STELLUNG NEHMEN

Artists: Joseph Beuys, Marlene Dumas, Christian Falsnaes, Martin Kippenberger, Christian Philipp Müller, Ahmet Ögüt, Britta Thie, Franz Erhard Walther 

With the group exhibition STELLUNG NEHMEN (TAKE POSITION), the kestnergesellschaft is taking up this theme and turning its gaze to the present: the show brings together works that explicitly call on viewers to take their own positions. Eight selected artists from the areas of performance, video, painting, installations, and site-specific interventions will be presented. Some works were created specifically for the exhibition at the kestnergesellschaft. Beginning with the artist Franz Erhard Walther’s concept of the artwork, according to which the work is completed with the participation of the viewer, visitors to the exhibition STELLUNG NEHMEN will be invited to reflect on the production and reception of the artworks and to take their own positions on art. Christian Falsnaes’s video work First (2016), for instance, asks the first visitor of each day his or her opinion, while visitor comments will augment and expand the installation It’s not just a matter of black and white (2016) by Christian Philipp Müller during the exhibition. But the involvement of visitors extends far beyond action-based participation. Visitors’ personal imaginative abilities can be a central component of their individual aesthetic experience, as in the sound installations by Joseph Beuys and Martin Kippenberger or the painting Punch This Painting (2010) by Ahmet Ögüt.

Opening: Friday, May 27, 7pm
Werkhandlung with Franz Erhard Walther, 8pm

Director and Curator: Christina Végh
Curatorial Assistant: Lotte Dinse/Elmas Senol

100 Years of Kestner Gesellschaft
May 28–November 13

The exhibition 100 Years of Kestner Gesellschaft tells the turbulent history of the institution based on a timeline that will continue to develop over the course of the exhibition. This collection of historical documents, photos, posters, quotations, and films presents milestones in the history of the kestnergesellschaft. Among other things, the eleven directors will be presented, all of whom shared the same dedication and desire to promote contemporary art in Hanover, regardless of the challenges with which they were confronted. The support from the board of directors and the institution’s members has always played an important role. The period of the early 1930s is an excellent example of this: for three years the board of directors of the kestnergesellschaft took on personal risks in order to protect the director at the time, Justus Bier, from Nazi reprisals. Bier succeeded in fleeing to the United States. The kestnergesellschaft, however, which remained steadfast in its ideology, was forced to close in 1936. After the end of the Second World War, in 1948 it was able to reopen on Warmbüchenstrasse. In 1997 the renowned institution moved to the former Goseriedebad in the center of Hanover. Members and friends are invited to contribute their memories and stories about the kestnergesellschaft and to add them to the exhibition.

Director and Curator: Christina Végh
Curatorial Assistant: Milan Ther/Elmas Senol

Press contact: Gudrun Herz
T (+49 511) 701200 16 / F (+49 511) 70 1200 20 / kommunikation@kestnergesellschaft.de
Press material: www.kestnergesellschaft.de (press material available for download under "Press")