MAN SON 1969
The Horror of the Situation
30 January – 26 April 2009
Glockengiesserwall
20095 Hamburg
Germany
The exhibition MAN SON 1969. The Horror of the Situation explores the lure and danger of extremes. It takes as its starting point a series of historical events in aesthetics and politics, lifestyle and counterculture that took place in the late 1960s. 35 international contemporary artists look back at the events of 1969 in the United States and Europe, and contribute works that deal with the far-reaching social transformations of that era. These contemporary positions will be juxtaposed with selected works from the museum’s collections.
In 1969, the music festivals of Woodstock and Altamont were staged, one celebrating the spirit of love, the other ending in the violent death of a music lover. It was also the year in which man first landed on the moon and public opinion in America and Europe shifted against the war in Vietnam. Sharon Tate and six others were brutally murdered in Bel Air/Los Angeles. In two August nights, the killers from the so-called “Manson-Family” came from the Spahn-Movie-Ranch, an desolate place where American B-Western movies have formerly once been produced. In Germany, 1969 was the year that members of what was later called Red Army Faction (RAF) started a campaign to set free institutionalized children. With his biography in mind, Charles Manson himself could well have been a target of such a campaign – before he and his followers were to found a new American myth by trying to realize their own vision of a utopia of outcasts.
Artists
Mario Asef, Max Beckmann, Joseph Beuys, Achim Bitter, Guenter Brus, Joe Coleman, Lutz Dammbeck, Dellbruegge & de Moll, Bogomir Ecker, Martin Eder, Bob Flanagan/Sheree Rose, Meister Francke, Peter Friedl, Till Gerhard, Douglas Gordon, Dan Graham, George Grosz, Rudolf Herz, Elmar Hess, Andreas Hofer, Jenny Holzer, Laura Honse, Franka Hoernschemeyer, Stephan Huber, Stefan Hunstein, Ilya Kabakov, Edward Kienholz, Susanne Klein, Elena Kovylina, Thomas Kunzmann, Sigalit Landau, Almut Linde, Teresa Margolles, Josephine Meckseper, Stefan Micheel, Aurelia Mihai, M+M, Ronald Nameth, Bruce Nauman, Rotraut Pape, Karin Missy Paule, Susi Pop, Astrid Proll, Chris Reinecke, Annamaria und Marzio Sala, Gregor Schneider, Dennis Scholl, Andreas Seltzer, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Die Toedliche Doris, Susanne Weirich, Guenter Zint.
The accompanying website and catalogue include essays and interviews by Bommi Baumann, Truman Capote, Ursula Cyriax, Belinda Grace Gardner, Gunnar Gerlach, Tom Kummer, Jan Metzler, Astrid Proll, Susanne Pfeffer, Nora Sdun and an introduction by Frank Barth and Dirck Moellmann.
Exhibition curators: Frank Barth and Dirck Moellmann.
VIDEO Club 99
MAN SON 1969
Videos, Films and a Lecture on the subject
Galerie der Gegenwart
Saturday 21 March 2009, 12 to 6 p.m.
Charles Manson Special
Sunday 22 March 2009, 11 to 6 p.m.
Kenneth Anger Special
Reading by Bommi Baumann (writer and member of an anarchistic group in 1969), Berlin
