FASTER! BIGGER! BETTER!
Signet works of the collections
24.09.06 through 07.01.07
and
totalstadt. beijing case
cultural aspects of high speed urbanization in china
final presentation of the scholarship holders of the project “Beijing Case”
24.09. through 07.01.07
ZKM | Center for Art and Media
Lorenzstr. 19
76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
phone: 49(0)721/8100-1200
www.zkm.de
FASTER! BIGGER! BETTER!
Sylvie Fleury´s neon writing from 1999 is clear and unambiguous: “FASTER! BIGGER! BETTER!“. Thus she posits maxims as they appear in advertisements, the economic marketplace, sports and everyday life. The pressure to perform is both an ordeal and a euphoric moment, an addiction to “more” that can hardly be satisfied.
Presentation of the collections of the ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art
Fleury´s work supplies the title for the presentation of our museums new collections. Signet works of our present and recently acquired private collections will be displayed on all three levels of the atriums 1 and 2. The diversity and high quality of the Collections FER, Froehlich, Grässlin, Siegfried Weishaupt and Boros have recently been significantly supplemented by new partners: the Collection of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart, Francesca von Habsburg´s Collection Thyssen- Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21) with its headquarter in Vienna and the VAF-Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main/MART, Rovereto, reconfirm, together with our already proven partners, the impressive level of the ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art. They all contribute to making our museum an important international meeting-place for contemporary art. It is a great pleasure for us to be able to show in this upcoming exhibition our many signet works and to introduce our recently acquired collections to the public.
FASTER! BIGGER! BETTER!, the survey of approximately 250 signet works by more than 130 artists, is thus both a special exhibition of our museum and its collections and a reflection of the art history of the last 50 years.
Moreover, the themes of movement and dynamics propose relations to the parallel exhibition “totalstadt. beijing case“. Together with works from the 21st century, this re-presentation of masterpieces of probably the most interesting decades of the last century forms an aesthetic, thought-provoking and not least entertaining lobby for the exhibition of the history of recent art and its collections.
Curators: Gregor Jansen with Andreas F. Beitin, Anne Däuper and Yvonne Ziegler.
Exhibition catalogue / collections guide published by Walther König, Köln (Ed.: Gregor Jansen and Peter Weibel, 336 pages, ca. 300 ill.)
totalstadt. beijing case
The urban growth of China is being carried out with an expenditure of energy, land and material that is inconceivable to us. More than 40% of the people in the most populous country on earth live now in cities; by 2020, it will be 60%, i.e. 800 million people. Conventional city planning approaches run up against their limits in Beijing because of the rapid development, while the official master plan plays, in reality, only a peripheral role. Lucrative construction plans take the limelight, while the total urban context is frequently ignored. Internationally famous architectural firms like Rem Koolhaas, GMP (von Gerkan, Marg und Partner) and Herzog & de Meuron are now making station in Beijing and contributing decisively to its reshaping. New landmarks are arising in the cityscape the best known is surely Rem Koolhaass CCTV Tower. The face of Beijing is changing rapidly. Entire city districts are disappearing, new ones arising, resettlements taking place in grand style.
Under the sign of high-speed urbanization
During a four-month working stay in Beijing, twelve Chinese and German artists studied the effects of urban development on art and culture. They produced works in various genres that dealt with, mainly from a personal angle, with aspects of subjects like everyday material culture, socio-political change and new concepts urban construction and architecture.
In addition to the works of the Beijing-Case scholarship holders Heike Baranowsky, Thomas Bayrle, Cao Fei/Ou Ning, Christine de la Garenne/Via Lewandowsky, Echo Yinsin Ho, Mara Kurotschka, Ma Yingli, Ingo Niermann, Susanne Röckel und Xi Chuan, the exhibition totalstadt. beijing case will be enriched by further artistic positions from China and Germany by Helke Bayrle, Sunah Choi, Ebru Erülkü, Jiang Jian, Waszem Khan, Barbara Klemm, Daniel Kohl, Antje Majewski, Ottjörg A.C., Harald Pridgar, Wang Shugang, Wang Wei, Miao Xiaochun, Xing Danwen, Kexin Zang und Martin Zeller.
Curators: Gregor Jansen, in collaboration with Anne Däuper, Birgit Hopfener and Yvonne Ziegler.
Exhibition catalogue: published by Prestel Verlag, Munich, with contributions by more than 30 authors.
totalstadt. beijing case is a project of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) in collaboration with the Goethe Institute in Beijing.
Opening hours:
Wed-Fri 10 am 6 pm
Sat, Sun 11 am 6 pm
Thur 12.10. / 09.11. / 14.12.: 10 am 9 pm
Mon, Tue closed
Guided tours:
Sat 4 pm, Sun 11.30 am (FASTER! BIGGER! BETTER!)
Sat 2 pm, Sun 4 pm (totalstadt. beijing case)
More information:
www.zkm.de/signetwerke
www.zkm.de/totalstadt
Press contact
Irina Koutoudis
phone: 49(0)721/8100-1220
fax: 49(0)721/8100-1139
e-mail: presse@zkm.de
