Press kit “Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!”

Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Content
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
1. Press release
2
2. Biography Isa Genzken
4
3. Wall texts
7
4. Education programme (only in German)
18
4.1 For classes
18
4.2 For families and children
19
4.3 For the working people
19
5. Factsheet
20
6. Partners & Sponsors
21
Attachments / Information:
- Copyright list
- Wall AG
- Exhibition programme Martin-Gropius-Bau 2016
- Berliner Festspiele, Events April / Mai 2016
- Flyer
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
1. Press release
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
Opening hours Wednesday to Monday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; closed Tuesdays,
Closed on Monday 11/4/2016, open on Tuesday 12/4/2016
Organiser: Berliner Festspiele/Martin-Gropius-Bau. In cooperation with the Stedelijk
Museum Amsterdam. Made possible by the Capital Culture Fund.
Curators: Beatrix Ruf and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen
Communications
Manager: Dr Susanne Rockweiler
Press: Christiane Zippel
T +49 30 254 86 – 236, F +49 30 254 86 – 235
[email protected]
Organisation: Ellen Clemens
T +49 30 254 86 – 123, F +49 30 254 86 – 107
[email protected]
"I always wanted to have the courage to do totally crazy, impossible
and off-key things." (Isa Genzken, 1994)
Isa Genzken (*1948) is one of the most remarkable and radical
artists of our time. She has earned international renown with her profound work. Her
diverse works represent one of the most important contemporary stances of our time.
Her oeuvres are now comprehensively on show in Berlin for the first time.
The exhibition presents the broad spectrum of Genzken’s work, from
her early films, drawings, ellipsoids and concrete sculptures to complex narrative
collages and everyday items integrated into montages. The presentation highlights
topics such as modernity, the human body, portraits, city culture and architecture.
As an artist, Isa Genzken is prepared to risk it all in her quest for
artistic regeneration. In her radical manner she develops diverse works, which are
concerned with the topic of beauty in the sense of the essential and absolute.
Based on the category of sculpture, her work distinguishes itself
through constantly further developing imagery and unlimited use of media and
materials. In the 1970s, she produced sculptures designed on the computer, and
thereby referred back to American minimalism and conceptual art. In the long,
elegantly slender wooden sculptures, so-called ellipsoids and hyperbolos, one radical
step followed another: sculptures made from bare plaster or concrete, collage books,
complex narrative assemblages of industrially produced materials and everyday items,
various film formats, photography, paintings, architectural models and outdoor
sculptures.
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Her art is playful and sometimes brightly-coloured but anything
other than superficial. With her feel for materials and their arrangements she creates
pieces that make you think. Her power of innovation and her ideas are rich in
autobiographical elements and subtle comments on society, and they serve as a point
of reference and source of inspiration for generations of artists.
Born in Bad Oldesloe, Schleswig-Holstein, in 1948, she has taken
part in Documenta several times (1982, 1992 and 2002). She studied history of art and
painting in Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin and completed her studies at the Academy
of Art in Düsseldorf. Isa Genzken was represented at the Biennale in Venice in 2007 at
the German Pavilion. In 2013 the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, devoted a
first complete comprehensive exhibition to her, which toured America and could be
viewed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art.
Isa Genzken lives and works in Berlin.
She describes her way of working with two quotes: “I like to put
things together that were previously unconnected. This connection is like a handshake
between people.” And: “I love being daring.”
The exhibition was developed in cooperation with the Stedelijk
Museum Amsterdam and has been curated by Beatrix Ruf and Martijn van
Nieuwenhuyzen.
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
2. Biography Isa Genzken
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
1948
Born in Bad Oldesloe, Germany
1969–1972
She studies fine arts with Almir Mavignier at the Hamburg University
of Fine Arts and photography and graphic design at the Berlin
University of Fine Arts.
1972–1977
In 1972, she studies art history and philosophy at the University of
Cologne. At the Düsseldorf Academy she studies painting with
Gerhard Richter.
1976
First solo exhibition at the Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf. This is
followed by many solo and group exhibitions in well-known
museums, institutions and galleries worldwide of which only a few
will be named below.
1977
She begins teaching sculpture at the academy in Düsseldorf, where
she also receives a travel grant to visit the United States.
1978–1979
She begins teaching design at Fachhochschule Niederrhein in
Krefeld.
1978–1980
She receives the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium (1978) as well as
the Kunstpreis Berlin (1980).
1981
Exhibition Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, Fotografien at the Institut
Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt.
1982
She takes part in the documenta VII, Kassel, with her Ellipsoids and
Hyperbolos.
1987
She takes part in the exhibition Juxtapositions: Recent Sculpture
from England and Germany at MoMA, PS1, New York, as well as in
the exhibition Skulptur Projekte Münster 87 in Münster.
1988–1989
She takes part in the 7th Biennale of Sydney at the Art Gallery of
New South Wales, Sydney.
First big survey exhibition at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn.
The exhibition travels to the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in 1989 and,
then titled Sculptures 1978–1989, to the Museum Boijmans Van
Beuningen, Rotterdam.
1990–1991
She is guest professor for sculpture at the University of Fine Arts,
Berlin, and, in 1991, at Städelschule in Frankfurt.
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
1992
Genzken takes part in the documenta IX at Kassel, this time with her
concrete and epoxy resin sculptures.
1992–1993
The exhibition Jeder braucht mindestens ein Fenster at the
Renaissance Society in Chicago is the artist’s first big exhibition in
the United States. From there it travels to the Portikus in Frankfurt,
and, in 1993, further on to the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and
to the Städtischen Galerie at the Lenbachhaus, Munich.
1993
Genzken creates her first cast Rose sculpture for the park of the Villa
Schriever in Baden-Baden. Two other roses will be installed in front
of the glass hall of the Leipzig Trade Fair (1997) and in front of the
Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2001).
1996
She moves from Cologne to Berlin and visits New York, where she
rents a studio. Exhibition Met Life at Generali Foundation, Vienna.
1997
She takes part in the Skulptur Projekte Münster 97, Münster.
2000
Exhibition Fuck the Bauhaus (New Buildings for New York), AC
Project Room, New York.
2001
Exhibition Isa Genzken, Wolfgang Tillmans – Science Fiction/Hier und
jetzt zufrieden sein, AC at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, and
participation in the 7th International Istanbul Biennial.
2002
Solo exhibition at the Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach. She
receives the Wolfgang-Hahn-Preis from the Museum Ludwig in
Cologne and takes part in the Documenta11 at Kassel with her works
New Buildings for Berlin and Spiegel.
2003
Solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Zürich.
2004
Receives the Internationaler Kunstpreis der Kulturstiftung der
Stadtsparkasse München in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,
Munich, in connection with her installation Empire Vampire on the
museum square. She takes part in the 54th Carnegie International
at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
2005
Exhibition New Work at the David Zwirner Gallery, New York, and
Der Spiegel 1989–1991, at The Photographers’ Gallery, London.
2006
Solo exhibition organized by the Vienna Secession.
2007
She designs the German Pavilion at the 52th Venice Biennial. The
work Oil is a multipart installation that fills the entire building.
Additionally, the pavilion is covered in orange mesh construction
netting. Genzken also takes part in Skulptur Projekte Münster 07.
2008
She receives the Yanghyun Prize of the Yanghyun Foundation in
Seoul, and the Galerie Hauser & Wirth, London, presents her
exhibition Ground Zero.
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
2009
A first retrospective titled Sesam öffne dich! is shown at the
Whitechapel Art Gallery in London and afterwards at the Museum
Ludwig in Cologne.
2010
The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York exhibits the
sculpture Rose II, which is 8.40 m high, as part of its Façade
Sculpture Program.
2012
Exhibition Hallelujah with new works at the Schinkel Pavillon in
Berlin.
2013
Retrospective at MoMA, New York, which travels to the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Chicago (2014) and then to the Dallas Museum
of Art (2014/15).
2014–2015
The Museum der Moderne in Salzburg and the Museum für Moderne
Kunst in Frankfurt am Main show Genzken’s most recent group of
works in an exhibition titled Neue Werke/New Works. It consists of
artistically alienated self-portraits, the so-called Schauspieler. In
2015 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam presents Isa Genzken –
Mach Dich hübsch!, an extensive retrospective.
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
3. Wall texts
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
Introduction
Mach Dich hübsch! presents an overview of the work of Isa Genzken
(born in Bad Oldesloe, in 1948). Genzken’s influential oeuvre is characterized by
radical innovation and includes works in almost every conceivable medium. Its
foundations are in sculpture, but over time Genzken has explored an increasingly
broad artistic terrain. In the past forty years, she has produced series of works in a
variety of materials and modes: architectural models, photographs, paintings,
collages, drawings, installations, films, and artist’s books. Her works vary in
appearance from extremely sober to exuberant, but always have strong personal
touch.
Mach Dich hübsch! is an odyssey through four decades of an
astonishing artistic practice defined by artistic freedom and bold inventiveness. In the
exhibition Genzken’s oeuvre is presented as a montage, not a chronology, to highlight
interconnections and thematic threads. This approach demonstrates how notions
such as body, identity, (self-)portrait, autobiography, architecture, and urban culture
feature in her work in surprising ways.
In the Lichthof a large selection of ellipsoids and hyperbolos, early
works from the seventies and eighties based on computerdrawings, is exhibited. On
the walls of the Lichthof the series of photographs of Ohren which Genzken made in
1980 in New York is on display.
It is the first retrospective exhibition of Isa Genzken’s work in her
home town Berlin and one of her largest solo exhibitions to date.
(Self-)Portrait / Autobiography
Genzken made her first self-portrait photograph “out of pure
boredom” when she was in the hospital, and subsequently studied different
approaches to the self-portrait. The X-Rays can be considered experimental selfportraits, as can the works in her Basic Research series (1988–1992), which are based
on impressions of her studio floor, forming “portraits” of the artistic process.
Sometimes Genzken portrays people from her immediate surroundings, as in the film
Meine Großeltern im Bayrischen Wald (1992), an intimate document about the
passage of time, growing older, and looking back at the past.
Genzken has also used portraits of strangers and people with whom
she is not very close, as seen in her Ohren series (1980). She later incorporated
publicity shots of celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Jackson in works
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
like the floor sculpture Untitled (2012) and the artists book Mach Dich hübsch! (c.
2000). Her titles often suggest a personal aspect that is not always evident in the
objects themselves. Genzken has named many of her works after friends, artists, and
architects she admires, like the Rot-schwarz-gelbes Ellipsoid ‘S.L. Popova' (after the
Russian Avantgarde-Painter Ljubow Sergejewna Popowa). These portraits, abstract
and otherwise, underscore the auto-biographical character of her work.
Architecture
Genzken’s interest in architecture can be seen even in her earliest
sculptures, which she made after the ellipsoids and hyperbolos of the 1970s. In the
subtle plaster works Mein Gehirn (1984) and Data (1984), Genzken played with forms
of enclosing space, both interior and exterior—concepts that would often return later
in her concrete sculptures. The titles of these concrete works are literal architectural
references (Kleines Zimmer, Pavillon II). Genzken often isolates architectural elements:
window frames, doorposts, her own studio floor. Other works are reflections on
imaginary buildings or real cities. The influence of urban planning is also clear in her
later photographic work, architectural collages, and artist’s books, and continues in
her most recent sculptures.
This fascination with the aesthetics of high-rise construction and
with the social fabric of the metropolis has been present in her work from the outset.
What motivates this continued interest in the built environment? In part, it can be
explained by postwar Berlin, where Genzken grew up, and by her many visits to New
York and Chicago, cities that exemplify modernist architecture. Architecture
embodies Genzken’s personal interest in dualities, such as destruction versus
construction, accessibility versus exclusion, and fatalism versus utopia.
Artistic Position
In the late 1960s, while studying in Düsseldorf and Cologne, Genzken
became acquainted with a wide network of artists and different theories about
conceptual art, minimalism, and postminimalism. This period had a major influence
on her own artistic development. The impact of this neo-avant-garde environment
can clearly be seen in her early work, particularly her performances and films.
Genzken soon went her own way, however, in search of art forms that were less
cerebral. She is interested primarily in art that maintains a certain relationship with
reality.
Her early ellipsoids and hyperbolos are an obvious example of this.
She applied a cutting-edge approach to design these sculptures, using computer
models with millimeter accuracy. Genzken hoped that the works would not make a
clinical impression, but instead evoke associations with the real world, despite their
minimalist design. “This associative aspect was there from the very beginning, and
was also intentional,” the artist has said, “but from the viewpoint of Minimal Art it
was absolutely out of the question and simply not modern.” At an early stage, she
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
developed her own notion of “being modern”, in which the link with reality always
plays a crucial role, whether in the advanced materials and techniques, in the objects
themselves, or in her reflections on current events.
Books
The three artist’s books that Genzken has created thus far are on
display in two different rooms. Her first book, Berlin, dates back to 1973. It is a blocklike object consisting of thirty-nine diptychs of black-and-white photographs
attached to thick card. Genzken takes a sculptural look at the public space of the
postwar metropolis, characterized by the gray, brutalist concrete architecture of the
Plattenbauten and the many purposeless spaces in West Berlin at that time.
In 1995/96, Genzken created I Love New York, Crazy City; a “travel
guide” to New York but, with its personal character, primarily a self-portrait. In this
book, Genzken for the first time implemented the collage and assemblage techniques
that would come to typify her later work. In addition to photographic material, the
book contains hotel bills, cinema tickets, posters, and numerous notes and addresses.
The result is a kaleidoscopic urban impression in which photographs of typical New
York facades, architectural details, corner stores, and garbage alternate with
montages of events from Genzken’s own life.
More recently, Genzken reflected on her present life in Berlin in the
book project Mach Dich hübsch!, which, with its collage design, is similar to I Love New
York, Crazy City. A facsimile of this book was produced to accompany this exhibition.
Communication
After completing her studies in Germany, Genzken left for the
United States in 1977 to study American architecture and visit artists she knew there.
Her interest in music and its culture was fueled by regular visits to alternative New
York nightclubs, sometimes with her friend, the artist Dan Graham. During this period,
Genzken photographed rock musicians’ instruments and electric guitars in window
displays.
Back in Germany, she was struck by advertisements for stereo
systems in magazines. “When I was photographing the hi-fi adverts, I thought to
myself, everyone has one of these towers at home. It’s the latest thing, the most
modern equipment available. So a sculpture must be at least as modern and must
stand up to it.” Genzken exhibited photographs of these hi-fi systems and, in 1982, she
placed a radio on a pedestal. She later made her own Weltempfänger out of concrete,
demonstrating that her interest in audio equipment extends beyond its hypermodern
aesthetics. The first of these was exhibited with a group of ellipsoids and hyperbolos,
along with the Ohren series, emphasizing the similarities between these works. In
different ways, they illustrate Genzken’s view of the relationship between visual and
auditory perception, between body and object, and between signal and receiver.
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Big-City Culture
“To me, New York had a direct link with sculpture.”
The urban has always occupied a prominent position in Genzken’s
oeuvre, with a special place reserved for New York and Berlin. The vibrant streets, the
alluring window displays, and the impressive architecture of New York have formed
the inspiration for a variety of series, ranging from Ohren (1980) to Soziale Fassaden
(2001–2002). Genzken has lived in Berlin since 1996, and the influence of this city—
particularly the underground techno culture and club scene of the 1990s—is reflected
in the freer, flamboyant assemblage aesthetic of the works she started making in this
period.
With a light approach, but a keen eye, Genzken also confronts the
viewer with the less positive aspects of the modern city in her series. In more recent
works, she has increasingly often depicted the downside of life in the big city, with its
mass production and complex imagery—a place where violent events such as 9/11
occur. Her urban and architectural models (the series Fuck the Bauhaus, New
Buildings for Berlin, and Ground Zero) may even be seen as a social-political statement.
With these, she is presenting alternatives to the bland, mediocre buildings that
property developers cram into the modern-day metropolis.
Body / Identity
Many of Genzken’s works refer to the human body. Her ellipsoids
and hyperbolos are inspired by the American artist Bruce Nauman. While carrying out
one of his performances, Instructions for a Mental Exercise (1974), which involved lying
on the floor for a long time, on her stomach or her back, she had an intense
experience of the relationship between her own body and the surrounding space. The
spear-shaped ellipsoids and hyperbolos that she made from the mid-1970s until the
early 1980s allude to this powerful physical experience: they almost seem to float, as
they touch the ground punctually.
Within Genzken’s body of work, links are often made between object,
space, and physicality. She plays with this, for example, in the titles of her works.
Many of her abstract sculptures are named after friends or well-known artists (Kai,
Wolfgang, Mies). This anthropomorphizing approach creates the suggestion that the
works represent actual individuals.
Issues involving the body, appearance, and identity also recur in her
work. The series Jacken und Hemden (1998) emphasizes the extent to which ideas
about identity are connected to the clothes we wear. In both the recent Nofretete
series and Schauspieler (2013), which features a range of mannequins decked out in
wigs and masks, identity appears to have become completely fluid.
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Mass Culture / Social Criticism
By combining diverse and contrasting objects and materials,
Genzken offers a critical view of materialism and mass culture. In the series Fuck the
Bauhaus (2000) and Soziale Fassaden (2002) she brings together photos from
magazines, kitschy souvenirs, plastic toys, and other mass-produced objects, as well
as design pieces like hand-blown Venetian glass and a Mies van der Rohe chair, to
create layered collages and assemblages. The viewer is subtly confronted with themes
like overconsumption, commercial culture, and the aesthetics of the banal.
Although Genzken’s works are never unequivocal statements of
social criticism, they often spring from the need to speak out about political or social
situations. Genzken was in New York during the attacks on the World Trade Center;
her series Ground Zero (2008) is inspired by this event. They can be seen as metaphors
for the machinations of world powers and mass media. With her orchestrations of
objects from the urban environment, Genzken tries to open our eyes to such issues—or
to keep them open—without being explicitly somber or dogmatic.
Seriality / Continuity
From the ellipsoids to the concrete sculptures, from the X-Rays to
the Schauspieler, repetition and seriality characterize Genzken’s oeuvre. The
individuality of the object always takes priority, however, creating a tension between
the serial character of her methods and the distinctive features of the works within a
series. One example of this is her series of paintings of lamps, in which Genzken
always employs variations in form to shed a unique new light on her basic subject,
sometimes even several times within a single work.
Although Genzken constantly changes medium and materials, a
number of fundamental themes and motifs run through her body of work. The theme
of architecture, for instance, plays an important role in her early concrete sculptures,
and also returns in the more recent Architekturcollagen. This repetition of themes
lends continuity to her oeuvre.
Genzken’s way of working comes from an artistic desire to remain in
motion. “In my life, I’ve always been concerned with fluidity and opposed to rigidity,”
she has said. “Simply continuing the series would lead to certain ideas, which then
provided the foundation for a new kind of work and a new series.” It is this
resourcefulness and dexterity that has ensured Genzken remains one of the most
versatile of contemporary artists.
Soziale Fassaden
While Genzken was working on the New Buildings for Berlin series of
models, she began Soziale Fassaden, a series of collages featuring mirrored metal and
celluloid. The gleaming surfaces are a reference to her beloved American skyscrapers,
but also function as mirrors that draw the viewer into the work, creating a tension
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
between reflection and transparency, between interior and exterior.
In her Soziale Fassaden, Genzken connects the architectural directly
to the personal. She appears to emphasize how the things we build reflect ourselves,
which lends these works a social dimension. “I want to animate the viewers, hold a
mirror up to them,” she has said, “I’m a social person, after all.” The resulting mirror
image, however, is blurred and distorted: a possible allusion to the masks—the social
facades—with which we present ourselves to the outside world.
Concrete
Having worked with plaster for a number of years, Genzken
transitioned to concrete as a material for her sculptures in 1986, because of its direct
associations with architecture. The titles of the works also suggest a new orientation,
referring to architectural elements, audio and video equipment, and the names of
modern artists.
In these concrete sculptures, Genzken’s interest in architecture
focuses primarily on constructions that usually remain invisible. “The core structures
of new buildings are more interesting, because the rational thinking of the engineers
has more to do with truth than the routine masking of the facades with pseudoprecious materials.” By leaving traces of the casting molds visible in the concrete, she
not only shows the internal architecture, but also the “interior” of the creative process.
This play between “inside” and “outside” continues to be a key element of Genzken’s
work today.
Ellipsoids and Hyperbolos
Genzken produced the Ellipsoids and Hyperbolos while studying at
art school in Düsseldorf. Most unusually for that time, she used a computer program
to design these wooden sculptures. The colors are based on works by Barnett Newman,
Jo Baer, Kenneth Noland, Frank Stella, and other postwar American abstract artists.
To lend the sculptures an individual character, Genzken gave them titles like März or
Diana.
The idea for the sculptures arose when Genzken carried out a
performance by Bruce Nauman, which involved lying on the floor of an empty gallery
in order to experience the space in a particular way. By way of reference to this
exercise, the elongated ellipsoids touch the ground at only one point, making the
space a part of the work. The hyperbolos rest only on their two extremities, so the
sculptures almost appear to float.
Fenster
In 1987–1988, Genzken made Großes Fenster, a large glass window
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
that, in the museum, leans against a wall. This was followed by her first concrete
Fenster and her first Paravent (folding screen) in 1990. In later versions, she went on to
use materials such as epoxy resin and steel, and she has also created various Fenster
sculptures for public space.
The window is a recurring motif in Genzken’s work. Her Fenster are
an extension of her fascination with architectural forms and their relationship with
the surrounding space. They allude to real windows but are unusable as such, since
they often contain no glass. Normally, a window is a glass partition between inside
and outside, yet that functional division is absent here.
Genzken sees windows as “the eyes of the architecture”; these
elements strongly influence the character of a building. Her statement, “Everyone
needs at least one window,” indicates that windows represent a psychological
dimension for her—the feeling of freedom.
Fuck the Bauhaus (New Buildings for New York)
New York and Berlin, the two most important cities in Genzken’s
oeuvre, come together in Fuck the Bauhaus (New Buildings for New York). In this series
of assemblages, she takes simple materials, such as glass, plastic tape, and particle
board, and combines them with everyday objects. Inspired by the underground techno
scene in Berlin, Genzken overthrows the streamlined formalism of Bauhaus
architecture with her playful models of buildings. Architectural archetypes such as
skyscrapers can still vaguely be recognized in the eclectic mix of materials, forms, and
colors, albeit with a funky makeover.
Fuck the Bauhaus was the first of Genzken’s installations to
incorporate a cinematic dimension. The visual scanning of the objects becomes a
spatial experience, similar to the way we move through a city.
Ground Zero
The large group of sculptures entitled Ground Zero that Genzken
made in 2008 is her response to a competition held by the State of New York in 2002,
which invited architectural proposals for Ground Zero, the emotionally charged
location of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Genzken’s alternative designs
are buildings with an explicit social function, including a place of commemoration
(Memorial Tower), parking garage, clothing store (Osama Fashion Store), church, and
twenty-four-hour disco. Three works from this series are shown in Mach Dich hübsch!.
Genzken’s Ground Zero is her reaction to the assumption that a tragic event such as
9/11 must be commemorated by a stately monument. She instead makes the case for
a memorial that highlights the vibrant diversity of the city of New York.
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Hi-Fi
Genzken produced Hi-Fi, her first photographic series, in 1979. For
the four works, she photographed advertisements for stereo equipment in magazines
from home and abroad, which she then enlarged and framed. She was interested not
only in the technological ingenuity of hi-fi systems, but also in their design and
sculptural quality. Every photograph features a different brand and language, with
Genzken emphasizing the global rise of this product type.
These works exemplify the post-modern strategy of appropriation
that Genzken also later went on to use in her assemblages, employing existing images
as material, usually from popular visual culture. Genzken has often exhibited Hi-Fi in
combination with Ohren (1980). Together these two series represent the technical
transmitters and the organic receivers of acoustic signals.
Jacken und Hemden
The Jacken und Hemden come from a completely different world
than Genzken’s introverted, abstract wooden and concrete sculptures from previous
decades. This series reflects the Berlin techno and club scene, with its distinctive
aesthetics and extroverted lifestyle. Items of clothing from Genzken’s own wardrobe
have been customized with fringes, fluorescent paint, photos, and small objects.
The works combine new influences that determined Genzken’s
course in the mid-1990s, with her focus shifting from an exploration of material and
form to the narrative. The garments were once worn by Genzken, and the alterations
have made them into something like constructions of the “self”. As a whole, this series
forms a self-portrait of an artist for whom identity is not fixed, but rather a
continuous negotiation between public image, sexuality, male and female roles, and
the clothes we wear.
Lampen
The lamp, industrial light source and popular design object, is the
theme of a series of paintings and sculptures that Genzken made in the mid-1990s.
Design is a recurring element of her body of work; in addition to lamps, she often uses
chairs and sofas, for instance.
Like the stereos in the Hi-Fi photo series, the lamp is an object that
can be found in every interior. Here, too, Genzken’s interest is focused on differences
between designs, as well as on the sculptural and material qualities of the object,
which she then interprets in her own way to create two- and three-dimensional works.
Zwei Lampen reflects Genzken’s interest in the materiality and physical properties of
light, like transparency, which is also evident in earlier works, such as X-Ray (1989 and
1991) and MLR (1992).
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
MLR (More Light Research)
Genzken created the MLR (More Light Research) series of paintings
in the early 1990s. These works follow on from her oil paintings from the period 1988–
1992, entitled Basic Research, which were a study of form and materiality. The focus of
MLR is an analysis of light as a medium, but also as a basic material in the
photographic process. These are paintings, but like Genzken’s earlier X-Ray
photographic series, MLR is reminiscent of the photogram and other experiments by
avant-garde photographers like Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy.
Genzken chose a range of different elements as the subject for
these paintings: geometric objects such as gymnastic rings, and also abstract motifs
like the X, based on an architectural detail of the façade of the monumental John
Hancock Center in Chicago.
New Buildings for Berlin
New Buildings for Berlin forms a counterpart to Fuck the Bauhaus
(New Buildings for New York). In the Berlin series, the colorful models are made up of
glass plates, extremely fragile constructions that are held together with tape or
silicone sealant. It is hard to imagine a greater contrast with her early sculptures of
robust concrete. Genzken shifts her focus here from the sculptural quality of urban
architecture to the dynamic social fabric of a city—in other words, to what goes on
behind the façades and between the buildings. Everything is transparent; the
buildings consist mainly of windows. New Buildings for Berlin is Genzken’s response to
her disappointment with the cityscape of Berlin. “New York is a city of incredible
stability and solidity. And then the height of the buildings—it impressed me, like the
people who always seemed a bit happier than the Germans in the street… When I
came back to Germany it seemed to me that it wasn’t particularly nice, my visual
surroundings—it was all so dreary.”
Nofretete
Genzken’s Nofretete is a playfully critical comment on the tradition
of the (self-)portrait and the position of women in art history. Since 2012, she has
appropriated plaster reproductions of the bust of the legendary Queen Nefertiti in
Berlin’s Neues Museum, using them to create multipart serial installations, one of
which can be seen in this exhibition.
The appearance of Genzken’s Nefertitis is both divine and fashionable, and they have been given a contemporary look (made Hübsch, or “pretty”) with
lipstick and designer sunglasses. In the most recent versions (entrance), Genzken has
provided Nefertiti with gas masks and wild wigs. In another series, she combined
Nefertiti with a reproduction of the Mona Lisa—another world-famous beauty of the
art world—and incorporated her own photographic self-portrait, inserting herself
(“Mona Isa”) into the long line of important women in art history, with both irony and
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
self-assurance. In this room, seven Nefertitis are combined with reflective wall objects,
as Genzken draws the viewer into her game of image and self-image.
Ohren
The Ohren photographic series was created on the streets of New
York. On the first of her many visits to this city, Genzken asked female passersby if she
could photograph their ears. Not all of the ears belong to strangers, though.
Genzken’s own ears appear in the series, for example, as do the ears of the artist Kim
Gordon, who was also the bassist in the band Sonic Youth.
In Ohren, Genzken plays with the boundaries of the portrait genre,
as she did in her X-Ray series (1989 and 1991). Every specimen has been photographed
with care, but reveals little about the identity of the person in the portrait. With its
serial character, Ohren is also reminiscent of a typological study of the ear as a
universal feature, with artist and viewer looking for similarities and differences. This
means that the individual aspect is emphasized, in spite of the seriality and anonymity.
Schauspieler
While Genzken began her career with abstract stylized sculptures,
her work now, almost forty years later, is at the other end of the spectrum. The
Schauspieler (Actors) series consists of mannequins dressed in extravagant outfits
made of colored foil, plastic, and reflective materials. They are arranged in poses,
sometimes with props that add to the theatrical staging. Genzken refers to the
mannequins by names such as Urban Cowboy and Alien, as if they are characters from
a script for a science fiction film.
Genzken used her own wardrobe for this series, suggesting an
autobiographical element. With the masquerade of Schauspieler, she once again
explored the limitations of the self-portrait, playing with the boundary between
private identity and public image.
Weltempfänger
Genzken has made several versions of the Weltempfänger. In 1982,
she placed a standard world band receiver (shortwave radio) on a pedestal, creating
her only unmodified “readymade,” an everyday object presented as a work of art.
Genzken began her second version of the world band receiver in 1987, comprising a
series of simple concrete sculptures equipped with antennas.
Weltempfänger ties in with the recurring theme of sound, music,
and the interaction between visual and auditory experiences in Genzken’s oeuvre (for
example, in the Hi-Fi and Ohren photographic series), while also emphasizing the
relationship we have with our surroundings. “My antennas were also meant to be
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
‘feelers’—things you stretch out in order to feel something, like the sound of the world
and its many tones.” Just as Genzken once stated that everyone has the right to a
window with a view, she also appears to feel that everyone has a right of access to
information.
X-Ray
After being hospitalized in 1989, Genzken took X-rays of her skull,
because she “was just interested in seeing what it looks like inside my head.” X-Ray is
a unique variation on the self-portrait. Genzken’s X-Ray portraits are clinical and
detached, yet the artist is literally revealing what is inside her.
X-Ray also shows Genzken’s interest in the physical properties of
light. She continued her photographic experiments with luminosity and transparency
in the MLR series (1992).
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——
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
4. Education programme (only in German)
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
4.1 Für Schulklassen
Workshop
Abseits vom Schein: Mach Dich hübsch!
Wenn Euch sterile Schönheit genauso langweilt wie uns, dann seid Ihr
bei diesen Workshops richtig: Wir bearbeiten Kunstwerke abseits von Konventionen.
Wir entwerfen Mode mit Tiefgang abseits des Scheins. Wir machen uns hübsch und
erzählen dabei Geschichten vom anderen Hübsch-sein. Isa Genzken ist hier unser
Vorbild. Sie zählt zu den radikalsten Künstlerinnen der Gegenwart. Unkonventionell,
oft trashig und abseits von Regeln, stellt sie das Schönsein auf den Kopf.
Workshops für Schulklassen: nach Vereinbarung / max. 30 Schüler*innen
Sonntagsworkshop für Familien: 1.5., 29.5., 5.6., 26.6.2016, 13-15 Uhr, keine Gebühr,
Anmeldung empfohlen (begrenzte Teilnehmerzahl)
MGB SchülerUni
Wir öffnen unser Haus und vertiefen für Schüler*innen der Klassen 7
bis 12 und Lehrende im Vortragsgespräch Themen, die durch die Ausstellungen
tangiert werden. Dazu laden wir Experten ein, nach einem Impulsreferat den jungen
Menschen Rede und Antwort zu stehen. Diesmal steht das Thema Schönheit im Fokus.
Was ist schön?
Im Battle: ein Model-Scout und eine Kunsthistorikerin
Der Wunsch zu gefallen ist uralt und hält uns ein Leben lang auf Trab.
Was und wer beeinflusst unsere Schönheitsvorstellungen? Und was oder wer ist schön?
Das Glatte, Konventionelle oder eher das Besondere, Kantige abseits des
Mainstreams? Sind es symmetrische Züge, Ausstrahlung oder doch eher innere Werte?
Ist, was schön ist, auch gut?
Die Vorlesung im Juniorformat widmet sich den vielfältigen Aspekten
rund um die Macht und das Machen von Schönheit beider Geschlechter. Von den sich
verändernden Schönheitsidealen über Formeln der Ästhetik bis hin zu den medial
konstruierten Vorbildern sind Streitthemen des Battles.
Do, 23.6.2016, 10.30 – 13h, Anmeldung erforderlich.
Der Vortrag ist gekoppelt mit einer anschließenden Führung durch die Ausstellung.
Dauer der Vorlesung und Führung jeweils 70 min. Vortrag und Führung sind kostenlos.
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Press Office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Details unter: www.gropiusbau.de/schuelerprogramm
4.2 Für Familien und Kinder
Immer wieder sonntags…
Während der Ausstellungslaufzeit laden wir Familien ein, immer
sonntags von 13-15Uhr gemeinsam die Ausstellung zu entdecken und bildnerischpraktisch tätig zu werden. Nach einem 30-minütigen Blick in die Ausstellung
verzahnen sich Ausstellungsbesuch und bildnerisch-praktisches Arbeiten.
Immer sonntags von 13-15 Uhr, ohne Gebühr, Anmeldung empfohlen, begrenzte
Teilnehmerzahl
4.3 Für Berufstätige
Der Kreativ-Kick in der Mittagspause
Lunchführungen zur Ausstellung
Das Ausstellungshaus bietet ein Format an, das die Mittagspause zum
Kreativ-Kick werden lässt. Jeden ersten Mittwoch im Monat stellen wir Ihnen Künstler
und Ausstellungskonzepte in einem 40-minütigen Rundgang vor. Anschließend gibt es
Raum für ein Lunch im Restaurant Gropius.
Mittwochs 13 Uhr, 6.4., 4.5., 1.6.2016
Dauer ca. 40 Min.
Anmeldung für Workshops und Lunchführungen
MuseumsInformation Berlin
Tel +49 30 24749 888
Fax +49 30 24749 883
[email protected]
www.museumsdienst-berlin.de
Page 19 / 21
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As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
5. Factsheet
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
Opening hours Wednesday to Monday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; closed Tuesdays,
Closed on Monday 11/4/2016, open on Tuesday 12/4/2016
Organiser: Berliner Festspiele/Martin-Gropius-Bau. In cooperation with the Stedelijk
Museum Amsterdam. Made possible by the Capital Culture Fund.
Curators: Beatrix Ruf and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen
Communications
Manager: Dr Susanne Rockweiler
Press: Christiane Zippel
T +49 30 254 86 – 236, F +49 30 254 86 – 235
[email protected]
Organisation: Ellen Clemens
T +49 30 254 86 – 123, F +49 30 254 86 – 107
[email protected]
Admission prices
€ 11 / reduced € 7, groups (5 or more) € 5 per person
Free admission up to 16 years
Online tickets: www.gropiusbau.de/tickets
Audio guide
Adults € 4, German / English
Children € 3, German
Art book
Price: €49.80, Verlag Walther König.
Guided tours
Public guided tours
Sundays, 2 p.m. (registration not required)
€ 3, plus admission € 7 per person
Registered guided tours
For groups: guided tours in German (60 minutes)
Adults: € 60, plus admission € 7 per person
School classes: € 45, plus admission € 6 per person
Admission free up to 16 years
Guided tours in other languages plus € 10
Guided lunch tours: Wednesdays 1 p.m.
4.5. and 1.6.2016
Advice and registration for guided tours
MuseumsInformation Berlin
Tel. +49 30 24749-888, Fax +49 30 24749-883
[email protected]
www.museumsdienst-berlin.de
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[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
As of: 01.04.2016
Berliner Festspiele
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
6. Partners & Sponsors
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
Organizer:
In cooperation with:
Made possible by:
Partners:
Media partners:
The Martin-Gropius-Bau is funded by:
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Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Attachments
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
9 April – 26 June 2016
Attachments / Information:
- Copyright list
- Wall AG
- Exhibition programme Martin-Gropius-Bau 2016
- Berliner Festspiele, Events April / May 2016
- Flyer
——
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[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
State: 11.03.2016
Berliner Festspiele
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Isa Genzken: Mach Dich hübsch!
Isa Genzken: Mach Dich hübsch!
Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin
9. April – 26. Juni 2016
Bitte beachten Sie die Bildlegenden. Das Bildmaterial dient ausschließlich zur
aktuellen redaktionellen Berichterstattung über die Ausstellung „Isa Genzken:
Mach Dich hübsch!“ (9. April bis 26. Juni 2016) im Martin-Gropius-Bau. Die Berichterstattung von Text und Bild muss im Verhältnis 1:1 stehen, dann ist das
Bildmaterial für 5 Bilder kostenfrei. Die Bilder dürfen nicht beschnitten, überdruckt oder manipuliert werden. Bitte vermerken Sie bei der Veröffentlichung
die Angaben der Bildlegende. Die Rechte für Titelbildnutzungen und Bildstrecken
sind bei dem jeweiligen Rechteinhaber direkt einzuholen und können kostenpflichtig sein. Wir bitten um Zusendung von 2 Belegexemplaren an die unten genannte Adresse.
Please respect the copyright. All image material is to be used solely for editorial
coverage of the current exhibition “Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!” (April 9
to June 26, 2016) at the Martin-Gropius-Bau. Please always mention the name
of the artist, the work title and the copyright in the caption. The images must
not be altered in any way, such as being cropped or printed over. The rights of
use for title-page photos or photo spreads are to be obtained directly from the
respective copyright holder. The ratio of text to image in the coverage should be
1:1, in which case there will be no charge for the use of 5 photos. Please send us
2 copies of your article to the address mentioned below.
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Pressearbeit / press office:
Tel: +49 30 25486-236 | Fax: +49 30 25486-235 | [email protected]
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit / public relations:
Tel: +49 30 25486-123 | Fax: +49 30 25486-107 | [email protected]
Download der Bilddateien unter / Download of the images at:
www.gropiusbau.de/presse
01_Nofrete.jpg
Nofretete, 2014
7 Gipsbüsten mit Brillen, Holz,
auf Holzsockeln mit Rollen
je 190,7 x 40 x 50 cm
4 Metallplatten, je 150 x 120 cm
Installationsgröße variabel
Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Köln/Berlin/New
York, David Zwirner, New York/London und
Hauser & Wirth
© Isa Genzken, VG Bild – Kunst, Bonn 2016
Seite 1 / 3
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
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[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
Stand:14.03.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Isa Genzken: Mach Dich hübsch!
02_Schauspieler.jpg
Schauspieler, 2013
Schaufensterpuppe, Stuhl, Schuhe, Perücke,
Holz, Stoff, Kunststoff und Metall, Maße variabel
Sammlung Syz Genf, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz,
Köln/Berlin/NewYork
© Isa Genzken, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016
03_X-Ray.jpg
X-Ray, 1989/2015
s/w Fotografie
108 x 81,5 cm
Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Köln/Berlin/NewYork
© Isa Genzken, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016
04_SozialeFassade.jpg
Soziale Fassade, 2002
Metall, Kunststoff, Metallfolie
70 x 100cm
Ringier Sammlung, Zürich
© Isa Genzken, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016
Foto: Galerie Buchholz Köln/Berlin/New York
05_Ohr.jpg
Ohr, 1980/2012
Chromogener Farbdruck
152,5 x 107 cm
Sammlung der Künstlerin
© Isa Genzken, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016
Seite 2 / 3
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Stand:14.03.2016
Berliner Festspiele
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Isa Genzken: Mach Dich hübsch!
06_Weltempfaenger.jpg
Weltempfänger, 1982
Radio
37x51x20 cm
Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Köln/Berlin/New York
© Isa Genzken, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016
07_IsaGenzken.jpg
Isa Genzken, 2015
© Isa Genzken, Galerie Buchholz,
Köln/Berlin/New York
Seite 3 / 3
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Stand:14.03.2016
Company Profile – Wall AG
Wall AG. For Cities. For People.
Wall AG is an international specialist in street furniture and outdoor advertising and part of
JCDecaux SA Group, the number 1 in outdoor advertising worldwide.
Founded in 1976, Wall AG shapes the public space with future-proof street furniture,
collaborating with renowned architects and designers. Self-cleaning, handicapped-accessible CityToilets, waiting shelters, city information panels, functional pillars, kiosks and high-quality
advertising displays are manufactured in the company-owned production plant at Velten in
Brandenburg. Wall's street furniture products are provided to cities free of charge. The company's
investment is refinanced through marketing the integrated advertising panels. Up to now, Wall
has developed more than 28 different design-lines for the urban space.
Wall is committed to a "single-source-philosophy". Development and manufacturing, cleaning and
maintenance of street furniture as well as the marketing of advertising spaces rest exclusively in
the hands of Wall AG. Wall's products and services are distinguished by innovation, quality and
sustainability.
Wall's business model opens up new chances and spaces not only for partner cities, but also for
outdoor advertising. Advertising displays by Wall pinpoint the medial advantages: Wall premium
advertising panels are distinguished by their highly frequented locations in public squares and
streets, their eye-catching size and their convincing quality of exposure. Marketing focuses on
class, not mass: Wall relies on superior quality to speak for itself.
Since January 2011, Wall AG and JCDecaux Deutschland GmbH are jointly marketing their
advertising spaces in more than 60 German cities – including all of Germany's million-strong cities
– under the sales brand WallDecaux Premium Outdoor Sales as a division of Wall AG. WallDecaux
is the largest provider of advertising displays in City Light Poster (CLP) format across Germany. All
in all, Wall markets more than 91,300 advertising panels Europe-wide, including 6,332 advertising
panels on means of transportation like tramways, busses, metros and trucks.
Since the beginning of the year 2011, Wall AG's executive board is also responsible for the
management of JCDecaux Deutschland GmbH. Wall AG oversees 1055 employees in Germany and
Turkey.
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Exhibitions 2016
Exhibitions Martin-Gropius-Bau 2016
21 January – 16 May 2016
Art of Prehistoric Times
Rock Paintings from the Frobenius Collection
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau. An exhibition of the
Frobenius-Institute of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. In
cooperation with the Martin-Gropius-Bau.
12 March – 6 June 2016
Günter Brus. Zones of Disruption
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau. An exhibition of
Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Martin-Gropius-Bau in
collaboration with the „BRUSEUM/Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum
Joanneum“. Made possible by the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie.
With kind support of the cultural department of the country Styria and the
Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin. Curator: Britta Schmitz
19 March – 12 June 2016
Lee Miller - Photographs
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau. An exhibition of the
Albertina Wien in cooperation with the Martin-Gropius-Bau and the Lee
Miller Foundation. Curator: Walter Moser. The educational program is
made possible by the Embassy of the United States, Berlin.
9. April – 26. June 2016
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele/Martin-Gropius-Bau. In cooperation with the
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Made possible by the Capital Cultural Fund.
Curators: Beatrix Ruf and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen
12 April – 7 August 2016
Maya - Language of Beauty
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau. Made possible by the
Capital Cultural Fund. An exhibition of the National Institute of
Anthropology and History (INAH), Mexico. Supported by the Foreign
Ministry of the United Mexican States and the Mexican Embassy, Berlin.
12 May –21 August 2016
NO IT IS ! William Kentridge
Exhibitions / Performances / Lectures
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau. Enabled by the
Capital Cultural Fund Berlin.
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State: 31.03.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Exhibitions 2016
11 June – 18 September 2016
Thomas Struth
Nature & Politics
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau. In cooperation with
the Museum Folkwang, Essen, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
1 July – 3 October 2016
Berenice Abbott - Photographs
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau in cooperation with
diChroma photography, Madrid.
Curator: Anne Morin
16 July – 26 September 2016
Voices of Dissent: Art in the GDR 1976-1989
Organizer: Deutsche Gesellschaft e. V. With the kind support of Stiftung
Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband
and the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).
Curators: Eugen Blume and Christoph Tannert
21 October 2016 – 15 January 2017
Building with Timber – Paths into the Future
Organizer: Technische Universität München. An exhibition of the Associate
Professorship of Architectural Design and Timber Construction and the
Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München in cooperation
with Deutsches Architektur Zentrum DAZ, supported by the German
Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), the German Wood Council
(DHWR), the German Association of Housing Enterprises and Housing
Cooperatives (GdW) and proHolz Bavaria.
12 April 2017 – 5 November 2017
The Luther Effect
Protestantism – 500 Years in the World
Organizer: Deutsches Historisches Museum. Made possible by the Federal
Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. With kind support of
Kulturfonds des Deutschen Sparkassen- und Giroverbandes.
The Martin-Gropius-Bau is supported by the Federal Government
Commissioner for Culture and Media
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Martin-Gropius-Bau
Press office, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, T +49 30 254 86–236, F +49 30 254 86–235
[email protected], www.gropiusbau.de
State: 31.03.2016
Berliner Festspiele
Events April/May 2016
One day with ... Andrzej T. Wirth
10 April 2016, 04:00 pm
Haus der Berliner Festspiele
—
Performances, exhibitions, films, video, lectures
and conversations featuring Andrzej T. Wirth and guests.
Andrzej Wirth © Pawel Kocambasi
This godfather of the postdramatic, born on 10
April 1927 in Wlodawa in Eastern Poland, has always been right
where the theatre was blooming at the time. What Andrzej
T. Wirth saw, he analysed and rehearsed with his students at
universities in the USA, in Berlin and Sydney – until he founded
the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies (Institut für Angewandte
Theaterwissenschaft, ATW) at the University of Gießen in 1982.
To celebrate his 89th birthday, his students and
protégés will present performance pieces developed especially
for this occasion. They will recall the stages of his encounters and
his work, spanning seven decades on three continents, in visual
art pieces, texts, photographs and film-documents.
„One day with …“ is a series of events hosted by Berliner
Festspiele and conceived in cooperation with the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin
und Gerd Bucerius. Four times a year, one artist and his or her cosmos
will be presented at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, in a situation that
encourages a change of perspective.
www.berlinerfestspiele.de/eintag
360 degree theatre
14 April 2016, 07:30 pm
Haus der Berliner Festspiele
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stage Berliner Festspiele © Christian
Riis Ruggaber
Increasingly the theatre vacates its habitual spaces
and intervenes in so-called reality, disrupting daily routines. At
the same time, technical developments such as virtual reality
create new worlds at a breathtaking rate. And we are right in
the middle of all this – torn between disorientation, anxiety and
enthusiasm. On the occasion of the “Lange Nacht der Ideen
(Long Night of Ideas)”, organised by the Federal Foreign Office
as part of the forum “Menschen bewegen”, Berliner Festspiele
initiate a meeting between these different worlds. Hungarian
theatre artist Árpád Schilling, artistic director of theatre company
Krétakör, will give a lecture introducing his political and artistic
practice of Creative Community Games. The Berlin company
machina eX, gaming pioneers of the German-language theatre,
will outline their understanding of playable theatre pieces and
walk-in computer games.
Berliner Festspiele
Press office, Schaperstrasse 24, 10719 Berlin, T +49 (0)30 254 89–269, F +49 (0)30 254 89–155
[email protected], www.berlinerfestspiele.de
Berliner Festspiele
Events April/May 2016
Following this, there will be a chance for all visitors
to experience virtual reality goggles and immersion in other
worlds. arte, cooperation partner of Berliner Festspiele, will
present “I Philip”, a film presented by the new VR-platform arte
360.
An event of Berliner Festspiele, Goethe-Institut and the
Federal Foreign Office as part of the forum “Menschen
bewegen”.
http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/specials
53rd Theatertreffen
—
The Theatertreffen will take place from 6 to 22 May
2016. The selection of the ten invited productions is:
– „der die mann“ based on texts by Konrad Bayer. Directed by Herbert
Fritsch. Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin
– „Effi Briest – allerdings mit anderem Text und auch anderer Melodie“
(Effi Briest – although with a different text and a different melody)
by Clemens Sienknecht & Barbara Bürk based on Theodor Fontane.
Directed by Clemens Sienknecht und Barbara Bürk.
Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg
– „Ein Volksfeind“ (An Enemy of the People) by Henrik Ibsen. An adaption
by Dietmar Dath. Directed by Stefan Pucher. Schauspielhaus Zürich
„der die mann“ © Thomas Aurin
– „John Gabriel Borkman“ based on Henrik Ibsen by Simon Stone.
Directed by Simon Stone. Burgtheater at Akademietheater Wien/
Wiener Festwochen/Theater Basel
– „Mittelreich“ (Middle Rich) based on Josef Bierbichler.
Directed by Anna-Sophie Mahler. Münchner Kammerspiele
– „Schiff der Träume“ (And the Ship Sails On) A European requiem
based on Federico Fellini. Directed by Karin Beier.
Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg
– „The Situation“ by Yael Ronen & ensemble. Directed by Yael Ronen.
Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
– „Stolpersteine Staatstheater“ (Tripping Stones State Theatre)
by Hans-Werner Kroesinger. Directed by Hans-Werner Kroesinger.
Staatstheater Karlsruhe
– „Tyrannis“ by Ersan Mondtag. Directed by Ersan Mondtag.
Staatstheater Kassel
– „Väter und Söhne“ by Brian Friel nach Iwan Turgenjew.
Directed by Daniela Löffner. Deutsches Theater, Berlin
The programme schedule will be published on 8 April 2016.
Advance ticket sales will start on 16 April at 10:00 am.
www.berlinerfestspiele.de/theatertreffen
Berliner Festspiele
Press office, Schaperstrasse 24, 10719 Berlin, T +49 (0)30 254 89–269, F +49 (0)30 254 89–155
[email protected], www.berlinerfestspiele.de