Opening Reception Thursday 8 November • By Raivo Puusemp (EE/US), with Ben Kinmont (US) • Curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen (NL)

In 1975, Raivo Puusemp was elected as Mayor of the troubled town of Rosendale, New York. What the residents did not know, and what his campaign did not reveal, was that Puusemp was a conceptual artist who would later come to view his appointment and the situation as an artwork, Rosendale, a public work. During his tenure, he applied the work he had been doing as an artist, in group dynamic and predictive behaviour, to the political problems of the town and was successful in guiding them to a resolution – the dissolution of Rosendale.

Puusemp documented this process through a series of official letters, documents and press clippings, from which a booklet was later published. Following the dissolution of the town, Puusemp resigned his post, relocating to Utah with his family. He removed himself from the art context and from his practice as an artist.

Raivo Puusemp – Dissolution is the first comprehensive overview of Puusemp’s work produced between the mid-1960s and late 1970s. The exhibition will present documentation and materials around Rosendale, a public work, a number of his early works and one recent artwork. Presented alongside these are related works by artist Ben Kinmont (1963, US) that negotiate the notion of withdrawal and artistic contextualisation.

To accompany the exhibition, a reprint of the original publication Rosendale, A Public Work, from 1980, will be produced.

The exhibition is organised by Krist Gruijthuijsen (NL), director of the Grazer Kunstverein, and will travel afterwards to the Grazer Kunstverein (Graz, Austria) and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, US).

You are welcome to join us for the opening of Raivo Puusemp – Dissolution from 6pm on Thursday 8 November. Before the official opening at 5pm, curator Krist Gruijthuijsen (NL) will present a lecture with a walk-through of the Gallery, speaking about the ideas and processes involved in the exhibition.

Raivo Puusemp – Dissolution is generously supported by the Lectoraat Art and Public Space, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Space, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.