Thomas Hirschhorn
Nachwirkung
5 September 2015–17 January 2016
Kunsthalle Bremen
Am Wall 207
28195 Bremen
Germany
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Wednesday–Sunday 10am–5pm
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The internationally acclaimed artist Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957 in Bern) presents a new installation at the Kunsthalle Bremen. This site-specific project merges Hirschhorn’s current intense exploration of the theme of ruins with the specific location of the Kunsthalle Bremen and its collection.
In his most recent works, Hirschhorn has been investigating the idea of ruins and the state in which previously-concealed things become tangible. For example, his work Abschlag, displayed at the Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg, demonstrated how the image of a ruin stands both for the collapsed facade of a destroyed building as well as forgotten history. Although a building or history itself can remain comprehensible in its entirety even in a state of collapse, a glimpse behind the facade opens a new vista into things that were previously concealed.
The work in Bremen continues to play with the theme of concealment and revelation, applying it to the specific situation in Bremen. The installation of his work in the historical structure of the Kunsthalle Bremen, which opened in 1849 as a museum, is important to Hirschhorn, along with the immediate examination of the collection, the history of the institution, and the structure of the Kunstverein.
Thomas Hirschhorn included five original masterpieces from the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen in his ruin installation. For this purpose, he chose paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Arnold Boecklin, Franz Marc, Oskar Schlemmer and André Masson.
Hirschhorn’s planned radical intervention and transformation of traditional museum architecture is part of a series of challenging projects at the Kunsthalle Bremen which reflect on the institution, its history and its future. These works include a restaging of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s The Line of Hamburg, as well as Sarah Morris’ monumental mural Jardim Botânico. Hirschhorn’s installation will be constructed at a period in time where the museum is in the process of reorienting itself, determining its identity and becoming more open.
The Hirschhorn exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bremen is part of a series of monographic exhibitions which were initiated by the Förderkreis für Gegenwartskunst im Kunstverein in Bremen (Supporters’ Circle for Contemporary Art in the Kunstverein Bremen).
With support from Pro Helvetia, Schweizer Kulturstiftung and Walter A. Bechtler Stiftung, Schweiz.
