Subodh Gupta: Everything is Inside
12 September 2014–18 January 2015
Opening: 11 September, 7pm
Press conference: 9 September, 11am
MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main
Domstraße 10
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
After the summer break, the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main will await its visitors in a new constellation. The main building in Domstrasse will be the MMK 1, with an emphasis on the classics in the collection and international temporary exhibitions. The building opposite, hitherto the MMK Zollamt, will be the MMK 3, where cooperative projects, events and new developments in contemporary art will be featured. In October the MMK will open a branch in the TaunusTurm in the heart of the financial district: at the MMK 2, presentations of the collection’s most recent works will alternate with those of new productions.
The MMK will open all three venues in close succession with three exhibitions:
11 September, 7pm: Subodh Gupta: Everything is Inside at MMK 1 (Domstrasse 10)
26 September, 7pm: Dayanita Singh: Go Away Closer at MMK 3 (Domstrasse 3)
19 October, 2–6pm: Boom She Boom: Works from the MMK Collection at the new MMK 2 (Taunustor 1)
Subodh Gupta: Everything is Inside
In his most comprehensive exhibition in Europe to date—Everything is Inside—the Indian artist Subodh Gupta (b. 1964) is presenting large-scale installations of stainless steel dishes, bronze fruits, golden bicycles and a walkable clay floor. For his works Gupta uses ordinary objects of daily life that connect the Indian people’s everyday realities across the boundaries between the urban and rural. He turns cultural specific attributions of meaning topsy turvy and questions the existence of fundamental values.
His art mirrors a contemporary conception of India as a society for which traditional values, spirituality and religious faith are just as important as the consistent pursuit of modernization and the associated transformation processes in every area of life.
The materials, which Gupta works with, bear a close connection to socio-political aspects. To an equal degree, however, they are also strongly related to the artist’s personal biography—from its beginnings in a small rural town to his personal and professional development in New Delhi, and ultimately to his career as an internationally successful artist active worldwide. Materials such as cow dung, loam, jute, wood, bronze, marble and stainless steel are charged with meanings that have their roots in Gupta’s own familial, personal and social experiences and conceptions of the world.
The themes of cooking and eating often echo in the artist’s installations, and are also encountered in his performative pieces. Gupta is interested in these topics as manifestations of daily cultural practice, but also as symbols of essentiality and existence. This is also evident in his performative work: five times during the show, a traditional meal will be prepared in an exhibition room especially designed for that purpose, and served to the visitors.
The exhibition will encompass 20 large-scale works, among them two major installations and one performative work developed by Subodh Gupta especially for the occasion at the MMK. It will be accompanied by a comprehensive monograph on the artist.
The exhibition Subodh Gupta is being carried out with support from Freunde des MMK, Hessische Kulturstiftung, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), and Consulate General of India, Frankfurt.
Along with the Subodh Gupta show, a new presentation of works from the collection, spreading out over two floors of the building, will also open to the public. In the future, highlights and classics of international contemporary art will be at the visitors’ disposal in the post-modern architectural icon by Hans Hollein—the MMK 1—on a continual basis: Thomas Bayrle, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, Christian Boltanski, Hanne Darboven, Thomas Demand, Douglas Gordon, David Hammons, Jasper Johns, On Kawara, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, Blinky Palermo, Raqs Media Collective, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Slominski, Andy Warhol, Ai Weiwei, amongst others.
Further information on the new museum concept is available on the homepage at www.mmk-frankfurt.de.
