Stan Douglas
Past Imperfect
Works 1986 – 2007
September 15, 2007-January 6, 2008
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart & Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
From the September 15, 2007 until January 6, 2008, the Württembergischer Kunstverein and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart will be presenting within a space covering 4,000 sq. metres the first comprehensive exhibition of the works of Canadian artist Stan Douglas. The exhibition will encompass fourteen video and film installations, as well as numerous photographs.
Born in Vancouver, in 1960, Stan Douglas ranks among the most important of contemporary artists. He has participated in the Documenta three times (1992, 1997, 2002) as well as in the Venice Biennale (1990, 2001, 2005) and his works have been shown at numerous additional biennales and prominent exhibition houses. It is in Stuttgart that his principal works of the last twenty years will be shown and experienced for the first time in a large-scale show. Iris Dressler and Hans D. Christ (Directors of the Württembergischer Kunstverein) developed the exhibition in close collaboration with Stan Douglas.
As no other artist, Douglas has been able to enlarge in both a sensual and intellectual way the experience of the cinematic and museum space. With recourse to the intellectual, cultural and ideological traditions of modernity, his works exemplify a critical revision of Western history, past and present. It is the failure of modern utopias and the ghosts they spawned which form some of the artists central themes.
Behind almost all the works is an examination of a particular place Potsdam, Vancouver, Cuba or Detroit , the respective histories of which are reflected along the various literary, filmic or musical references the artist uses: as, for example, E.T.A. Hoffmans Der Sandmann (Der Sandmann), Melvilles The Confidence-Man (Journey into Fear), the Grimm fairy tales or Marxs Capital (both in Suspiria).
Both his most recent video installations, Klatsassin and Video, revolve around two fields of analysis which Douglas has reflected since the 1980s and that substantially shape his oeuvre: the emergence of Western empires in the New World, on the one hand and the work of Samuel Beckett on the other. For instance, Douglas already curated an exhibition on Becketts Teleplays in 1988. His recently produced video installation, Video, refers to Becketts film Film starring Buster Keaton, and to Franz Kafkas novel The Trial.
Taking place at two locations, the exhibition is conceived as one project and is to be accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue.
Opening: 14th September, 2007 Press conference: 13th September, 2007, 11 am
Curators
Hans D. Christ, Iris Dressler
in cooperation with
Sean Rainbird, Gudrun Inboden
A joint project of
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart and Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Addresses
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
Schlossplatz 2
D-70173 Stuttgart
Fon: 49 (0)711 – 22 33 70
Fax: 49 (0)711 – 29 36 17
www.wkv-stuttgart.de
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse 30-32
D-70173 Stuttgart
Fon: 49 (0)711 47 04 00
Fax: 49 (0)711 23 69 983
www.staatsgalerie.de
Contact Press
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
Yvonne Mielatz
Schlossplatz 2
D-70173 Stuttgart
Fon: 49 (0)711 – 22 33 721
Fax: 49 (0)711 – 29 36 17
mielatz@wkv-stuttgart.de
Download press material: www.wkv-stuttgart.de/en/press
Sponsored by
The Ministry for Science, Research and Art BW
The Embassy of Canada, Berlin
