Romancing True Power: D20 / Exhibition Architecture by NAO

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

Research and Exhibition Architecture

Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss / NAO Joachim Hackl, Joshua Lam, Joung taek Yi Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, The Shelia C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011, USA February 12-February 26, 2015

In collaboration with Nina Khrushcheva, Yiqing Wang and Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy; Additional Research Support

by Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

Research and Exhibition Architecture

Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss / NAO Joachim Hackl, Joshua Lam, Joung taek Yi Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, The Shelia C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011, USA February 12-February 26, 2015

In collaboration with Nina Khrushcheva, Yiqing Wang and Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy; Additional Research Support

by Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York

Curators Nina Khrushcheva, Associate Professor of International Affairs and Associate Dean at Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy, The New School Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Ph.D., Founding Principal of NAO, Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP and Lecturer at Penn Design Exhibition Idea Nina Khrushcheva / The New School Exhibition Architecture Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss / NAO Exhibition Design Team NAO Joachim Hackl with Joshua Wai Hon Lam, Joung taek Yi D20 Research and Journal Production Yiqing Wang-Holborn, Madhav Tankha, Beth Pappas, Timothy Wang-Holborn, Timothy Kenyon/ The New School Photography Exhibition and Opening Photos courtesy of Helga Traxler Academic research supported by Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York The curators gratefully acknowledge the funding and intellectual support of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy, Milano’s Studley Faculty Research Fund, and the India China Institute of The New School; and would like to thank The New School Art Collection for the generous loan of the artworks, and the artist Brenda Bogart and Mr. and Mrs. David Rogers who lent the original painting, Dictators and Other Dicks. In addition, they would like to thank the Milano School faculty, students, alumni and other colleagues for lending their Dick kitsch.

The curators appreciate the internship support from CIEE / Internship USA & Professional Career Training USA and TISCHE-scholarship, granted by the Federal Chancellery of Austria, Arts and Culture Division.

Special thanks to the following individuals (in alphabetical order), who have contributed their time and effort towards the creation of this exhibition: From The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center: Darcy Bender, Allison Franks-Schlegel, Kristina Kaufman, Radhika Subramaniam, Alexander Valencia, Daisy Wong From The New School Art Collection: Rebecca Friedman, Silvia Rocciolo, Eric Stark

Romancing True Power: Why D20?

The civilized condemn dictatorship for its repression of freedoms and rights. This type of absolute power may not be always admired, yet strong leadership is always necessary. Romancing True Power investigates an idea of power – autocratic, authoritarian and dictatorial; a power that is present in dictatorships. Yet, democracies, too, are not immune from “true” power, seductive in its strength.

The D20 – modeled after the G20 group of the most industrialized nations – is a selective list of leaders from present and recent past, across continents and political systems, who, in some way, represent an ideal of strong power – we call it Dick power. As in the G20, not all members are equally economically or industrially developed; our list of D20 is not about the equality of “autocratic” rulers – not every Dick is technically a dictator – but they all share the same dicktatorial typology. We do not attempt to explain the distinctions between the various styles of power represented within the D20; rather, we examine the commonalities and constructs that unite them.

Psychologists Frederick Coolidge and Daniel Segal from University of Colorado have profiled history’s many infamous dictators, and summarized a “big six” constellation of personality disorders that many such leaders share: sadistic, antisocial, paranoid, narcissistic, schizoid, and schizotypal (Jason G. Goldman, “The Psychology of Dictatorship: Kim Jong-Il,” Scientific American, December 19, 2011). This may explain what drives them to power in addition to history, culture, or geography that have allowed, and in many cases cultivated, this dicktatorial leadership style.

The Romancing True Power exhibition is an invitation to re-imagine true power through the lens of dicktatorial constructs and their trappings. Is dictatorship a product of geopolitics or personalities? Of political economies or psychologies? What shared traits unite these leaders? How do they manifest their strength? What exactly is “true power” and why are we fascinated by it?

Exhibition Design Contribution: Galyean Brian, Xiaoxi Chen, Chido Chuma, Benjamin Alexander Hochberg, Susies Xuenzhu Jiang, Taehee Joan Kim, Hao Li, Sha Li, Nicole Marie Mater, Wenyun Qian, Tatiana Tatarintseva, Jasmine Tzu-Hwan, Razvan Voroneanu, James Casey Worrell, Xu Ming

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Architecture of Romancing True Power What exactly are the dicktators’ trappings such as city planning and public space designed for the people who live within former or current dictatorships today? The production of space in a specific style, such as the Stalinist architecture of the past, was of solidity. Marble and bronze were -necessary trappings for an autocrat. Because of this solidity many spaces, buildings and cities erected under communism cannot be demolished so easily. They may never be removed – especially in impoverished economies of post-socialist political systems. For example, Yugoslavia, once acting as a “soft” communist country – it balanced between the Soviet Union’s planned economy and West European capitalism – too, built large monuments and institutions of power. Today many of them are abandoned; their future uncertain. Most monuments were built in heavy concrete, and are impossible to ignore. What it shows is that the trappings of a previous autocratic system become archeology in the most traditional sense deriving from Plato’s The Republic. Remnants of the empire in power at the time of its spatial conception and construction, they spill into the post-imperial life, and in many cases still define the nation’s phycology by the former state’s image and look.

What is the future of these living conditions? Can they be overcome?

Architecture and urbanism may tell they cannot.

The architectural design of this exhibition reflects our understanding that even if there is a desire the politics of dictatorship cannot be changed by design alone. What can be changed is the perception of dicktatorial trappings and how they fall into them. In this spirit, the construct of the Romancing True Power is made entirely of ephemeral materials, such as paper and paper products. A Beaux-Arts Ball image – the D20 “family photo” – and a centerpiece made of boxes and paper show our Dicks wearing their palaces on their heads. It is as if they are at a gathering similar to a traditional Beaux Arts Ball, where architects wore costumes displaying the buildings they had made. Finally, the idea of the exhibition is to suggest that contrary to the heavy-concrete-and-marble of, say, Stalinism, or luxury and grandeur of Gaddafi’s shining business centers, anyone can display power in their homes with the available means they have.

The predominantly paper design of Romancing True Power is an attempt to show the ephemeral nature of true power on display, the power that usually thinks of itself as permanent and yet constantly trembles in fear to be overthrown – by the opponents, by the supporters, by the revolutions and military coups.

Indeed, even if dictatorial rule of the past has been largely discredited, power is always in fashion. And the autocrats continue to seek legitimacy by employing Western models. Architects from the UK, USA, Germany, Switzerland and other countries have been actively designing living spaces for new dicktators and their companions all around the world. In essence, architects continue to support the majestic dreams of despots like Gaddafi, who commissioned a well-known Lebanese architect, Bernard Khoury, to draw a master plan for a business campus that can be spotted from space, akin to China’s Great Wall.

And then what do these new/old relationships between architecture and power mean for individual citizens and their desires for their own living space?

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The Architectural Map of the D20

Life-size D20 Family Photo

This map shows the geographic distribution of the D20. Africa, Asia, Eurasia (Eastern Europe and Russia), and parts of Latin America – most continents and countries breed dicktatorial constructs in some form. Some are more conducive to dictatorships and autocracies than others: Africa’s post-colonial history; Russia’s cultural affinity with the “czar-subjects” hierarchy, which continues to this day; military regimes in Latin America, spurred in a spirit of independence from the United States’ influences.

Some autocracies are explained by their large size, such as Russia; some by the size of the population, as in the case of China. Some blame its Dick power on the hot climate, such as the countries in Africa. But Western Europe and North America are not immune either – Margaret Thatcher’s UK and Richard Nixon’s US at times attempted to steer away from democratic norms.

Here, the Dicks are wearing their extravagant residences as hats – their crowns, in the tradition of the Beaux Arts Ball, in which architects dressed up in costumes of their buildings. Download a QR code reader app on your smart phone; scan the QR code next to each dicktator to view their residences on Google Maps.

Here, we show our Dicks wearing their extravagant residences as hats – their crowns, in the tradition of the Beaux Arts Ball, in which architects dressed up in costumes of their buildings.

Throughout the exhibition, we seek to present common traits and behavior of these rulers across various political systems. We selected the D20 members based on their trappings of power - their importance, supremacy, significance, and quest for immortality, all of which are embodied in personal assets, materialism of memorabilia, or even mockery: 1) Dicks’ own self-defining creations and possessions: publications, cars, private jets, palaces.

Many of the world’s reputable tyrants suffer from the Napoleon Complex – men of small physical stature who seek extreme power to compensate for their (ahem) shortcomings. Correlation is not causation, however – not all of our Dicks are excessive, or short, or men at all. Our list includes a woman known for her “iron balls,” and offers many examples of tall leaders, such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan at 6’, both Alexander Lukashenko and Syria’s Bashar al Assad (D20 second tier runner-up) at 6’ 2”, and the most imposing of them all, the 6’ 4” Idi Amin.

Indeed, regardless of their height, most Dicks tend to self-aggrandize and flaunt status through what we refer to as trappings: luxurious living quarters, extravagant possessions and great wealth, impressive and powerful titles, official and unofficial signs and symbols of public adoration.

They express themselves in flamboyant, flashy apparel that separates them from the hoi polloi. They are dicktator chic. Hats, gold, fur, and military vestments are key embellishments in the Dick’s fashion bible. Their elevated significance can alternatively be expressed through overstated simplicity – think: the understated fatigues of Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro or Kim Jong-un.

2) Quotidian items: vodka, clocks, wristwatches, calendars, playing cards.

3) Objects of the cult of personality, or the cult of mockery: Richard “Dick” Cheney mugs, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi dog toys, Turkmenbashi Saparmurat Niyazov’s Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul), Margaret Thatcher nut crackers.

4) Public representation of state power: monuments, statues, portraits, flags, banknotes.

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Body Count & Other Dick Stats

2.6 of

1.3 of

0.8 of

2.3 of

2.6 of

0.06 of

1.8 of

0.004 of

0.2 of

0.001 of

0.5 of

0.5 of

366,000 sf

18 of

69,000 sf

0.02 of

GDP

Personal Net Worth

1.3 of

51 of

133,000 sf

4,300 sf

12,000 sf 30,000 sf 23,000 sf

7 ft

2,200 sf

35,000 sf

57,000 sf 36,000 sf

15,000 sf

19,000 sf 145,000 sf

1,700 sf

17,000 sf

72,000 sf

7,500 sf

7 ft

17,000 sf

5,400 sf

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6 ft

6 ft

5 ft

5 ft

4 ft

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3 ft

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1 ft

1 ft

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1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980

2010 2000 1990 1980 0

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Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

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Peron Evita Peron

1970 1970

Khomenei Khamenei Ahmadinejad

1970

Gaddafi Amin

Mugabe Grace Mugabe

Mao Jiang Qing (Madama Mao) Kim il-sung Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-un

Pol Pot

Niyazov

Ceausescu Elena Ceausescu Lukashenko Tito Milosevic

Berlusconi

Orban

Franco

Castro

Hussein

Erdogan Stalin Putin

ROMANCINGTRUEPOWER:D20 Nixon Cheney

854 boxes / 11.25” x 8.75” x 4”

854 boxes / 11.25” x 8.75” x 4”

Timeline

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FEB JAN DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG 2014 JUL

Political Context

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi Libya

President Idi Amin Dada Uganda

President Mobutu Sese Seko Zaire

President Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe (and Grace Mugabe)

President Turkmenbashi General Secretary of the CP President President Saparmurat Niyazov Nicolae Ceausescu Alexander Lukashenko Slobodan Miloševic Turkmenistan Serbia / Yugoslavia Belarus Romania (and Mira Miloševic) (and Elena Ceaucescu)

First Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah First Secretary of the CP President President Fidel Castro Juan Perón Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ali Hosseini Khamenei Iran Cuba Argentina Iran (and Evita Perón)

Supreme Leader Chairman of the CC Kim Jong-un Mao Zedong North Korea China (and Jiang Qing/Madam Mao)

President Josip Broz Tito Yugoslavia

First Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Iran

Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il North Korea

Supreme Leader Kim Il-sung North Korea

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Hungary

Former Prime Minister Margret Thatcher the United Kingdom

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Italy

President Saddam Hussein Iraq

President / Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey

President / Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Russia

Dicktator’s Profiles

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General Secretary of the CC of the CP Iosif Stalin Soviet Union

Acronym CC Central Committee CP Communist Party Vice President Richard “Dick” Cheney USA

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

President Richard Nixon USA

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c.1942-10/20/2011 Duration of Rule: 42 (1969-2011) Military 6’0” $67-200 Billion Bab al-Azizia / Tripoli Tents

c.1925-8/16/2003 Duration of Rule: 8 (1971-1979) Military 6’4” Kampala residence Boxing, Swimming, Basketball, Rugby

10/14/1930-9/7/1997 2/21/1924Duration of Rule:32 Duration of Rule:34 (1965-1997) (1980-ongoing) Military/Journalism Teaching 6’1” 5’9” $1-5 Billion $3-10 Billion Gbadolite palace Borrowdale compound Harare Cricket

12/18/1878-3/5/1953 Duration of Rule: 30 (1922-1952) Military-Revolutionary 5’5” Dacha/ Kuntsevo

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10/28/1956Duration of Rule: 8 (2005-2013) Engineering/Teaching / Politics-Administrations 5’2” $ 5 Million Sa’dabad Palace

7/17/1939Duration of Rule:34 (1981-ongoing) Teaching/Religion 5’7” $ 40-95 Billion Niavaran Palace / Tehran

1/3/1913-4/22/1994 Date of Birth-Date of Death 1/30/1941Duration of Rule: 5 Duration of Rule (Year) Duration of Rule: 8 (1969-1974) (2001-2009) Duration of Rule (Date) Lawyer Businessman Career 5’11” 5’8” Height $ 15 Million $ 90 Million Net Worth “La Casa Pacifica ”The Family House / Private Residence Western White House”/ Wilson, WY Sport Hunting and Fly-fishing San Clemente, California” Football

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

2/16/1941-12/17/2011 4/15/1912-7/8/1994 1/8/1983Duration of Rule: 16 Duration of Rule: 46 Duration of Rule: 3 (1994-2011) (1948-1994) (2011-ongoing) Politics Military/Politics Politics 5’3” 5’6” 5’9” $4 Billion $5 Billion Zhongnanhai / Beijing Ryongsong residence Ryongsong residence Ryongsong residence Basketball fan

Golf and Bowling

Fur hat

8/30/19542/19/1940-2/21/2006 1/26/1918-2/25/1989 8/20/1941-3/11/2006 Duration of Rule: 21 Duration of Rule: 24 Duration of Rule: 20 Duration of Rule: 11 (1994-ongoing) (1985-2006) (1965-1989) (1989-2000) Military Engineering/Politics Apprentice Shoemaker Economics 5’10” 5’6” 5’6” 6’1” $9 Billion $3 Billion Palatul Primaverii/ $ 10 Billion Oguzkhan Palace/ Buchuresti Palace of Independence/ “Beli dvor “the White Ashgabat Minsk Palace”/ Belgrade Ice Hockey, Ski, Guinness World Record Soccer, Rollerblading (most surface area 1 new suit for everyday clad in marble)

10/8/1895-7/1/1974 8/13/1926Duration of Rule: 10 Duration of Rule: 49 (1946-1955/1973-1974) (1959 - 2008) Military Lawyer 5’10” 6’3” Hundreds of Millions $ 110 Billion Casa Rosada / Havana compound Buenos Aires Fencing, Boxing, Skiing

12/26/1893-9/9/1976 Duration of Rule: 27 (1949-1976) Teaching 5’11”

5/7/1892-5/4/1980 10/13/1925-4/8/2013 5/31/1963Duration of Rule: 36 Duration of Rule: 11 Duration of Rule: 7 (1944 - 1980) (1998-2000/2010 -ongoing) (1979-1990) Machinist apprentice/Military Law / Politics Chemistry 5’7” 5’8” 5’5” White Villa / $ 215 Million $ 16 Million Brijuni Island, Croatia Family residence 10 Downing Street/ cinege ut 5 / Budapest London Soccer

9/24/1902-6/3/1989 4/28/1937-12/30/2006 Duration of Rule: 10 Duration of Rule: 24 (1979-1989) (1979-2003) Teaching/Religion Teaching 5’9” 6’2” $ 2 Billion Ayatollah Khomeini’s Radwaniyah Palace / House/ Tehran Baghdad

2/26/1954Duration of Rule: 11 (2003-ongoing) Politics 6’0” $ 2 Billion Ak Saray (white palace) / Ankara

9/29/1936Duration of Rule: 9 1994-1995/20012006/2008-2011 Media 5’5” $ 7.2 Billion Villa San Martino / Milano

10/7/1952Duration of Rule: 15 (1999-ongoing) Military - Intelligence 5’6” $ 70 Billion “Putins Palace”/ Praskoveevka

Dicktator’s Profiles

Acronym CC Central Committee CP Communist Party

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Castro

Art

Gaddafi

Tito Hussein

Tito

Riding

Kim Jong-un

Cheney

Hussein

Tito Putin

Mao

Peron

Tito

Kim Jong-il Stalin

Mussolini

Thatcher Tito & Khrushchev

Amin

Berlusconi

Sport

Hussein

Tito

Stalin

Fashion

Erdogan

Thatcher

Nixon

Music

Gaddafi

Hussein Erdogan

Tito

Castro Berlusconi

Mobutu

Orban Kim Jong-il

Lukashenko & Putin

Orban Orban

Khomeini

Banknote

Propaganda

Amin Erdogan

Award Putin 30

Niyazov

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Dicktatorial Trappings

Gaddafi

Mao

Ceausescu

Hussein

Amin Kim Il-sung

Mobutu Mobutu

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Thatcher Nixon

Military

Putin

Elena Ceaucescu

Peron

Nixon

Mira Milosevic

Eva Peron

Grace Mugabe Ahmadinejad

Putin

Cheney

Duality

Cheney

Mugabe

Lukashenko

Grace Mugabe

Madam Mao Berlusconi

Lukashenko Cheney

Cheney

Orban

Gesture

Kims

Castro

Thatcher

Putin Ceaucescu

Gaddafi

Religion

Castro & Khrushchev

Kims Khamenei

Khomeini & Khamenei

Amin & Gaddafi

Gaddafi & Berlusconi

Lukashenko & Chavez

Kim Il-sung & Gaddafi Khomeini & Khamenei

Khomeini & Khamenei

Gaddafi & Castro

Niyazov

Khomeini

Gaddafi & Castro

Alliance

Tito & Castro Mao & Stalin Khomeini

Khomeini

Khomeini

Niyazov

Kim Jung-il

Funeral

Kim Il-sung

Stalin

Dicktatorial Trappings Eva Peron

Kim Jung-il

Mugabe & Castro

Gaddafi & Berlusconi Gaddafi & Hussein ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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500 ft

500 ft

Beijing, Jun 4, 1989

Buchurest, Dec 17, 1989

Minsk, Dec 19, 2010

500 ft

Benghazi, Feb 15, 2011

500 ft

1

500 ft

500 ft

Belgrade, Mar 3, 1991

Andijan, May 13, 2005

500 ft

500 ft

Damascus, May 15, 2011

Istanbul, May 28, 2013

Protests against Dicktators 34

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D20 Group in a simulated common appearance.

Study

Model of Romancing True Power: D20 Exhibit

Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss Initial Sketches

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Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss Initial Sketches

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As you BYOB (bring your own bottle) to the most egalitarian and allinclusive gatherings, here we invite you to exercise your dicktatorial democracy with PYOD. Each person’s Dick list is highly subjective; a thousand spectators may choose a thousand dicktators. According to Alan Axelrod and Charles Phillips’ Dictators & Tyrants (1994), a biographical dictionary of absolute rulers, there have been at least 600 major autocratic, authoritarian or dictatorial leaders and would-be leaders throughout world history.

Therefore, we invite you to PYOD. Who embodies this notion of “true” power for you – this idea of power as strong, unbending, uncompromising, at times oppressive, yet seductive and adored by many for its potency? Who is on your D20 list?

Pick Your Own Dick (PYOD) 44

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Exhibition Design Studies

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D20: Timeline Versions 48

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Exhibition Design Studies ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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D20: Timeline

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854 boxes / 11.25” x 8.75” x 4”

854 boxes / 11.25” x 8.75” x 4”

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Dicktators and Media ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

0

4250

8500

12750

17000

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980 1980

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

1990

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

1980 1980

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970

57 ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20 ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20 56

2010 2000 1990 1980 0

1970

Libya 1969-2011 in $ per capita

12750

17000

4250

8500

D20: Wallpaper Studies

Body Count & Other Dick Stats

2.6 of

1.3 of

0.8 of

2.3 of

2.6 of

0.06 of

1.8 of

0.004 of

0.2 of

0.001 of

0.5 of

0.5 of

366,000 sf

18 of

69,000 sf

0.02 of

GDP

Personal Net Worth

1.3 of

51 of

133,000 sf

4,300 sf

12,000 sf 30,000 sf 23,000 sf

7 ft

2,200 sf

35,000 sf

57,000 sf 36,000 sf

15,000 sf

19,000 sf 145,000 sf

1,700 sf

17,000 sf

72,000 sf

7,500 sf

7 ft

17,000 sf

5,400 sf

6 ft

6 ft

5 ft

5 ft

4 ft

4 ft

3 ft

3 ft

2 ft

2 ft

1 ft

1 ft

0

10 ft

D20: Wallpaper

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ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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Testing the 1:1 Size Mock-up of Vladimir Putin’s Posture

D20: Marching Parades

D20: Marching Parades

D20: Holding Hands in the Air 64

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

FRONT

Facing the Gallery FRONT

Facing BACK the Street BACK

D20: Holding Hands in the Air Collage

66

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D20: Art Collection at the New School

Quotes on Dictatorship 6

3

5

1

8

4

10 11

2 7

9

On

1. Grisha Bruskin, Untitled (The Moscow Portfolio: Artworks by 20 Russian artists), 1990, Print Edition 55 of 100, True The New School Art Collection Power 2. Komar & Melamid, Lenin at the Palladium, May Day, New York City (from 10: Artist as Catalyst portfolio), 1992 On Silkscreen, Edition 26 of 100, The New School Art Collection Dictatorship 3. Andy Warhol, Mao, 1972, Silkscreen, Edition 160 of 250. The New School Art Collection 4. Brenda Bogart, Dictators and other Dicks, 2012, Oil on board, This painting is on special loan from the artist and Democracy the current owners Mr. and Mrs. David Rogers to this exhibition.

5. Jim Dine, Drag: Johnson and Mao, 1967, Photo etching, Edition 41 of 53, The New School Art Collection 6. Deborah Zeolla, Partagas Cigar Factory, Havana, Cuba, 1999, Gelatin silver print, The New School Art Collection 7. Erik Bulatov, Untitled (The Moscow Portfolio: Artworks by 20 Russian artists), 1990, Print, Edition 55 of 100, The New School Art Collection 8. Komar & Melamid, Judith with the Head of Stalin, Jewish New Year 5,753, Silkscreen, Edition 13 of 13, with AP The New School Art Collection 9. Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi in Siberia, ITAR-Tass News Agency, 2003, News Poster 10. Roxy Paine, Dinner of the Dictators, 1993-95, Freeze-dried food and place settings in glass vitrine, The New School Art Collection, Due to the limited space, we can only display an image of this artwork.

11. José Clemente Orozco, Struggle in the Occident, (from The New School Mural Cycle A Call to Revolution and Table of Universal Brotherhood), 1931, The New School Art Collection The Murals are located at 66 West 12th Street, New York. To visit the murals, please contact the Provost’s Office at The New School.

These two definitions provide the foundation for understanding true power, or, as this exhibition maintains, Dick power – part political, part physical. We do see this power as “apparent,” as it is often expressed apparently through actions and appearances.

“There are three systems of government diverging from the three “straight” systems: tyranny diverging from kingship, oligarchy diverging from aristocracy, and democracy diverging from polity. Each diverging system is structured to operate to the advantage of the ruler(s); for example, democracy is rule to the advantage of the poor. None of the diverging systems aims at the profit of every type of citizen in common...

Of these three diverging systems of government, tyranny is the worst (which is to say the furthest from polity), oligarchy the next worst, and democracy the most moderate.”

—Aristotle, Politics, 350 BC

of government have been tried, and will be tried of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy all wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy form of government except for all those other ve been tried from time to time.”

—Winston Churchill, the House of Commons speech, November 11, 1947

True power is typically a function of the strength of the leaders, the type A personalities and their drives to make unilateral decisions and impose their views on the rest – in other words, their political prowess. This power is greatly admired – strength, resolve, organization, vision. It’s this ability to connect with the public, to take reign and lead in dangerous and difficult times, and to continue to embody this powerful leadership throughout that is so seductive.

There has been a long fascination with powerful men – the dicktators: Joseph Stalin, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist Party; Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein; China’s Chairman Mao Zedong; and Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, to name just a few of our Dicks. Undoubtedly, these men could be a menace to humanity, yet people simply can’t get enough of their words and deeds. Chilling statistics and anecdotes of these Dicks exercising brutal force somehow capture us more than warm stories of fair-minded leaders.

Of course, in many cases, as in formal autocracies, strong power is the power of the office, yet in others, this power is the product of personalities. Dick Cheney, early in the 21st century, transformed the decidedly tributary job of US Vice President into the most powerful position in the world. US President Richard Nixon, who wanted this elusive power so badly he could taste it, was almost impeached after overstepping legal boundaries during the Watergate scandal of 1972.

On

“My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all space and to extend its force (its will to power:) and to thrust back all that resists its extension. But it continually encounters similar efforts on the part of other bodies and ends by coming to an arrangement (“union”) with those of them that are sufficiently related to it: thus they then conspire together for power. And the process goes on.”

—Personality psychologist Frederick Coolidge, quoted in “The Dictator: Why do autocrats do strange things?”, BBC, May 14, 2012

“The greatest principle of all is that nobody, whether male or female, should be without a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody be habituated to letting him do anything at all on his own initiative; neither out of zeal, nor even playfully. But in war and in the midst of peace—to his leader he shall direct his eye and follow him faithfully. And even in the smallest matter he should stand under leadership, or move, or wash, or take his meals... only if he has been told to do so. In a word, he should teach his soul, by long habit, never to dream of acting independently, and to become utterly incapable of it.”

—Tony R. Kuphaldt, Lessons in Electric Circuits. Volume II: Alternating Current, 2007

—Margaret Thatcher, speech to the National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds Conference, May 20, 1965

“If you want to be powerful, and if you have that drive, you may be led to be a dictator. There are hardly any reluctant ones. And once they’re in power they’re hard to dislodge.

These traits manage to keep them in power—for example, if you’re hypersensitive to threats and plots then you can effectively eliminate your competition.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886

“The actual amount of power being used, or dissipated… is called true power [also known as apparent power].”

“True power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”

Leaders and Power

—Plato, Laws, 350 BC

“(Anything which) is a living and not a dying body... will have to be an incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant—not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power... ‘Exploitation’... belongs to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will to life.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886

As in physics, Dick power is dissipated through perceived and/or actual strength, through policies, through human lives affected – often for the worse, but sometimes for the better, as the country’s international standing or living standards may have improved. These changes, however, invariably come at the expense of political rights and/or social services, and through stifling dissent or the curtailment of freedoms.

r they’ve

, July 12, 2007

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Exhibition Design Studies ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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Installation Atmosphere ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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Extract from D20: Journal

74

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ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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Extract from D20: Journal

76

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Romancing True Power: D20 opening night

Conversation with Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Bobby Ghosh and Nina Khrushcheva

Exhibition Team measuring heights with Dicktators

D20: Exhibition Opening

D20: Wine brands served at the opening night of the exhibition

Voting Jars for Pick Your Own Dick (PYOD)

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

89

Number of suggestions Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libya

5

President Idi Amin Dada, Uganda

4

President Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire

4

President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe (with Grace Mugabe)

3

Chairman of the CC of the CP Mao Zedong, China (with Jiang Qing / Madame Mao) Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il and Great Leader Kim Il-Sung President / Turkmenbashi Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan General Secretary of the CP Nicolae Ceaucescu, Romania (with Elena Ceaucescu)

40 228 9 12

President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus

5

President Slobodan Miloševic, Serbia / Yugoslavia (with Mira Markovic / Mrs. Miloševic) and President Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia

2

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary Former Prime Minister Margret Thatcher, the United Kingdom

3 12

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy

4

President Juan Perón, Argentina (with Evita Perón)

2

First Secretary of the CP Fidel Castro, Cuba President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran Second Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei and First Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini President Saddam Hussein, Iraq President / Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey

14 2 4 239

President / Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and General Secretary of the CC of the CP Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union

63

Vice President Richard “Dick” Cheney, USA and President Richard Nixon

25

Other Dicks

49

D20: PYOD final results

90

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ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20

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Number of suggestions Tony Abbott, Australia

1

Hassanal Bolkiah, Brunei

1

Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna, Dominican Republic

2

Adolf Hitler, Germany [on the list of Second Tier of D20 (Runners-up)]

8

Indira Gandhi, India

1

Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya

1

Carol II of Romania, Romania

1

Sorin Iliesiu, Romania

1

Dalai Lama, Tibet

1

Evel Knievel, USA

1

Robert Moses, USA

1

William “Bill” Bratton, USA

1

Islom Karimov, Uzbekistan [on the list of Second Tier of D20 (Runners-up)]

1

Nicolás Maduro Moros, Venezuela

1

Darth Vader

1

Julian Jovanovic

1

Rapists

1

Socrates

1

The daughter of a Dictator

1

You

3

Engelbert Dollfuß, Austria

1

Pol Pot, Kampuchea (Cambodia) [on the list of Second Tier of D20 (Runners-up)]

1

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, Dominican Republic

1

Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, Hungary [on the list of Third Tier of D20 (Runners-up)]

1

Matteo Renzi, Italy

1

Nikola Gruevski, Macedonia

1

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Romania

1

Igor Jovičić, Serbia and Montenegro

1

Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow, Turkmenistan

1

George Walker Bush, USA

1

Ronald Reagan, USA

1

Willard Mitt Romney, USA

1

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela [on the list of Third Tier of D20 (Runners-up)]

2

David Blackman

1

Henry VIII of England

1

Ms. Weber

1

Saanchi Kapoor

1

South Korean President

1

VR Mom

1

PYOD final results: Public voting on Other Dicks

92

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Dance Performance by Julian Jovanovic in front of D20 Wallpaper

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20 Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss / NAO

ISBN 978-1-312-97218-6

90000

9 781312 972186

ROMANCING TRUE POWER: D20 Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss / NAO

ISBN 978-1-312-97218-6

90000

9 781312 972186