Teresa Margolles Frontera
Matt Stokes No Place Else Better Than Here
Until 20 February 2011
Kunsthalle Fridericianum
Friedrichsplatz 18
Kassel, Germany
With a minimalist artistic vocabulary, executed in highly emotional and ethically charged materials, Teresa Margolles manages to sharpen her view of death and conditions in Mexico with radical compression and concentration.
—Rein Wolfs
Under the title Frontera, Margolles is presenting works which reflect the frightening extent to which the drug war is influencing Mexican society; they also engage with the general taboo on death and violence. Using reduced but always drastic means, Teresa Margolles creates extremely poignant works of art. At first glance, her works often seem to be minimalist in their form. Viewers only discover that they are deeply emotional and dramatic when they become aware of the rigorous realism in the choice of material.
Margolles uses substances such as blood, body fat or even water used to wash corpses not only symbolically, but also palpably, attacking human beings’ fears of contact in a subtle way. The large painterly exterior work Frontera on the outer façade of the Fridericianum envelops the entire building. 40 lengths of cloth dipped in soil and bodily fluids will make the Fridericianum ‘bleed’ when subjected to weather influences. Margolles confronts visitors directly with death by having water used for washing corpses taken from a Mexican autopsy room drip on to a hot steel plate in the exhibition space, thus making death perceptible both olfactorily and atmospherically. In addition, she put up two walls in the Kassel exhibition, which are witnesses of daily violence: they display bullet holes resulting from shoot-outs related to the drug war. In her filmic works, she documents places with no future in a disturbing way: a poor quarter in the north of Mexico as well as performances at schoolyards in Guadalajara and Ciudad Juárez, are drawing attention to the theme of hopelessness in Mexican towns bordering the USA.
Frontera is realised in collaboration with Museion, Bolzano and will be on view from 27 May to 21 August 2011 at the Museion.
Matt Stokes No Place Else Better Than Here
Matt Stokes’ in-depth investigations of musical subcultures and historical events lead to captivating video installations that intensely incorporate visitors in the experience.
—Rein Wolfs
With his Kassel exhibition Matt Stokes devotes himself to the lasting effect of underground music as a counter-culture to the mainstream and its ability to spawn scenes which greatly influence people’s opinions and lifestyles, issues which run through his entire oeuvre. Stokes’ works are often context-related, alluding to the musical histories of the places he conceives an exhibition for. For the exhibition at Kunsthalle Fridericianum, he produced the space-filling video installation Cantata Profana (2010), in which six international grindcore singers—one from Kassel—are the protagonists. Using traditional composition techniques, Stokes combines their typical singing, which is usually devoid of lyrics. The auditive aspect, the singers’ movements and body postures, as well as the recording location that form the background for the film contributes to the special atmosphere of this unique choral work. The installation takes a penetrating look at hardcore, grindcore and death metal music cultures that played an influential role in music scenes from the late 1980s to today.
The exhibition No Place Else Better Than Here by Matt Stokes is supported by Forma and Arts Council England.
Preview
12 March – 5 June 2011
Andro Wekua Pink Wave Hunter
Nina Canell Ode to Outer Ends
25 June – 11 September 2011
Produced by Migros Sammlung migros museum für gegenwartskunst
Gardar Eide Einarsson Power Has a Fragrance
1 October – 31 December 2011
Danh Vo July, IV, MDCCLXXVI
Press contact: Friederike Siebert
+49 561 70 72 786 press@fridericianum-kassel.de
www.fridericianum-kassel.de
*Image above:
Courtesy: FRAC Nord – Pas de Calais, Dunkerque and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich.
Photo by Nils Klinger.
