their own inflight entertainment programme.Varying from a few minutes to full feature-film length these videos cover a variety of genres including documentaries/ pseudomentaries, CNN spin-offs, 'twisted' commercials, Sci-fi flicks (and UFO-spotting specials) and alternative MTV, all set against a backdrop of Hollywood's Airport disaster series. A few examples of these twisted films are Alternative 3: a British pseudomentary on an international space conspiracy; the Mystery of Double Shaving Technology (a Phillips commercial); Air Force One: the hijacking of a presidential plane; Alien Autopsy; and 7 Simeons: the tragic story of a Soviet family brass band who hijack a plane out of Moscow in an attempt to flee to the West. The viewer is encouraged to jump or 'zap' across the categories. There will also be the opportunity to watch dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y.

Johan Grimonprez lives and works in New York and Gent.


INFLIGHT Talk
Johan Grimonprez will be holding an INFLIGHT discussion at the LUX Gallery on Saturday 10 June from 19.30 to 21.00 as part of their Tech-nicks programme.
Bookings: 07946 378905 or email: tech_nicks@noaltgirls.org

The furniture in the INFLIGHT lounge was generously donated for the exhibition by OVERDOSE ON DESIGN of Brick Lane, London E1

INFLIGHT logos by Alex Kellas, Ritsko Vchida and Peter Stemmler

Stewardess (for private view only!): Cendrine du Welz