The Museum Kunst der Westkuste presents Changes Of Scenery an exhibition on view through 15 Jan 2012.

Gerard Holthuis (NL, Photo: Guy Ben-Ner: Courtesy of the artist and Gimpel Fils, London

In identical exhibition booths in its Garden Hall, the Museum Kunst der Westküste presents five examples of contemporary artistic practice that trace an arc from the discovery of the exotic world to the discovery of one’s own four walls. In the manner of station drama the viewer is confronted with various scenes: the transformation of the underwater world of the Red Sea into an overwhelming musical performance, collages including flotsam and jetsam, staged shipwrecks in bottles, a staging of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in an artist’s kitchen. Finally, the exploration of one’s own home turns into a highly ambiguous slapstick journey through the history of 20th century art.

Titled Changes of Scenery, the exhibition offers a particular take on the interior as an artistic genre. Interiors tend to show private and intimate spaces that are clearly isolated from the outside world. The thrill of voyeurism, of looking at strangers in their personal spaces, anxious to share in the private lives of others, is an old and familiar desire. Yet at the same time the interior has always been an arena of artistic experiment in which new modes of representation are playfully tested. In the interior of home all things wild are domesticated, and instead of travelling ourselves we become fascinated by the aura of objects and travel in our thoughts and dreams. www.mkdw.de

Related posts:

1. Museum Kunst der Westkuste Opens Thomas Wrede Anywhere
2. Museum Kunst der Westkuste Presents Antti Laitinen Voyage
3. Kunst Haus Wien Museum Opens Friedensreich Hundertwasser The Art of the Green Path Exhibition