Investigations of a Dog takes its title from the short story by Franz Kafka (1922), whose main character, a dog, questions the limits of his canine existence, or rather, the sense of the community to which he belongs. This constant questioning distances the dog from the others and forces him into the position of the outsider. Nonetheless, it is in his solitude that the dog expresses his most intense form of interest for the community and his compatriots. This story, and more generally the themes and expressive strategies that recur in Kafka’s stories, have inspired the selection of works on display. The artists reflect upon central themes in our contemporary society, such as post-colonial identity, gender, race and religious conflicts, economic disparities and the excesses of consumer society, the sense of community and the condition of marginality. Like the dog-protagonist in Kafka’s short story, the artists in the exhibition ask themselves questions about the meaning of art making, spurred by a passionate emotional involvement in the society of humans. Investigations of a Dog is the first exhibition jointly organized and curated by FACE (Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe). Formed in 2008, FACE is a European interest group for the arts established by five private, non-profit art foundations in five different countries: the Ellipse Foundation, Cascais (Portugal), the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (Italy), La Maison Rouge – Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris (France), Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm (Sweden) and the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens (Greece). The group aims to promote and support emerging and more established artists from around the world, with a focus on bringing an ever-growing public closer to contemporary art. Investigations of a Dog presents artworks from each partner’s collection and during the course of two years, the exhibition travels to be hosted by the five foundations.
