Exhibitions at Kunstverein in Hamburg
GESELLSCHAFTSBILDER. ZEITGENÖSSISCHE MALEREI
(Images of Society. Contemporary Painting) Minerva Cuevas, Caroline von Grone, Eberhard Havekost, Victor Man, Gunter Reski, Wilhelm Sasnal, Dierk Schmidt, Wawrzyniec Tokarski, Corinne Wasmuht and Johannes Wohnseifer
through 30 December 2007
David Maljkovic.
Almost Here.
through 18 November 2007
Insert 5: Olaf Nicolai
Considering a multiplicity of appearances in light of a particular aspect of relevance. Or: Can art be concrete?
through 28 October 2007
www.kunstverein.de
GESELLSCHAFTBILDER. ZEITGENÖSSISCHE MALEREI
(Images of Society. Contemporary Painting)
The concern of the exhibition GESELLSCHAFTSBILDER. ZEITGENÖSSISCHE MALEREI (Images of Society. Contemporary Painting) is to explore the relation of painting to society. To what extent art represents society, or subjects it to documentary treatment, or resorts interventionistically to social strategies are some of the questions it raises. The works exhibited include politically motivated murals in the tradition of Latin American mural painting, pictures that take their lead from history painting, and projects in public space. While the murals of the ’20s and ’30s still communicate unambiguous, sometimes party-political messages, the pictures of the young artists shown here, applied direct to the exhibition space walls, have the character of an appeal but resist being pressed into the service of a definitive statement. The works that engage with the tradition of history painting do so at various levels. Yet they consciously repudiate historicizing detachment to examine events for their current political relevance. The documentary content of what is depicted is not thereby denied, but its claim to authenticity is relativized and receives media-critical scrutiny. That painting arises not only in and for the immediate art context is evident from the urban projects, whose approach in the plein air tradition is nevertheless tested for its social potential.Whether easel paintings, murals, or installational arrangements, all of the exhibited works draw their subjects from daily life, science, and politics, often translating them, despite the recognizably non-subjective nature of their contents, into the artists’ sometimes highly subjective worlds. The involvement developed in the process goes beyond documentarism of the present, countering the official visual language of the mass media with artistic positions that have a clear social underpinning.Curated by Yilmaz Dziewior
David Maljkovic. Almost Here
In his installations, videos and collages, the artist, David Maljkovic, born in 1973 at Rijeka in Croatia, engages with aspects of the chequered history of his country. Above all, the far-reaching consequences of the transformation from a communist form of society to a capitalist one, and the associated economic and cultural ramifications, form the subtext of his artistic production. The places to be seen in his works are frequently deserted buildings and monuments from the 1980s which impressively reflect the promise of a better future and, simultaneously, because of their ruinous state today, also the melancholy failure of this promise.
The presentation Almost Here unites the tripartite video series, Scene for New Heritage, in a large, encompassing installation which has been especially conceived for it. In addition, it is presenting his collages that have arisen in this context, along with two architectural models from the 1970s of the monument of the Petrova Gora Park, which is to be seen prominently in the videos and collages. The combination of the historical models with his own, present-day works makes an exemplary basic trait of David Maljkovic’s procedure apparent, for which the integration of research also counts, along with the interweaving of past, present and future.
A catalogue will be published by DuMont Literatur und Kunstverlag containing articles by Yilmaz
Dziewior and Anselm Franke, as well as an interview by Natasa Ilic.
The exhibition and catalogue are being sponsored by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung.
Curated by Yilmaz Dziewior
Insert 5: Olaf Nicolai
Considering a multiplicity of appearances in light of a particular aspect of relevance. Or: Can art be concrete?
A room as display
Interior design in collaboration with KUEHN MALVEZZI
For Insert 5 Olaf Nicolai chose the title of the work he presents, Considering a multiplicity of appearances in light of a particular aspect of relevance, Or: Can art be concrete? (2007), in its iridescent form between statement and question, as the motto for a room as a display for various forms of activity. The furniture and basic design of the room which came about in collaboration with KUEHN MALVEZZI, refers to the work by Max Bill System with Five Coloured Centres (1979). In the room, Olaf Nicolai’s work, Considering a multiplicity of appearances in light of a particular aspect of relevance. Or: Can art be concrete? (2007) is presented, an installation consisting of books and posters made using iris printing technique. As a further fixed element of the installation, Bruno J. Böttges’ film, I See It That Way from 1958, is shown, an animated film from the Defa Studios in Dresden whose subject is the transition from education to workers’ education.
The room is conceived as a display for a series of interventions for which the title, Considering a multiplicity of appearances in light of a particular aspect of relevance. Or: Can art be concrete? poses the question whether the ‘concrete’ element of art can be its commitment, its politics, its autonomy or a new configuration of experience and perception. To this end, persons from the areas of production of art, design, literature and politics have been invited to lectures and discussions. Each of the events will be recorded and later integrated into the room as a further position.
Conception by Olaf Nicolai, Maria Muhle and Corinna Koch
Kunstverein in Hamburg
Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg
phone +49-40-33 83 44
fax +49-40-32 21 59
Tuesday – Sunday 11 am – 18 pm
Thursday 11 am – 21 pm
hamburg@kunstverein.de