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Galerie Andreas Binder
Knöbelstrasse 27
+49-89-219 39 250
Munich
Izima Kaoru
Landscapes with a Corpse
September 27-
December 19, 2008

"The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world,"

— Edgar Allan Poe

Izima Kaoru encourages his female models to develop their own ideas about their transience and their death and translates these ideas into photographs. This eventually led to a series that was totally focused on the requests of his models and the scenario of death. Based on classic depictions of landscapes and interiors, each of his highly aesthetic photographs gradually zooms in on the victim who died in perfect beauty, even down to a detailed close-up of her face.

What is so remarkable about these photographic series is his method of depiction. Apart from the victim, all his scenarios are completely without humans, whether they are secluded streets, landscapes or rooms. They are devoid of any form of life, and nothing else exists. The viewer first experiences this state of desertion through a photograph taken from a distance. We are under the impression that the dead woman is looking at her own body, which is no more than a shell. Death is celebrated by Izima Kaoru in style, as a special event. In doing so he refers to three classic genres: Japanese landscape photographs with the traditional aesthetic element of transience, scene-of-crime photos with their documentary quality - an influence that cannot be denied in Kaoru's scenes - and fashion photography "with its demonstratively erotic and situational artificiality".

Izima Kaoru himself puts it like this: "Death is inevitable for everyone. Even the fear of death can hardly be avoided by anyone. Nevertheless, it is possible to come to terms with death or with the idea of dying, to work through it in a lengthy process and ultimately to accept it."

In Buddhism the practice of meditating on death is seen as a means of detaching oneself from the diversions of life. Izima Kaoru’s models hardly present themselves as renouncing life, yet Izima does ask us to consider that feigning death will help them towards accepting it. Whether this is correct or not, it is certainly true that death is seen differently in traditional Japanese culture than in the West.

To understand the context of these photographic series, we need to grasp the artist's method of depiction: he certainly does not see himself as a reporter or photographer who wishes to illustrate reports on unusual deaths or human relationship dramas through the presentation of shocking imagery. Rather, he wants to stage death in the context of enticement and temptation and to do so with attention to the most minute detail. He has well and truly mastered the art of depiction. Obviously, his scenes of death in these “Landscapes with a Corpse” are imaginary. Yet they refer to a long tradition of romantic themes, tragic ends and "beautiful deaths".

The exhibition shows two of the latest series by Izima Kaoru. "Kimura Yoshino Wears Alexander McQueen“ is a 4-part series, photographed in India. The view from a distance shows the town of Benares as a harmonious combination of colours together with the river Ganges. The photograph has a certain soothing quality about it. The close-up shows Kimura Yoshino in all her splendour. Again, Izima demonstrates his talent for composing beautiful scenarios for the moment of death.

The 4-part series "Karena Lam Wears Jean Paul Gaultier" was shot by Kaoru in the landscape gardens of one of the Loire castles in November. We can see an arranged scene of a highly pregnant woman recumbent on a luscious green meadow and surrounded by white buttercups. This somewhat macabre scene makes us feel insecure at first. After a while, however, we begin to understand Izima Kaoru's intention, which is to show that the transition from either life or birth is closely related to death and that the two are inseparable.

A monograph on the Japanese photographic artist Izima Kaoru will soon be available from Hatje Cantz Publishers at the end of September 2008: Izima Kaoru, Landscapes with a Corpse, German/English, approx. 192 pp., approx. 200 colour illus., 34.5 x 29 cm, bound with dust cover, ISBN 978-3-7757-2237

Izima Kaoru, Kimura Yoshino wears Alexander McQueen, #483, 2007, C-Print behind acrylic, framed, 180 x 240 cm, Edition: 5.

Izima Kaoru, Kimura Yoshino wears Alexander McQueen, #482, 2007, C-Print behind acrylic, framed, 180 x 240 cm, Edition: 5.

Izima Kaoru, Karena Lam wears Jean Paul Gaultier, 2007, #492, C-Print hinter Acryl, gerahmt, 1800 x 2400 mm, Edition: 5.

Haus der kunst
Prinzregentenstrasse 1
+ 49 89 21127-115
Munich
Made in Munich
Munich editions 1968-2008
November 21, 2008-
February 22, 2009

In 1967 the first international art fair for modern and contemporary art took place in Cologne. Only 18 galleries took part, but with 15,000 visitors and a turnover of one million German mark the opening salvo for a lively contemporary art market was heard. Everybody was able to look at and buy art, and for the first time galleries were confronted by a direct comparison with their competitors: works by international artists, various media, various subject matters — all were next to each other for the first time. This context offered the perfect platform for editions and multiples: "The large crowds incited me to also approach a young audience with multiples and posters. The people stocked up hugely in the range between 8 and 50 mark; they even queued around the booth", Raimund Thomas recounted. He was there from the very beginning with his Galerie Thomas, which, significantly, was — and still is — based in Munich. Because at the beginning of the 1970s Munich, together with New York and London was leading with regards to editions and multiples.

The exhibition Made in Munich provides a different view on the history of Munich's art trade, as well as Munich's avant-garde of the 60s to the present day. Well-known producers of editions such as Galerie Thomas, Galerie van de Loo and Galerie Heiner Friedrich were joined in the mid-1970s by Edition Schellmann & Klüser, Galerie + Edition Sigrid Friedrich and Sabine Knust, as well as Galerie Fred Jahn. The exhibition though also looks at lesser-known producers such as edition x, Godula Buchholz and Dorothea Leonhart following the trails all the way to the alternative art scene: Forum Galerie van de Loo, Aktionsraum, P.A.P. Kunstagentur Karlheinz & Renate Hein, Kunstraum, zehn neun and s press tonband verlag.

Besides graphic prints a most diverse range of objects will be on show: photographic portfolios, record covers, sculptures, videos and tape cassettes, 16-mm films, a furniture suite, wallpaper, porcelain and mini artworks such as invitation cards. Some works are even delivered in adjustable pieces: Richard Artschwager's work comes as a painting on foil, Damien Hirst's as a wooden box containing 150 tins of gloss paint, paint brushes and a compass; installed according to the given space such works spread to unexpected places in the Haus der Kunst.

After three exhibitions — The Gods of Greece that showed the cartons by Peter Cornelius; A View for the People. Art for All, focused on a magazine with links to the National Socialists' cultural politics; The Trial of Strength, which was dedicated to the 200-year jubilee of the Munich art academy — the Haus der Kunst is now offering a fourth exhibition with Made in Munich that has emerged as the result of intensive research on Munich's history.

Edition or Multiple?
A multiple is a three-dimensional object that an artist produces in several identical copies. Each print edition and each multiple requires certain decisions during the production process: How many prints should be made? And, depending on the number of prints, which designation is the more appropriate? Can the number of prints be infinite? And, if so, does this signify a decrease in quality? Or can a print and multiple only refer to something that is limited? The technical procedure could be the decisive factor regarding such considerations. Whenever Joseph Beuys himself created every detail for a multiple, he would keep the edition low so as to save time. For other multiples in higher editions, he would only research the material and coordinate the ideas. One of the first of many multiples that Beuys produced in Munich is the 1970 film Transsibirische Bahn [Trans-Siberian Railway], which is included in the exhibition.

Richard Hamilton, Kent State
In May 1970 Richard Hamilton set up a photographic camera in front of a television screen. A specific moment from the transmitted material that was recorded by the camera is later the foundation for his silkscreen print, Kent State: It is the blurred image of an upper body, which lies twisted on the ground, the T-shirt is bloodstained. The snapshot depicts the student Dean Kahler who had been shot by the Ohio National Guard during a protest. He survived but was left permanently paralyzed from the chest down. Hamilton wanted to "to keep the shame in our minds"; the distribution of the print in a high edition was perhaps "the strongest indictment I could make" — (Hamilton in Collected Works).

Kent State is exemplary for the exhibition because of its contextual and technical complexity, because of the close collaboration between artist, printer and publisher and because it was created in Munich.

To the Limits of the Medium
In Hamilton's silkscreen Kent State no fewer than 15 colours overlap — more than in the spectrum of a normal television screen. Additionally, Hamilton insisted on printing 5,000, all of the same high quality that was usually reserved for smaller editions. Because of the many layers of paint each print had a long drying period; soon Hamilton and the printer Dieter Dietz realized that insects had become stuck to the paint and ruined many of the first 3,000 prints. 'Kent State' became a technical challenge; yet the planned 5,000 prints were produced in the desired quality.

Characteristic of edition production is the fact that artists actually sought such technical challenges. Some artists were inspired by materials used in industrial design: With his portfolio Stoffwechsel [metabolism] from 1968, Uwe Lausen, for example, wanted to create waterproof graphic art that could be hung up in the bathroom. He decided to use PVC, a new material at the time. Others such as Asger Jorn and Georg Baselitz saw themselves as universal artists and wanted to master the technical disciplines of classical print techniques: etching — dry point, open-bite and aquatint — multi-coloured woodcut and lithography. With huge efforts Hermann Nitsch mixed materials and techniques such as ink, chalk drawings and etchings. The lithographs Die Architektur des Orgien Mysterien Theaters I + II [The Architecture of the Orgies Mysteries Theatre I + II] required seven years of the printer Karl Imhof's time. The portfolios consisted of labyrinthine drawings that were reminiscent of human intestines and were created for a subterranean theatre. For other artists an edition represented a welcome experiment to try out another medium: Barry LeVa wanted "to explore other aspects of sculpture with lithographs". Sometimes artistic interests and strategies of an artist's oeuvre found an intensified expression in prints. It is no coincidence that Blinky Palermo named a series of prints, which was exemplary for his graphic work, 4 Prototypen [4 Prototypes].

The Circulation of Ideas
At the time newspapers would offer editions of prints at affordable prices via mail-order or subscriptions — much in the same way as magazines such as Monopol and Texte zur Kunst do today: The British newspaper The Observer advertised with the slogan 'Art Within Reach'. In 1971 readers could purchase Eduardo Paolozzi's silkscreen print Bash produced in Munich as an edition of 3,000, for £17.50. All that one had to do was fill out an order form and send it, together with a cheque to The Observer. The same newspaper had also sold Kent State at one time.

Infiltrating the private sphere and reaching the so-called 'normal public' was of particular interest to artists who wanted to make a political statement. The cooperative zehn neun was founded in Munich in 1969. They picked up on the idea of mail-order and subscriptions: The subscribers agreed to buy six prints or purchase 400 DM worth of goods annually. The artist members made two or three works available each year that could be sold via the mail-order catalogue. Characterized by the spirit of self-organization, zehn neun did not want to share its profits with the galleries and therefore organized exhibitions in unusual locations such as laundrettes and schools. The artworks created by zehn neun often had a political undertone. A typical work is KP Brehmer's print Korrektur der National Farben [Correction of the National Colours].

Printed editions were intended to democratize art and speak to a young public. Artists, who were more interested in the message than in the medium, printed leaflets for mass circulation. Joseph Beuys summarized: "I am interested in the circulation of physical vehicles in the form of prints because I am interested in spreading ideas".

A result of the busy production was that the vast supply was soon confronted with a decrease in demand. By 1975 it seemed that the appetite for affordable prints had been satiated. Many artists were disappointed that the far-reaching effect had not materialized and that the 'sensitizing of the masses' had not occurred to the extent they had hoped it would. Yet, at a time when political activism was widespread, it remained doubtful that people's political attitudes could be influenced at all by prints.

Graphic Art
for the Olympic Games 1972
The desire to reach the general public was also, to a large extent, the goal of the Olympic Games that took place in Munich in 1972. It was the first time that such an event was transmitted worldwide by television and, thereby, tragically also the first time a terrorist attack was viewed globally. For the first time the overall design, created by Otl Aicher, used predominantly images instead of text. Nearly 30 international artists, including Max Bill, David Hockney, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj, Victor Vasarely and Tom Wesselmann, were commissioned by the Olympic organizers and the Bruckmann-Verlag to create editions of prints especially for the Olympic Games. The goal was to unite art and sports. The prints were offered in three variations:
• as signed and numbered original prints in an edition of 200 (costing between 340 and 1,200 DM)
• as signed, but not numbered, original posters in an edition of no more than 4,000 (costing between 30 and 100 DM)
• as posters produced as offset reproductions in an unlimited edition (for 12.50 DM).

The Artists
Otl Aicher, Josef Albers, Otmar Alt, Arman, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Matthew Barney, Judith Barry, Georg Baselitz, Lothar Baumgarten, Klaus Baumgartner, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Hans Bellmer, Joseph Beuys, Max Bill, Alighiero Boetti, Christian Boltanski, KP Brehmer, Marcel Broodthaers, Stanley Brouwn, Günter Brus, Daniel Buren, Antonio Calderara, John Chamberlain, Chicks on Speed, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Francesco Clemente, Chuck Close, Maureen Connor, Enzo Cucchi, Hanne Darboven, Jan Dibbets, Jim Dine, Ugo Dossi, Catharina Van Eetvelde, Olafur Eliasson, Beate Engl, Erró, Oyvind Fahlström, Robert Filliou, Dan Flavin, Lucio Fontana, Günther Förg, Andrea Fraser, Günter Fruhtrunk, FSK, Gruppe Geflecht, Rupprecht Geiger, Ludger Gerdes, Jochen Gerz, Liam Gillick, Raimund Girke, Jack Goldstein, Ekkeland Götze, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Peter Halley, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, Thomas Hirschhorn, Damien Hirst, Franz Hitzler, David Hockney, Bernhard Höke, Antonius Höckelmann, Carsten Höller, Jenny Holzer, Ulrich Horndasch, Douglas Huebler, Thomas Huber, Meg Huber, Stephan Huber, Jörg Immendorff, Rainer Jochims, Allen Jones, Asger Jorn, Donald Judd, Alex Katz, On Kawara, Anselm Kiefer, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Klasse Dahmen, Ute Klophaus, Evil Knievel, John Knight, Imi Knoebel, Arthur Køpcke, Jeff Koons, Joseph Kosuth, Vlado Kristl, Raimund Kummer, Jannis Kounellis, Pia Lanzinger, Maria Lassnig, Uwe Lausen, Barry LeVa, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Klaus Liebig, Robert Longo, Markus Lüpertz, Walter de Maria, Michaela Melián, Gerhard Merz, Annette Messager, Olaf Metzel, Regina Müller, Sarah Morris, Otto Mühl, Sands Murray-Wassink, Heino Naujoks, Hermann Nitsch, Tony Oursler, Nam June Paik, Mimmo Paladino, Blinky Palermo, Eduardo Paolozzi, A.R. Penck, Giuseppe Penone, Peter Philips, Otto Piene, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Hermann Pitz, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Arnulf Rainer, Martial Raysse, ready-mades belong to everyone, Tobias Rehberger, Hubertus Reichert, Gerhard Richter, Larry Rivers, Dieter Roth, Ulrich Rückriem, Thomas Ruff, Niki de Saint Phalle, Fred Sandback, August Sander, Julião Sarmento, Hias Schaschko, Thomas Schütte, Sean Scully, Cindy Sherman, Santiago Sierra, Dirk Skreber, Haim Steinbach, Elaine Sturtevant, Florian Süssmayr, Team 86, Rosemarie Trockel, Rudi Tröger, Richard Tuttle, Luc Tuymans, Cy Twombly, Günther Uecker, Victor Vasarely, Francesco Vezzoli, Thomas Virnich, Wolf Vostell, Andy Warhol, Kara Walker, Ian Wallace, Peter Weibel, Lawrence Weiner, Troels Wörsel, Christopher Wool and La Monte Young.

The Producers / Manufacturers
Aktionsraum, BR — Intermedien, Bruckmann Verlag, Godula Buchholz, Galerie Bartsch-Chariau, Druck & Publikation GmbH Imhof, ecm, Edition der Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Edition Kerlikowsky & Kneiding, Edition Schellmann, Edition Schellmannn & Klüser, Edition Und, Edition 46, edition x, Galerie Six Friedrich Lisa Ungar, Barbara Gross Galerie, Haus der Kunst, Galerie Fred Jahn, Dany Keller Galerie, Ketterer Kunst, Galerie Bernd Klüser, Galerie Sabine Knust, Kunsthalle Prackenbach, Kunstraum München, Kunstverein München, Lenbachhaus, Galerie Dorothea Leonhart, Maximilian Verlag, P.A.P. Kunstagentur Karlheinz & Renate Hein, Rosenthal Porzellan, Schirmer/Mosel, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, s press tonband verlag, Galerie Tanit, Galerie Thomas, Galerie van de Loo, Galerie Rupert Walser and zehn neun

Blinky Palermo, Untitled from 4 Prototypen (4 Prototypes), 1970, one from a portfolio of four screenprints, composition (irreg.): 14 1/2 x 19 5/16"; sheet: 23 9/16 x 23 5/8".

Blinky Palermo, Untitled from 4 Prototypen (4 Prototypes), 1970, one from a portfolio of four screenprints, composition (irreg.): 14 1/2 x 19 5/16"; sheet: 23 9/16 x 23 5/8".

Blinky Palermo, Untitled from 4 Prototypen (4 Prototypes), 1970, one from a portfolio of four screenprints, composition (irreg.): 14 1/2 x 19 5/16"; sheet: 23 9/16 x 23 5/8".

Blinky Palermo, Untitled from 4 Prototypen (4 Prototypes), 1970, one from a portfolio of four screenprints, composition (irreg.): 14 1/2 x 19 5/16"; sheet: 23 9/16 x 23 5/8".

Hermann Nitsch, aus: Die Architektur des Orgien Mysterien Theaters I + II, 1984-92, II: 23,5 x 17,5 x 1,6 cm, Buch, Galerie Fred Jahn München, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008.

Asger Jorn, Ohne Titel (Sommerreise), 1970, farbiger Holzschnitt, mit Passepartout, 44 x 35 cm, Galerie van de Loo München, © Donation Jorn, Silkeborg / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008.

Allan Jones, Olympics, 1972, Plakat, 101 x 64 cm, Ausstellungsleitung Große Kunstausstellung im Haus der Kunst München.

David Hockney, Olympics, 1972, Plakat, 101 x 64 cm, Ausstellungsleitung Große Kunstausstellung im Haus der Kunst München.

Paul Thek, Sea With Mushrooms, 1969, Kreide, Aquarell auf Pappe, 100 x 365 cm, Sammlung Daniel W. Dietrich II.

Haus der kunst
Prinzregentenstrasse 1
+ 49 89 21127-115
Munich
Traces of the Spiritual
September 19, 2008-
January 11, 2009

Serving the Divine
The beginning of the 20th century is marked by the impression of faith's foundation being shaken to the core. Nietzsche's declaration, "God is dead" (1881/1882) and Max Weber's assertion of the "disenchantment of the world" (1904) revealed just how much people's relationship to religion had changed. Yet this did not signify the end of the metaphysical in art; rather it is metaphysical questions that maintained their significance for artists from Wassily Kandinsky to Francis Bacon, from Joseph Beuys to Damien Hirst.

Kandinsky believed that painting represented "pure art in the service of the divine" (Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1910). Even today many artists believe that "the ability to summon a vision of the divine without sentimentality, thus of a secular divine that is embedded in history, is one of the highest skills of the artistic profession". (Jannis Kounellis)

The Exhibition:
16 Chapters,
200 Works,
120 Artists
The exhibition brings together 200 works from the 19th and 20th centuries up to the present day, testifying to the continuous artistic interest in the spiritual and in the human structure of knowledge and perception. Themes from different periods are shown in 16 chapters: Götterdämmerung [twilight of the gods]; syncretism; beyond the visible; cosmic revelations; absolutism; homo novus; masks, ritual, trance; ecstasy; profanation; homo homini lupus; religious art; divine ornamentation; myths and shamans; doors of perception; Zen; epilogue.

Paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations and videos by 120 artists are presented, including works by Joseph Beuys, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Chan, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Lucio Fontana, Caspar David Friedrich, Francisco de Goya, Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, Ferdinand Hodler, Huang Yong Ping, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Martin Kippenberger, Paul Klee, Daniela Leiter, Kasimir Malewitsch, Piet Mondrian, Edvard Munch, Bruce Nauman, Barnett Newman, Hermann Nitsch, Patti Smith and Paul Thek.

Milestones since 1800
Francisco de Goya's etching series, The Disasters of War (ca. 1819-1823), was created under the influence of the atrocities committed during the French Revolution. In the etching Nada. Ello dirá a corpse holds a message in his hand that had been sent to him from the hereafter: there is nothing — nada. In these works God has retreated infinitely far.

Just a few years later Caspar David Friedrich began examining the question of how the spiritual could be rediscovered without resorting to a biblical imagination in such works as Ruinen in der Abenddämmerung (Ruins at Dusk, ca. 1831). Like other artists of the Romantic period, Friedrich saw the answer to this in nature charged with a cosmic energy.

Phases when art functioned as a utopia and was meant to serve the creation of a new society as well as a new human being, were followed by other phases characterized by the disappointment that it was precisely this task that artists could not fulfil. Yet the desire to take part in a radical renewal runs like a thread through early 20th century art. In 1913 Kandinsky conjured up a flood in Composition VI in order to reach a new spiritual harmony following the chaos.

During the pursuit of renewal, between 1909 and 1918, politics were also entrusted with the function of leading to a promised land. Amongst the Futurists and Expressionists, in France and Russia, followers of the irrational idea of a holy war could be found. War — "the world's only hygiene" as Marinetti claimed — is considered to be a necessary step on the path towards a new society.

But the horror of the trenches quickly caused the myth of a new human being to collapse. In 1916, in the midst of the war, Wilhelm Lehmbruck presented his work Der sterbende Soldat (The Dying Soldier). This no longer depicted the Wagnerian hero, the infallible victor of evil who is killed by betrayal, but rather the banality of death in battle. The ideal of the new man disappeared shortly after the end of the First World War.

In the following years ideologies that perverted the idea of a new society including national communism, fascism and National Socialism gained ground. This period of totalitarian regimes, however, simultaneously gave way to several aesthetic revolutions. The Dada movement produced a renewal of poetry; Surrealism gave the subconscious and its Dionysian ecstatic urges an artistic form; Malewitsch and Mondrian aspired to dematerialization and absolutism. Their works are reduced to symbols of the essential: instead of colours light; hardly any shapes but energy instead. Everything superfluous disappeared from this "thinned-out" world.

The renewal of man had failed and the art of abstraction was created out of the emptiness that was left behind: and this without falling back on the discredited traditions or the political vocabulary of the Modern movement. It was no longer a question of changing reality but rather one of asceticism and spiritual practice. Barnett Newman believed that the highest object of art was "the defence of human dignity". His art is a meditation on the perceived tragic meaning of life. This newly imagined human being is confronted with the sublime. The image does not represent this but rather invokes it.

With this new establishment of western culture, artists called on sources and reference points that had been more or less spared from totalitarian ideologies. Joseph Beuys looked for insight in the old rituals of the Siberian and Celtic civilizations. He believed that through art society could be healed of its degenerate pathologies and that mankind could win back its creative potential. Beuys aspired to the reconciliation of mankind with its natural environment.

For the first time artists once again devoted themselves to exercising religious practices. Yet here they were less interested in the Christian background; rather they discovered shamanic and tantric practices of ecstasy, explored the effect of mind altering drugs, celebrated love, devoted themselves to oriental mysticism and Gnosticism, the cabbala, black magic or mystical poetry, all this to the sound of jazz and rock. The vitality of this movement could be felt from John Cage to Robert Filliou and Paul Thek. All Doors of Perception — the title of Aldous Huxley's book published in 1954 — were open to the psychonauts. For them art was the vehicle for self-realization and such a roadworthy one that they hoped to transform society with it.

Over the last 30 years, globalization has eventually made us familiar with artists who have maintained their connection to religion and the culture of their origins, and who have simultaneously enriched their formal language with elements from western art. The letters from "Jahve" in a bead curtain by Eli Petel have become the question Might This Thing Be? (2007); the over-dimensioned prayer wheel by Huang Yong Ping resembles a medieval catapult (Ehi Ehi Sina Sina, 2006). There are many more examples of formal, independent solutions. And whether Paul Chan recalls Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" with his shadow figures or Maurizio Cattelan wishes to startle with the image of a woman's body viewed from the back in a crucifixion pose (Project Synagogue Stommeln, 2008) — to touch, "refine and enrich" the "soul", the "spirit", is today as much a central concern for many artists as it was for Kandinsky.

The exhibition was realised by the Centre Pompidou, Paris, with Jean de Loisy, independent curator who also provided the concept, and Angela Lampe, curator of the exhibition and curator at the MusÈe National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou. The German version of the catalogue is published by Prestel Verlag.

The exhibition was made possible by Gesellschaft der Freunde Haus der Kunst, supported by the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung.

Man Ray, La Prière, 1930, Fotografie auf Leinwand, 32 x 23 cm, Galerie À l’Enseigne des Oudin, Paris, © Man Ray Trust, Paris / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008.

Giorgio De Chirico, The Great Metaphysician, 1917, Öl auf Leinwand, 104,8 x 65,5 cm, Privatsammlung, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008.

Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign), 1967, Glas, Neonröhren, Transformatoren, 150 x 140 x 5 cm, Kunstmuseum, Bâle, Photo : Martin Bühler, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008.

Eli Petel, Might This Thing Be, 2007, Perlen, Draht, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv.

Kunstverein München
Galeriestraße 4
+ 49-(0)89-221 152
München
Liam Gillick
Three Perspectives
and a Short Scenario
Work 1988-2008
Mirrored Image:
A “Volvo” bar
September 27-
November 16, 2008

This exhibition is the production component of the series of exhibitions that comprise Liam Gillick’s mid-career retrospective. It is the first opportunity to see his work in Germany since the controversial announcement that Liam Gillick (b. Aylesbury, UK, 1964), will be the artist at the German Pavilion in next years Venice Biennale.

Earlier this year the other venues, Witte de With, Rotterdam and Kunsthalle Zürich have been engaged in rethinking the potential and limits of a retrospective. A process that has been complicated, by Gillick handing half the space back to the curators of those venues. In autumn 2009 this retrospective in four acts will draw to a close at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

In comparison the show at the Kunstverein München however, turns the venue into an active place of production rather than reassessment. The exhibition is the process of producing a play — a short scenario — written and directed by Liam Gillick titled ‘Mirrored Image: A Volvo Bar’. Working with a group of young actors within a structure, designed by the artist, a basic text will be developed and reworked into a series of performances that will take place during and within the exhibition. Various characters from the last twenty years of the artist’s work will appear and new relationships will be exposed.

‘A number of characters come together in a bar near to a car factory. Franck "Stairs" — on the day of his own birth — a number of people who are familiar yet out of focus — a crisis in the director's office — a group of people trapped in a discussion room. A collapse of identity and a contingent use of projected self-image. A precise structure that will contain new statements of intent.’ (Liam Gillick)

Adapting the exhibition space as stage on which phenomena of the post-industrial society are played out, the exhibition ‘Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario* “Mirrored Image: A Volvo Bar”’ presents a core aspect in Gillicks work: negotiating models of communality.

Liam Gillick (*1964, UK) Solo exhibitions: 2005, Palais de Tokyo (Paris) and ICA (London); 2003, The Museum of Modern Art (NYC); The Power Plant (Toronto); 2002, Whitechapel Gallery (London); 1999, Kunsthaus Glarus (Glarus) and Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt); 1998, Villa Arson (Nice) und Kunstverein Hamburg (Hamburg); 1997, Le Consortium (Dijon).

Liam Gillick, Construccion de Uno (A Prequel), 2006, Performance, Screen, Volkswagen Golf Mk I, actors, lighting, sound system, TATE Triennial, Tate Britain, London, 2006, Courtesy Esther Schipper, Berlin.

Liam Gillick, The View Constructed by The Factory After it Stopped Producing Cars, 2005, Painted steel, Installation view: A Short Essay on the Possibility of an Economy of Equivalence, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2005, Courtesy Esther Schipper, Berlin.

Liam Gillick, Stacked Revision Structure, 2005, Installation view Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 2005, © Liam Gillick.

Liam Gillick, Three perspectives and a short scenario, 2008, Installation view Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Courtesy Liam Gillick, © Bob Goedewaagen.

Georg Baselitz, Untitled, 1964/65, etching, soft ground on zinc, 33,2 x 24,7 cm, Photo Martina Gadiot, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München.

Georg Baselitz, Head and Bottle, 1981-82, woodcut, 3 blocks, 100,2 x 70 cm, Photo Martina Gadiot, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München.

Pinakothek
der Moderne
Kunstareal München
Barer Strasse 40
+491089-23805-360
München
Georg Baselitz
Prints 1964-1983
October 1-
November 23, 2008

As far back as the 1970s the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München began collecting drawings and prints by Georg Baselitz. In 1972, in one of the first museum exhibitions, it showed works on paper by the artist. Twelve years later it organised a major exhibition of his early prints, which then went on tour to Geneva, Paris and London, among other venues.

The reason behind the current exhibition are more than 300 prints from the collection of Duke Franz von Bayern that, in collaboration with the State of Bavaria, have been donated to the Graphische Sammlung as a way of marking the institution’s 250th anniversary. This makes the Munich collection one of the most significant, comprehensive and complex collections of works by the artist. It is made up principally of trial prints and unique pieces of outstanding quality from the years 1964 to 1983.

Georg Baselitz — who celebrated his seventieth birthday in January, 2008 and who recently moved to Bavaria — discovered the medium of print early on in his career. His main focus has always lain not so much in the aspect of reproduction as in experimenting with possibilities of such diverse techniques as drypoint engraving, aquatinta, vernis mou and wood- and lino-cutting. By referring back to the motifs of his drawings and paintings, his prints have created an oeuvre that commands an independent position alongside his painted works. The prints allow the viewer to trace the developmental phases of well-established themes in the work of Baselitz.

The exhibition, which was previously held in the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett, presents a selection of over 150 works on paper demonstrating the creative process towards the final print. The presentation aims to reflect the workshop nature of the exhibition.

Curator: Michael Semff

Pinakothek der Moderne
Kunstareal München
Barer Strasse 40
+491089-23805-360
München
Female Trouble
Die Kamera als Spiegel und Bühne weiblicher Inszenierungen in Fotografie und Videokunst
July 17-October 26, 2008

Seit der Erfindung der Fotografie vor nahezu 170 Jahren haben vor allem Frauen das technische Medium genutzt, um sich oder andere in Rollenspielen und Maskeraden zu inszenieren. Neben der experimentellen Lust, das Ich immer wieder neu zu erschaffen, diente die Kamera auch als Möglichkeit, Klischees und Stereotypen weiblicher Repräsentation in Frage zu stellen. Das Spiel mit dem »Ewig« Weiblichen war und ist immer auch eine Auseinandersetzung mit geschlechtlicher Identität, ihrer gesellschaftlichen und politischen Definition sowie deren Überschreitung.

Im Fokus der Ausstellung stehen zeitgenössische Künstlerinnen wie Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Pipilotti Rist oder Monica Bonvicini, die mit Hilfe von Fotografie und Videokunst das Bild des Weiblichen untersuchen. Die Künstlerinnen gehen dabei der Frage nach, welche Bildmuster das mediale Zeitalter für Weiblichkeit bereit hält und wie diese Bilder die Wahrnehmung von Frauen bestimmen. Zugleich dekonstruieren sie mit humorvollen, ironischen oder provozierenden Mitteln die traditionelle Ikongrafie von Frauendarstellungen in der abendländischen Kunst und entwickeln alternative Bildentwürfe, die manchmal aggressiv und laut, manchmal subtil und hinterlistig neue Darstellungsmöglichkeiten postulieren.

Das Interesse an der Auseinandersetzung mit Bildprägungen des Weiblichen ist kein ausschließlich postmodernes Thema. Bereits im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert haben Frauen wie die Gräfin Castiglione, die Surrealistin Claude Cahun oder die Künstlerinnen der Avantgarde, die Fotografie als Möglichkeit entdeckt, das Ich in unterschiedlichen Rollen zu erfahren und stereotype Weiblichkeitsdarstellungen als Maskerade zu decouvrieren. Der historische Rückblick zeigt, wie zeitgenössische Künstlerinnen an ihre Vorgängerinnen anknüpfen und einzelne Bildmotive und Themen über Generationen immer wieder aufgegriffen, erweitert und variiert werden.

Die Ausstellung »Female Trouble« bietet erstmalig im deutschen Sprachraum einen pointierten Überblick zum Wandel des Frauenbildes anhand von Fotografie und Videokunst. Sie ist nicht enzyklopädisch angelegt, sondern konzentriert den Blick auf Künstlerinnen und Künstler, deren Werk innovativ ist und zugleich vorbildhaft gewirkt hat. Die künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Bild der Frau berührt dabei auch zentrale Fragenstellungen der Konstituierung von Identität im Allgemeinen sowie den biologischen, sozialen, kulturellen, politischen und medialen Einflüssen, die das Bild des Weiblichen wie des Männlichen bestimmen.

In der Ausstellung
vertretene Künstler/innen
Diane Arbus, Gertrud Arndt, Marta Astfalck-Vietz, Monica Bonvicini, Claude Cahun, Sophie Calle, Julia Margaret Cameron, Comtesse de Castiglione, Marcel Ducham/Man Ray, VALIE EXPORT, Nan Goldin, Lady Clementina Hawarden, Florence Henri, Hannah Höch, Birgit Jürgenssen, Jürgen Klauke, Astrid Klein, Germaine Krull, Nikki S. Lee, Sarah Lucas, Urs Lüthi, Robert Mapplethorpe, Björn Melhus, Ana Mendieta, Tracey Moffat, Pierre Molinier, ringl + pit, Pipilotti Rist, Daniela Rossell, Tomoko Sawada, Cindy Sherman, Katharina Sieverding, Mathilde ter Heijne, Madame Yevonde, Wanda Wulz Francesca Woodman und andere.

Benjamin Bergmann, tief unten tag hell, 2008, Foto: Haydar Koyupinar.

Benjamin Bergmann, tief unten tag hell, 2008, Foto: Haydar Koyupinar.

Pinakothek der Moderne
Kunstareal München
Barer Strasse 40
+491089-23805-360
München
Benjamin Bergmann,
tief unten tag hell
March 14, 2008-
February 22, 2009

The space-consuming installations created by Benjamin Bergmann (* 1968) revolve around fundamental recurrent questions faced by mankind — the preoccupation with values, the significance of one’s actions, the need for fulfillment and meaning, the treatment of time and transitoriness. Bergmann’s most recent work tief unten tag hell (deep down bright day) was created specifically for the large staircase foyer in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

tief unten tag hell presents a mysterious borderline situation: hundreds of baskets, each one filled with clothes, are suspended high up under the ceiling in the museum. The baskets can be let down on long ropes; they are reminiscent of the changing rooms in collieries and make the existence of a hidden world tangible. The potential up-and-down movement of the items of clothing corresponds to the miners’ daily routine that, however, is not rendered visible. Even in the real world important things often remain hidden from the eye. Indirectly, this imagery is also a reflection of the dynamism of life.

Simply from the inner logic of their function alone, a graphic pattern is created by the long ropes on the wall — their austere lines resembling a music score. These seem to trace the past and the future in an abstract manner. In its idiosyncratic, eloquent silence, tief unten tag hell conjures up an anticipation for something different and becomes a metaphor for a perpetual process of searching that is never completed.

The installations Bergmann created from 2001 onwards are in the tradition of built material collages and environments. Architectural shapes (arenas, stadiums and triumphal arches) also find form in his work as do constructions made for film sets. His objects often seem provisional: the fact that the roller-coaster he erected in the former Palast der Republik in Berlin looked as if it would collapse at any time, is exactly the intention of the artist who is suspicious of words such as perpetuity or perfection.

Clear traces of his handling of materials, the almost theatrical use of technical details and a functionality taken ad absurdum enable Bergmann’s sculptures to be seen as tools of a subversive investigation of the world, in which the principal of failure is raised to a category of beauty. The instruments used by this artist reflect life as an energy-laden but secretive teatrum sacrum, in which knowledge and ignorance, mystery and insight are all equally valid.

Benjamin Bergmann, works in wood and was born in Würzburg in 1968, lives and works in Munich. He is known for large, space-encompassing sculptures.

Besides a number of projects in other regions of Germany, he has realized such works as Tunnelfassade (2005) in Munich. The subject of this architectural installation is the alterations to a tunnel entrance. Bergmann transformed the tunnel, originally intended as nothing more than a place of passage for pedestrians and bicyclists, into a site that invites one to pause and thereby becomes physically perceptible. The artist doubled the tunnel’s opening, deliberately utilized light to raise its status into an imposing façade, and thereby freed the tunnel of its purely pragmatic function. Opposites such as light and shadow as well as bright and dark testify to Bergmann’s intensive investigation of Baroque architecture. At the same time, he thereby inserts his altered tunnel passage into the architectural context of the historical buildings of Munich. The unfinished character that the artist injects into his projects points to the fact that architecture is also subject to a constant process of change. Benjamin Bergmann has taken up a position — here just as in his other works — upon the border between reality and artificial space. He often actively includes himself or even the viewer in the installation.

Benjamin Bergmann, tief unten tag hell, 2008, Foto: Haydar Koyupinar.

Benjamin Bergmann, tief unten tag hell, 2008, Foto: Haydar Koyupinar.

ZKM | Media Museum
Lorenzstraße 19
Karlsruhe
+49(0)721-8100-0
bit international.
[Nove] tendencije, Computer
and Visual Research,
Zagreb 1961-1973
February 23, 2008-
February 22, 2009

The history of computer-based arts has not yet been adequately described, and is only rarely reflected on in conjunction with the other arts. This area of the arts is hereby denied the development of a diverse discourse and the generation of a competent and critical audience, which is a basic condition for other media, i.e., painting, sculpture, and even film and video. In a series of exhibitions, the ZKM has taken on this task, for example, with Algorithmischen Revolution.

In the exhibition bit international. [Nove] tendencije: Computer and Visual Research. Zagreb 1961-1973, the ZKM | Karlsruhe turns its attention to one of the most important artistic movements of the 1960s, which was of enormous influence in its day, but has sunk into near oblivion today: New Tendencies.

Beginning with an exhibition of concrete and constructive art in Zagreb in 1961, New Tendencies quickly developed to a dynamic movement triggering an international Op-Art boom. Art became »visual research« (GRAV; Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visual / Group for Research in Visual Art). They continued to stake their avant-garde claim by including the computer in the program as a medium of »artistic research« in 1968. During that same summer, parallel to Cybernetic Serendipity, the legendary computer art exhibition at London’s Institute for Contemporary Arts, the program »tendencije 4 - Computer and Visual Research« began in Zagreb.

The Gallery of Contemporary Art Zagreb, known today as the Museum of Contemporary Art, addressed the theme of computer and visual research with a series of exhibitions, symposia, and publications on the theme of computer and visual research from 1968 to 1978. They thereby established a unique platform for the exchange of ideas and knowledge from the areas of art, the natural sciences, and engineering. During the height of the cold war, artists and scientists from around the world presented their works and attended symposia in Zagreb. They came from Brazil, West Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, the Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the US. The gallery’s multilingual magazine Bit International established Zagreb as an initiator for aesthetic and media-theoretical reflection that was unknown anywhere else in the world at the time.

Tendencije 4 (1968/69) established a relationship between the computer-generated works and constructive and kinetic art, Tendencije 5 (1973) set them in a context together with the conceptual art of the time. The organizers of the Zagreb Tendencies attempted to consciously accompany and form the historical transition in which the computer, the symbol processing machine, was first perceived as a machine of artistic creation. The arts of electronic media are not seen as isolated phenomena, but rather, are included in the history and in the discourse of the fine and performing arts.

In collaboration with the MSU | Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb and an international network of collectors and private archives, this exhibition offers the first overview of the [New] Tendencies and their program Computer and Visual Research: For the first time in nearly 40 years, graphics, paintings, films, sculptures, as well as computer-generated lyrics and literature are once again available for a broader audience. The project allows an expansion of media-theoretical and historical discussion and sensitizes our awareness of the historical centers of art and culture in eastern Europe.

José María Yturralde Yvaral, Impossible Figure, 1972, Computergeneriertes Design, Siebdruck, 80,5 x 60 cm, Privatbesitz.

Jean-Claude Marquette (G.A.I.V.), Hommage à Khlebnikov, 1972, computergeneriertes Design, Siebdruck, 32,4 x 24,6 cm, MSU | Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst Zagreb, Foto: Boris Cvjetanovic.

José Val del Omar, Aguaespejo granadino (La gran siguiriya) [Water-Mirror of Granada (The Great Siguiriya)], 1953-1955, digitallisized 35mm-film, B&W, Dolby SR, 23'00'', film still, © María José Val del Omar & Gonzalo Sáenz de Buruaga Archiv, Madrid.

ZKM Museum
of Contemporary Art
Lorenzstraße 19
Karlsruhe
+49(0)721-8100-0
The Discreet Charm
of Technology.
Arts in Spain
September 27, 2008-
February 15, 2009

Luis Buñuel made more than a hint at his ambiguous, ironic intent when he entitled one of his most memorable films The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Apart from making an acid social critique, the film also shows us the fragile boundaries that exist between different ways of acting on reality.

Exploring the ambiguous relationship between art and technology, this exhibition suggests the existence of another form and another content inherent in the practice of media art. Technology as an instrument gives way to technique as a procedure that artists use to create visual poetics, sensory and formal explorations, and conceptual developments. The discreet charm of media art lies precisely in this potential to blaze new trails.

The exhibition features 119 works produced in Spain and of exceptional aesthetic and historic value. In it, the 13th century is linked to the 21st through a modular approach that focuses on five key themes representative of the artistic condition: the formal code; the visual code; the sensory and space-time code; the body and the identity; and the construction of reality. The accent on Spanish works is not merely a question of geography; rather, the exhibition tries to establish a dialogue between creative practices and artists that had never before been brought together in the same space at the same time.

It is precisely these conceptual links between the works, and not the materials or the chronological connections, which weave the discursive thread in each module. Moreover, by interweaving the five essential themes together, the exhibition generates new narrative itineraries that can stimulate viewers into creating their own personal interpretations.

Acting
on the Formal Code
In the Middle Ages, Ramon Llull, an eminent Catalan philosopher, designed a binary and combinatory system for coding language. Conceptually, this was a precursor of today’s binary computer code. His "disc apparatus" was the first attempt to examine the human-machine relationship from the point of view of knowledge automation. Various 20th-century theories based on new technology, such as Cybernetics, also have a bearing on this relationship.

In the 1960s artists who were influenced by Cybernetics, such as Barbadillo or Alexanco, applied combinatorics (the mathematics of combinations and permutations) to their work and used computers and programming — for the first time in Spain — to create artistic forms automatically, paving the way for generative art. The jump from programming computers to reflecting on the art of the code was made by artists such as Leandre and Marino, who investigated programming from the artistic point of view.

Acting
on the Visual Code
Instruments for seeing what is not immediately visible have been widely used by science to overcome the limitations of the human eye. Microscopes and microphotography helped Ramón y Cajal, an eminent Spanish scientist, to examine nerve tissue and to formulate his neuron theory, which revolutionised neuroscience. Up to the present day, this theory continues to influence many fields of knowledge, ranging from artificial intelligence and telematic networks to art. The invisible side of the visible is being explored in art using the latest technology. The new capabilities open up surprising possibilities for perception and for understanding and interpreting the world. Furthermore artists can use them to undertake the journey from the exterior to the interior world. This concept generates new models of visual exploration and changes the way artists work.

Acting on the Sensorial (Space-Time) Code
The analysis of space, time and the position of the spectator were masterfully investigated by Velázquez who knew how to dismantle the dichotomy between fiction and reality and how to go beyond the limits of the canvas. His influence can still be seen today in the works of Dalí, Pujol and Eguillor. The use of audiovisual, IT and telecommunication techniques increases the ways of representing space-time dimensions linked to the construction of reality.

The great achievement of José Val del Omar was to make sensorial signals visible, the immaterial tangible and to give space-time substance. He envisioned cinema as an all-encompassing experience that would communicate with all the spectator's senses simultaneously and called this "plurisensorial supervision". His ideas opened new paths for audiovisual exploration and they have been re-examined by contemporary artists such as Sistiaga, Balcells, and Garhel.

Acting on
the Body's Interface
The furthest and most intimate recesses of our minds and bodies — our interface to the world — are beyond our reach. Thus, identity is not completely under our control. It is encoded and decoded through deliberate strategies designed by ourselves and by society. This uneasy situation is frequently examined by contemporary art. Perhaps such questions reflect our growing desire to define our place in the world.

The works in this section of the exhibition are different approaches to the various aspects of this situation. They include the role of our bodies in the life-death relationship, interior-exterior worlds; the influence of external conditions on the construction of identity and the way in which gender codes underpin conventional ideas of femininity and masculinity. Other works explore the concept of the body as a place where everything we have experienced is written; the use of masks and unstable identity; and macrostructural control of individuals.

Acting on
the Reality Interface
The notion of reality depends on what is observed and how it is observed. New media are increasingly replacing the in situ experience of reality with prefabricated images of this "reality" on a screen. We humans no longer live exclusively "in" the world or express ourselves "in" language (an essential skill of existence) but "in" images: in the images we make and in the images that we receive through technical media. Fiction and reality are fused together. This process encourages hedonism and fun-morality, which debilitate any sense of justice and equality.
The artists in this section tackle these questions in their work from the perspective of the individual and also of the family (where individuals forge parallel realities). Others make reference to public space or the mass media, where consensus or confrontations arise about the explanation of reality.

Begoña Vicario, Haragia (Carne humana) [Haragia (Human Flesh)], 1998, 35mm-film, 12'00'', film still, © B. Vicario.

Daniel Canogar, Teratologías, [Teratologies], 2001, fibre optic cable, light generator, 24 zoom terminals, 24 slides, installation view, © D. Canogar & Vegap.

Pedro Garhel, La región central, [The Central Region], 1994, four-channel video installation, variable dimension, installation view, photo: Vicente Novillo, © P. Garhel & MEIAC.

Iván Marino, Pn=n!, 2006-2007, computerised video installation, based on a generative system, film still, MEIAC Collection & CAM/Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo Collection, © I. Marino.

Manuel Barbadillo, Enera, period 1968-1979, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm, Jane Weber Collection, © J. Weber.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Pirámide gigante de la circunvolución frontal ascendente del hombre, [Giant deep pyramid of the ascending frontal convolution in man], 1899, drawing, Instituto Cajal (CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), © Beneficiary of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

Julián Álvarez García, El ring, [The Ring], 1989, mono-channel video, 12'00'', film still, © J. Álvarez.