Ego Documents: The Autobiographical in Contemporary Art
14 November 2008 – 15 February 2009
Kunstmuseum Bern
Hodlerstrasse 8-12
CH-3000 Bern 7
Ph: +41 31 328 09 44
info [at] kunstmuseumbern.ch
Opening: 13 November, 2008, 18 – 20 hrs
Tuesday 10 – 21 hrs
Wednesday-Sunday 10 – 17hrs
Ego Documents – The Autobiographical in Contemporary Art
Kunstmuseum Bern, 14 November 2008 – 15 February 2009
Autobiography in all its forms is a medium for depicting one’s ideas about oneself but also for reflecting on contemporary issues. If, until now, an artistic self-portrait condensed the self-perception and self-representation momentarily into a single image, this exhibition focuses on whole processes of finding and documenting identity. Thus, a deliberate approach to time, memory and the question of what will one day remain of life conjoins with self-investigation and the depiction of a subjective world of experiencing. Ego Documents examines the autobiographical act in contemporary art as a strategy in life-narration, a self-documentation, an imprinting into cultural memory, a transformation of a lived into an aesthetic experience, as well as a meditation on one’s own transience.
List of artists:
Darren Almond, Sadie Benning, Louise Bourgeois, Annatina Graf, Mona Hatoum, Xiaoyuan Hu, On Kawara, Martin Kippenberger, Isabelle Krieg, Elke Krystufek, Laura Lancaster, Nicolas Nixon, Jan Peters, Jack Pierson, Anri Sala, Vittorio Santoro, Carolee Schneemann, Annelies Strba, Ana Strika, Pascale Wiedemann/Daniel Mettler.
Curator: Kathleen Bühler, phone ++41 31 328 09 42, e-mail kathleen.buehler@kunstmuseumbern.ch