I’m Isa Genzken, The Only Female Fool
28 May–7 September 2014
Opening: Tuesday, May 27, 7pm
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
Museumsplatz 1
1070 Vienna
Austria
Hours: Friday–Wednesday 10am–7pm,
Thursday 10am–9pm
www.kunsthallewien.at
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Isa Genzken refers to herself as The Only Female Fool in the self-chosen title of her exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien. This statement characterises the smooth transition between the deep earnestness and the eccentric, overwhelming exuberance, inherent in her work.
Genzken is considered one of the most important artists of our time. Although her multifaceted work in essence entails a surprising wealth of ideas, it nevertheless provides for a clear anchorage in the sculptural field. At the centre of the large-scale exhibition in Kunsthalle Wien is Genzken’s fascination with the urban—that is explored by means of steady recurring themes in her work, such as the mirror motif, and an analysis of architecture as well as the exploration of space as a social sphere. A further focus of the exhibition is Genzken’s artist friends, whose positions she particularly appreciates—a whole lot thereof will hereby be contrasted with Genzken’s own work.
In her sculptures, collages, photographs, films, and public sculptures, Genzken casts a critical look at the present, and takes this as the starting point for a radical reinvention of reality. Formal rigor is confronted with a playful combination of materials, and the homogeneous with the disparate. However, the diversity of expression is never arbitrary, but corresponds to the dynamics of the city, which on account of its ambivalence still serves as the main source of inspiration for Genzken. The classical rigor of modern architecture, the post-modern fascination with the trivial and the motley combination of vastly different styles in the real urban space, constitutes the raw material of her sculptures and assemblages, collages and films.
She shares this exploration of contradictions of urban life and the inherent potential for social change with artists such as Gordon Matta-Clark and Dan Graham. In I’m Isa Genzken, The Only Female Fool, selected works of these artists and works by Carl Andre, Jasper Johns, Gerhard Richter, Wolfgang Tillmans and Lawrence Weiner will for the first time be showcased in a dialogue. This offers a new perspective on Genzken that arises out of and in confrontation with heterogeneous as well as harmonizing works, on material and thematization.
Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen
Isa Genzken, b. 1948, lives and works in Berlin. An acclaimed retrospective of her work was exhibited at the MoMA in New York, and travelled to MCA Chicago. In Vienna, Genzken was showcased with solo exhibitions at Generali Foundation, in 1996 and at Secession, in 2006. An exhibition of her work, curated by Nicolaus Schafhausen was showcased in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, in 2007.
A publication with essays by Joshua Decter and Tom McDonough will accompany the exhibition.
#FemaleFool / #KunsthalleWien / #WienKultur
Press
Katharina Murschetz: T +43 (0) 1 5 21 89 1221 / katharina.murschetz [at] kunsthallewien.at
Stefanie Obermeir: T +43 (0) 1 5 21 89 1224 / presse [at] kunsthallewien.at
