Haus der Kunst presents Pictures in Time: Goetz Collection in Haus der Kunst an exhibition on view January 25–June 15, 2014.
Pictures in Time investigates the relationship between the still and moving image. Carefully selected shots—often based on models in painting—are dominant in the films, videos and slide projections on display here. The remarkable slowness with which the images in these works follow each other also draws attention to the aspects of subject and time.
A noteworthy role in the selection of works in Pictures in Time assumes the “tableau vivant” (French for “living picture”), or the reenactment of paintings and sculptures by real people. This practice of reducing a theater performance to a single image evolved in France in the mid-1800s. When video art of the 1990s revisited this format, the focus was on minimal movement, such as the inhaling and exhaling of performers, who, as living beings, could not remain motionless. In Sam Taylor-Wood’s film The Servant (2007), a breath of air that ignites the flame of a cigarette lighter animates the static image. The minimal movement makes the passage of time perceptible, which distinguishes this film from a painting. Otherwise, the nearly four-minute film shows a single static image: A man on a dark street about to light a cigarette. He stands half turned away from a house window, out of which a woman gazes.
Some of the videos selected forgo plot, sound, and voice, thereby shifting attention entirely to the image. Trusting in the narrative power of images, Selg’s Storråda (2011) e.g. creates an action that is structured like a filmed series of paintings without need of dialogue. Sigrid Storråda (“The Proud”), a tenth-century Viking queen, refused to accept the Christian faith. Selg shows artist Habima Fuchs’s depiction of Storråda as she leaves her community to find a new purpose in harmony with nature. Storråda is a parable about separation, parting, departure, and renewal. In expressive settings, both the external events as well as the inner transformation of the main character unfold.
Blumenprojektion, Herbst (Flower Projections, Autumn) by Fischli & Weiss is rooted in the genre of landscape painting and still life, and so is Kathrin Sonntag’s slide projection Annex, whereas Seth Price opted for a clear conceptual approximation to the medium of painting.
Exhibited works include:
Yael Bartana, Entartete Kunst lebt / Degenerate Art Lives, 2010
Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Blumenprojektion, Herbst (Flower Projections, Autumn), 1998
Gary Hill, Remarks on Color, 1994
Cyril Lachauer, 32 m.ü.NHN. – 114.7 m.ü.NHN. (II), 2012
Seth Price, ‘Painting’ Sites, 2000–1
Florian Pumhösl, You have several times been paralleling or anticipating some (as yet not fully appreciated) recent developments in exact science—of which you may not be fully aware (few are), 2001
Robin Rhode, Untitled, Spade for Spade, 2005
Anri Sala, time after time, 2003
Markus Selg, Moloch (Juggernaut), 2007; Storråda, 2011
Kathrin Sonntag, ANNEX, 2010
Sam Taylor-Wood, The Servant, 2007
Zhao Liang, Heavy Sleepers, 2006
Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites
January 25–May 25, 2014
With this exhibition, Haus der Kunst stresses its continuing commitment to pronounced positions of sculpture in contemporary art. This exploration included Sculptural Acts (2011), a presentation of sculptural objects which were characterized by the acts executed during production: the enveloping, tearing, folding, bending and compressing of the materials involved. The installation by Manfred Pernice, installed in autumn 2013 in the middle hall (Der Öffentlichkeit – Von den Freunden Haus der Kunst. Manfred Pernice, Tutti IV) navigates in the ambiguous zone between stability and instability, combining pieces from earlier works. The Autoconstrucción Suites by Mexican-born artist Abraham Cruzvillegas presents an intriguing concept of thinking about sculpture in its urban and social context.
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstrasse 1
80538 Munich
Germany
www.hausderkunst.de