“Cable-driven: How Evan Roth and Eva and Franco Mattes reverse the perspective on the cable in art history”

Monday, July 21, 2025, 03.45 pm
Seminarraum Kunstgeschichte and online (Zoom-Link is distributed via mail: erec.gellautz∂kit.edu)

Abstract:

At least since the installation of submarine telegraph cables in the mid-19th century, cable laying and transmission lines have become a reoccurring motif in landscape painting and photography. But apart from the emergence of infrastructure representation as a subgenre of landscape, which often glorified technical pioneering achievements, art historians have been reluctant to engage with cables. They lead a quiet existence under the radar of art historical discourse, which seems to coexist without any apparent connection to all the cables that can be found in our civilization and increasingly in, connected to, or around our artworks as well. 

From the perspective of an art history interested in infrastructures, which recognizes the networked status of (contemporary) art production, the question must be asked: How can we approach the omnipresence yet simultaneous invisibility of cables? How can we describe their function and materiality in artworks and exhibition contexts? Are cables a mere means to an end? Are they an integral component of a work or an interchangeable utility item? What is at stake when we take the necessity but hiddenness of the cable seriously for analysis?

Grounded in case studies by Even Roth and Eva and Franco Mattes (aka 0100101110101101.org), who conceptually present cables as (parts of) their works and thus visibly ‘wire’ entire exhibition spaces, this lecture explores the cable-driven dimension of the arts. Following a close reading of selected artworks, the question will be explored as to what extent the methods of art history are perhaps ill-suited to adequately analyzing the undoubtedly important role of cables. Finally, methodological approaches from infrastructure studies and STS will be presented and examined for their viability.