Bhutan is the only country in the world where Tantric Buddhism (Vajrayana) is the official religion. This exhibition presents 117 works from the 8th to the 20th centuries – most of them from temples which are still used as religious centres.
In the early 1980s the ritualistic pomposity and ossified routine of Rhenish carnival met with increasing indifference, above all among young people who turned away from these traditional forms of celebrating carnival. As a reaction, a group of university students experimented with an alternative type of celebration and brought the “Stunksitzung” into being in 1984 under the motto “Karneval instandbesetzt”. “Stunksitzung” (literally: stink meeting) is a parodistic pun on “Prunksitzung” (literally: magnificent meeting) – traditional carnival meetings where humorous speeches are made. This combination of political education and anarchy turned out to be a great success and has since added a political revue element to traditional carnival. Pointed comments on (social, political and cultural) events in Cologne, self-critical sideswipes at those working in the educational sector, a more pronounced role for music at carnival meetings, the Catholic church as the main target of ironic criticism, and the satirical treatment of elements of traditional Rhenish carnival such as the Funkentanz, satirical comments on the carnival parade, and the Dreigestirn (triumvirate of the carnival prince, princess and “virgin”) ensure the unbroken attractiveness of this alternative carnival 25 years after it was called into being.
The favorite instrument of the American artist Wade Guyton (*1972) is his inkjet printer. With it he produces paintings of giant proportions that induce a certain irritation. For not only the production method, but also what is depicted — letters of the alphabet or magazine clippings — refer to printing techniques and print products. To complete the confusion, for the large skylight hall he will lend his print-paintings additional sculptural quality.
The artist Jochen Lempert — born 1958 in Moers, resident in Hamburg — has worked since the 1990s with the connoisseurship of a trained biologist, the eyes of a photographer and the methods of a scientist. His photographs are dedicated to the animal world. He studies how — between the poles of nature and culture — they are anthropomorphically viewed or industrially exploited, and shows how, unobserved, they are conquering new niches for themselves in urban space. In his early works, he collected, archived and classified the motifs in large groups, which incite us to a comparative way of seeing and set multiple associations free. In his last work groups, he focused his interest more and more on formations, patterns and structures whose aleatory power is shown in flocks of birds, water currents and cloud formations. The black-and-white analogue photographs are printed on thick photo paper, whose materiality is underlined by the way they are hung, and always in coordination with the rooms. On an exhibition surface of 400 sq.m., Jochen Lempert will present his work from the past 15 years.
Museum Ludwig will stand under the sign of pictures that move. For the first time in 30 years, the museum is presenting its complete collection of artist’s films and videos, as well as installations. Visitors will be able to experience the collection in its entirety: on the ground floor in the context of the individual collection departments, on the other floors, as well as at research stations.
From films purchased already in 1974, among others, by Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra and Ed Ruscha, via videos by Nam Jun Paik, Gerry Schum’s TV gallery, up to the installations of Aernout Mik and Guy Ben-Ner, the history of moving pictures in contemporary art can be revisited.
With “Roy Lichtenstien – Kunst als Motiv”, Museum Ludwig is focusing on an essential complex in the oeuvre of this grandmaster of Pop Art. Along with motifs from the world of consumer goods and of comics, Lichtenstein repeatedly helped himself to a rich fund of art-historical picture programs. Aesthetic canons of Expressionism and Futurism up to Bauhaus and Art Deco, artist heroes of Picasso or Matisse to Mondrian or Dali were analyzed by Lichtenstein and then paraphrased in his own pictorial language.
Thus a fascinating, enigmatic, mostly ironic interplay emerged from traits extracted from the originals followed by their subtle (re)interpretation in Lichtenstein’s typical vocabulary of forms, expressed in color fields and pixel points.
In 1842 Henri Murger published his famous novel, La Boheme, in which the tragic life of a poor artist in the bourgeois era was first described. This book title became a synonym for the artist of the 19th century who, free from the compulsions (and/or the protection) of courts, had to carry his wares to market on his own. Photography in this context served the portrayal and self-portrayal of artists just as it did self-discovery and the documentation of the conditions under which life and work took place.
These photographs were frequently placed in the documentary appendix of publications or art exhibitions, without consideration of their original provenance or significance. The exhibition presents portraits of famous and unknown painters, sculptors, literary figures and actors, along with depictions of their world of work and pleasure, since the invention of photography.
Its earliest reproductions are in the form of daguerreotypes; shown here are solo and group portraits, atelier scenarios and artists’ festivities from the late Biedermeier period, the Belle Epoch, the turn of the century up to the 1920s. The most important photographers from Hermann Biow to Franz Hanfstaengl, from Nadar to Hugo Erfurth and August Sander are represented along with many ‘masters’ unknown up to now.
El Lissitzky’s preparatory material for the international show “Pressa” (Cologne 1928), now owned in part by the Museum Ludwig, will be on display in this show remembering his and colleagues’ decisive contribution to the development of exhibition design. We will re-examine their innovative use of architecture, propaganda and montage, also showing contemporary documentation of this large international show. The Soviet pavilion, for which they were responsible, was one of many exhibitions within Pressa. Here it will also be placed it back into the context of the larger exhibition as a way of better understanding the decisive role that it played.
Suchan Kinoshita (born 1962 in Tokio, lives in Maastricht and Münster) has been invited to present new work at the Museum Ludwig. Her installations employ sculpture, video and found objects, and is informed by varied interests: theatre and music, but also zen and haiku. She creates a subtle interplay of objects, sounds and spatial relationships that invite viewers to walk around and stop to look closely. Contrasts between sound and quiet, distance and nearness, permanence and fleetingness mark her work.
Anbieterkennzeichnung: Ralf Dank, Im Dau 3, 50678 Köln, Fax (0221) 9520463, e-mail: dank@artcontent.de.
Realisation: Redaktionsbüro Dank
Soweit nicht anders ausgewiesen: Fotos: © RBA Köln
Ferner liegen einige Bildrechte bei der VG Bild-Kunst Bonn.
