A collective artists' book based on a fictional character by Natascha Sadr Haghighian.
Comprising a cast of characters including two artists, an assistant, a writer, and the proprietor of an artwork production company, this book explores the figure of "Robbie Williams"—the artist, not the singer. Across interviews, notes, essays, press releases, a slideshow, and a multiple-choice test, Natascha, Seda, Ashkan, Uwe, and Robbie unpack the myth of the solo artist and his SOLO SHOW.
Natascha Sadr Haghighian is constantly at odds with the art world and asks Seda to deal with it.
Seda Naiumad is an assistant since 2006. She also has her own practice.
Uwe Schwarzer is the founder and director of mixedmedia berlin. The company produces artworks for contemporary artists in an extensive range of materials, techniques, and dimensions for exhibitions and projects in international museums and galleries since 1999.
Ashkan Sepahvand is an artist, writer, and researcher. He was born in Tehran, Iran, grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and lives and works between Berlin and Oxford. His practice takes time. An interest in words and bodies shapes his enquiries. Projects take the form of performances, publications, and regular collaborations with friends.
Robbie Williams—the artist, not the singer.
Natascha Sadr Haghighian (born 1963 in Teheran) is an important voice of contemporary art. In her
work she unfolds the poetic, imaginary and critical potential of art. She
stands for an artistic position that not only analyses or comments on
aesthetic and scientific concepts and social or political
conditions, but actively changes them. Within each working process the
artist develops a new understanding of her role and a new approach.
She primarily creates works in the fields of installation and performance,
text and sound. As an
individual or collective artistic position, she frequently allows her
practice to flow into political, social processes. She addresses the
activist aspect of artistic work and reassesses the conditions and spaces
for aesthetic research and artistic action. Disconnecting the artist from
representative roles or political instrumentalisation has always been an
integral part of Natascha Sadr Haghighian's artistic practice. As early as
2004, the artist initiated the CV exchange platform bioswop.net, where
concepts such as identity, representation, facts and self are renegotiated
and the fetish of the "artist's biography" is undermined. For
her participation at the German pavilion for the 58th Venice Biennale, she
intentionally misspelled her name as "Natascha Süder Happelmann".
