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289 148

01.08.2017 — 31.03.2018

curated by Sebastian Cichocki

Katowice, Poland

Nothing is forever, but nothing is impossible either.

The frames of the 289 148 exhibition are blurred, but we can assume that they are synonymous with the administrative borders of the city.

The exhibition comprises announcements in B2 format distributed throughout the urban landscape. These posters may be a tool for mobilisation or persuasion, though it’s not entirely impossible that we will use them as carriers of abstract, standalone images. But can an image which is viewed in the public sphere remain abstract?
Not everyone sees the same things, and a painting need not be a murder mystery.

The title of the exhibition, 289 148, is variable, as it depends on the current number of residents of the city. We’re making reference in this way to the Numbers Shows organised between 1969-1974 by the art theoretician, curator, and activist, Lucy R. Lippard. She is one of the people who in the last century revolutionised our understanding of what an art exhibition can be, and simultaneously of what a museum is for, and ultimately what do we understand by the words ‘work of art’ (certainly art can be this or that, but can it be this and that at the same time?).

We focus on the ABCs of museums.

From A to B. From B to C. And from C to A, the long way round, via Z.

The exhibition spaces for these posters are shop display windows, fences, mechanics’ garages, waiting rooms, school corridors, private flats, allotment gardens, parking lots, city offices, libraries, empty lots etc. The elements which make up the city.
The exhibition will last as long as possible. Until the material runs out and fades away.

Dyeing until the water runs clean

14.06.2017 — 27.10.2017

curated by Martin Schwander

Kunstforum Baloise , Aeschengraben 21, CH-4002 Basel

Open by appointment: isabelle.guggenheim@baloise.com / Tel. +41 58 285 74 71

The scientific approach, which Susanne Kriemann has followed in Dyeing till the water runs clean led her to the region around Schlema (Erzgebirge). In this area, in the GDR from 1946 to 1991, the highly radioactive mineral pitchblende (uraninite) was mined and thus contributed significantly to the nuclear rearmament of the USSR.

In a large-scale renaturation program the restoration of the landscape is planned to be finished by 2045.
Starting from the phenomenon of the invisibility of radioactivity, Kriemann photographed herbs and flowers growing on this site and thereby documents a section of the landscape at a specific point in time of their renaturation process. These photographs form the basis for the heliogravures, a photographic printing process that has been popular in the late 19th century. The elaborate gravure allows a very fine gradation of color values and is a unique combination of craft printing technology and photographic reproduction process. Kriemann increases the ambivalence of the images, by inking the printing plates with the uran-containing pigments of the depicted herbs and plants.

Tito‘s Bunker

27.05.2017 — 06.08.2017

Taysir Batniji, Bernd Behr, David Brognon / Stéphanie Rollin, Annalisa Cannito, Olga Chernysheva, Edith Dekyndt, Jan Peter Hammer, James T. Hong, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Milomir Kovacevic, Susanne Kriemann, Dorit Margreiter, Eduardo Paolozzi, Vesna Pavlovic, Dan Perjovschi, Lia Perjovschi, Jorge Ribalta, Alexander Sokurow, Sandra Vitaljic, Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag

curated by: Iris Dressler, Hans D. Christ

Opening: Friday, May 26, 7 pm

Guided tour on Saturday, May 27, 2 pm

http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de

A joint venture of Württembergischer Kunstverein and Association Biennial of Contemporary Art Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 1953 the former head of state of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, initiated the construction of a – theoretically – nuclear-safe bunker in Konjic, a town, which is situated around 40 km south from Sarajevo (and today located in Bosnia-Herzegovina). It took 26 years to accomplish this giant bunker, which was built under conditions of utmost secrecy in the midst of a mountain and at a depth of 280 meters. This shelter, occupying a space of 6,500 square meters, was conceived for the survival of 350 chosen representatives of the political and military “elite” of that time – among them only one single woman: Jovanka B. Broz, the wife of Tito. The lager public beyond Konjic came to know about Tito’s bunker not before the 1990ies. In 2011 the artists Edo and Sandra Hozic launched a biennial, whose aim is to establish a museum of contemporary art at the site of the bunker.
Hans D. Christ and Iris Dressler had been invited to curate the 4th edition of the biennial. Their idea is to develop a project about Tito’ bunker for two venues: the bunker and the Württembergischer Kunstverein. Of interest here is to deal with the bunker and its complex history, present and future both, in the very heart of the place itself and from a distance – a remote place, where the exhibition will be shaped by the absence of the bunker (becoming itself a sort of phantom). Two different blind spots are inherent in this approach: one related to the condition of being too close and the other of being too remote from the object of reflection.

Spurensicherung

29.04.2017 — 17.06.2017

Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Rossella Biscotti, Marc de Blieck, Kevin van Braak, Henry Fox Talbot,
Patricia Kaersenhout, Susanne Kriemann, Matts Leiderstam, Albrecht Meydenbauer, Secondo Pia, Aimée Zito Lema

http://www.wilfriedlentz.com/

Opening: Saturday, April 29, 5 – 7 pm

The group show will be held under the moniker Spurensicherung, a German
forensics term that means literally “to secure traces”. The title is drawn from an
exhibition in 1974 at the Hamburger Kunstverein, curated by the art historian Günter
Metken (1928, Germany – 2000, Libya), which included some of the most interesting
artists from the early Seventies.
The curatorial and artistic discourses remain fascinated by historical traces. Today many
artists use methods similar to that of archaeologists and forensic researchers, and
curators are making shows where these works are prominent—a trend that has been
going on for at least fifteen years. Yet ironically, the 1974 Spurensicherung exhibition
and the eponymous accompanying catalogue seem to have been totally forgotten.
For the summer months we are presenting a group show that borrows this exhibition
title as a tribute to Metken. Rather than providing a broad historical overview, the show
takes a playful and intuitive approach, with works by contemporary artists who share
similar interests. We also introduce historical photography from 19th century pioneers,
which was instrumental in providing evidence, and put this in dialogue with
contemporary works.
Why are artists continually interested in historical traces? The 1974 catalogue reveals
that artists had doubts about technical progress and the use of mass media, and in
general were anxious about a cultural amnesia in society. These artists responded with
introspection and started gathering relics, historical documents, and everyday artefacts.
Appropriating these often vernacular objects in their work, they created new artistic
experiences that trigger our personal and collective memories.
In the main gallery space we will be showing found and constructed artefacts by Doug
Ashford, Rossella Biscotti, Kevin van Braak, Sara Se Jin Chang (Sara van der Heide),
Patricia Kaersenhout, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Matts Leiderstam and Aimée Zito
Lema. On our 4th floor space we will present rare and esoteric uses of photography and
printing techniques by Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Marc de Blieck, Henry Fox Talbot,
Susanne Kriemann, Matts Leiderstam, Albrecht Meydenbauer, Secondo Pia, Hans de
Vries and Aimée Zito Lema.