calendario eventi  :: 

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12/8/2002

Three exhibitions

Sprengel Museum, Hannover

"Spectrum"
International Prize for Photography 2002 of the Foundation of Lower Saxony:
Sophie Calle
30th June - 22nd September

In the summer of 2002, the Foundation of Lower Saxony is awarding the "Spectrum" International Prize for Photography, worth EUR 15,000, for the fourth time. The prize-winner is the French artist Sophie Calle. The jury (Christine Frisinghelli, Graz; Yuko Hasegawa, Kanazawa; Thomas Weski, Cologne; as well as Inka Schube, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, and Dominik von König, Foundation of Lower Saxony) commended the prize-winner in the following words: "In her extensive and multi-faceted artwork, Sophie Calle (1953*) is unique in the way in which she focuses on the dissolution of traditional conceptions of identity against the background of the continual communication of privacy in media society. Like a laboratory technician, the artist creates experimental set-ups and documents encounters, absences and losses as if she were searching for the concealed systems regulating interaction and structuring the memory of it. She often combines still or moving images with biographical or pseudo-biographical texts, thus shattering the credibility of the apparently authentic in the process." After leaving school in Paris, Sophie Calle travelled the world for several years, during which she worked amongst other things as a barmaid, dancer and dog trainer. In her seventh year - like the prodigal son - she returned home. As her first art project, she invited 45 friends, neighbours and strangers to sleep in her bed. The resultant encounters she then documented in photographs and text.

The Sleepers (1979) is the first link in a chain of often almost unbelievable, adventurous intrusions into her own privacy and that of strangers that seems to make up Sophie Calle's work. What happens if I follow a strange man in the street (Suite VÉnItienne, 1980)? What do I learn about people if I secretly research them in their hotel rooms (The Hotel, 1983)? Can I get to know someone by questioning people he/she associates with? And what happens if I publish my research as a column in a major daily paper (The man with the address book, 1983)? What conception of beauty do the blind have (The blind, 1986)? What memories do the inhabitants of east Berlin have of the now removed monuments of Socialist rule (The removal, 1996)?

In cooperation with the American author Paul Auster and the artist Greg Sheppard, she has more recently created groups of works devoted to the possibilities of interpersonal communication. One feature that makes the works of the French artist Sophie Calle so fascinating is her combining of image theory, semantics and psychoanalysis. In doing so, Sophie Calle handles these theoretical constructs with a virtuosic and seductive effortlessness by anticipating the observer's voyeuristic delight in the disclosure of the intimate. Sophie Calle is one of those dazzling figures of the art world whose tales are familiar to almost everyone. Her biography is public and reflected in her so far over 25 text-and-image cycles and numerous temporary in-situ installations. Sophie Calle's exhibition to mark the presentation of the Spectrum International Prize for Photography 2002 of the Foundation of Lower Saxony at Hannover's Sprengel Museum focuses on a selection of five of her central works. For the first time ever, she is presenting her Autobiographical Stories (since 1987) in a cycle of 27 text-and-image works. Also being presented outside France for the first time is 20 Years Later (2002), a remake of The Shadow (1981), which is on show as well. The presentation is being supplemented by what is probably her most controversial work, The Blind (1986), and the video Double Blind (in the film version No Sex Last Night) produced jointly with Greg Sheppard in 1992.

This exhibition therefore covers the full range of the artist's output, from her beginnings through to her most recently produced work. And, by juxtaposing her Autobiographical Stories with the Blinds and by incorporating her detective stories and the road movie of a one-sided amorous yearning, the exhibition presents Sophie Calle as a master of the asymmetric view with the aid of which she repeatedly illuminates the relationship between seeing and being seen against the background of her knowledge of semiotic, psychoanalysis and image theory. The past recipients of the Spectrum prize are Robert Adams (1995), Thomas Struth (1997) and John Baldessari (1999).

Further information
Photography and Media: Inka Schube
Tel 0511/ 168 - 4 62 11, 0511/ 168 - 4 50 93
Press and Public Relations: Michael Quasthoff
Tel 0511/ 168 - 4 39 24, Fax 0511/ 168 - 4 50 93


Image: a work by Sophie Calle


Maurizio Nannucci.
Nothing is original. Editions, Multiples, Artist's Books, Records, Ephemera...
22nd May to 18th August 2002

Maurizio Nannucci (Florence, 1939) is one of the most inventively experimental artists of recent decades. In his works, Maurizio Nannucci explores the interrelationships between language and colour, light and space, continuity and discontinuity, art and nature. Suggestively illuminated neon installations and photographic and sound works form one segment of the output of this internationally reputed artist.

At the exhibition Maurizio Nannucci. Nothing is Original. Editions, Multiples, Artist's Books, Records, Ephemera... from 22nd May to 18th August 2002, the Sprengel Museum in Hannover is staging for the first time an extensive presentation of the editions and multiples which Maurizio Nannucci has created since the end of the Sixties. The exhibition encompasses over a hundred objects and items and clearly shows that the artist regards editions and multiples not as a by-product of his creativity, but as the central manifestation of an "art practice" that interprets art as a mental process and applies it to mass-producible everyday objects.

The presentation takes the viewer on a tour of an unexpected diversity of artist's books, multiples, graphic works, photographic works, videos, slide shows, records, magazines and ephemera. The abundance of objects created by Maurizio Nannucci exemplifies the broad spectrum of his oeuvre and refers to Nannucci's "Basics". At the same time, the objects selected stress a general line that the artist has consistently pursued. Always targeting the goal of interdisciplinary permeability, lightness and motion, Nannucci adopts the strategy of undogmatic, avant-garde art practice, utilizing everyday media and materials as the vehicles of his aesthetic message.

The reproduction of the original serves as a hub by means of which the scope of artistic production is expanded by also targeting the peripheral orbits existing outside the centres of the art world. Owing to its reproducibility and wider distribution, the artwork loses its key qualities of exclusive uniqueness and magical aura, but gains in presence and new freedom. The transition from the unique, inimitable work created in the studio to the reproducible art object is facilitated by the means of modern technology and resorts to the process of the reconstructible production of art - thus liberating, in the words of Adorno, the creative act from its taboos and fetishism.

One of the qualitative features of mass-produced objects is that the work is liberated by the technique of reproduction from the aura of uniqueness. And Maurizio Nannucci demonstrates this in his multiple "Do it yourself / Homage to Malevich" (Maurizio Nannucci, 1968) in an immediate and graphic way. The work consists of a simple can of paint which, as the printed instructions explain, is completely sufficient for the user "to paint a work himself after selection of one of the shapes illustrated below - square, triangle, circle, cross - which are 50 cm long/high." This means that in principle anyone who reads the instructions and opens the can is capable of painting this work by Nannucci as a mural, any time and anywhere.

Colour. Along with the written word, it the exploration of colour on which Maurizio Nannucci's artistic work has focused. The illuminated neon multiples "Hear me" (1997), "Where to start from" (1999) and the neon multiple "Look left" specially created for the exhibition at the Sprengel Museum glow as coloured focal points in the exhibition room. The first multiple "Box" made of coloured neon glass was made by the artist in 1969 and is part of the "Multibox" (1969). At the time, Nannucci extended the field of his linguistic and colour research by using neon glass for the first time and transferred the minimal word images of monochrome serigraphs like "Black" (1968), "Poemi cromatici" (1964/71), "Dattilogrammi" (1964/73) to a light- and colour-saturated material that added a new dimension to the diffusion of linguistic signs in space.

"Decouvrir Différentes Directions / 2002" - the editions created by Maurizio Nannucci for the year 2002 in the form of a calendar and a year book refer to the anthology (1967/2001) and photographs (1967/2001) taken on numerous journeys. Artist's books such as "M40" (1967), "Sessanta Verdi Naturali" (1977), "Lives here" (1987), "Hortus Botanicus" (1994) and "Freezer" (2000) form milestones on his journey through a territory that the artist attempts to liberate from borders with the means at his disposal. The art magazine "Méla" (1976/1981) edited by Maurizio Nannucci focuses on the aspect of a hybrid self-definition of the artist in his dual role of maker and communicator of art. In 1968, Nannucci founded in Florence the "Exempla" publishing house and "Zona Archives Editions", followed by the label "Recor-things" for the publication of audio works like "Fluxus Anthology". "Zona Archives Editions" produces editions on artists like Lawrence Weiner, Sol LeWitt, John Armleder, James Lee Byars, Robert Filliou, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Heimo Zobernig and others. His own works have been issued by a wide range of art publishers: Artelier, Exit, Frame, Ottenhausen Verlag, Texte zur Kunst, Ecart, Cantz, Flash Art, Art Metropole, Western Front, Galerie Fahnemann, Gallery 360°, MultiArtPoints, Sprengel Museum, Kunstverein Köln, Wiener Secession, Kiasma.

Systematic collections of the editions of Maurizio Nannucci can be found in the following museums and libraries: Moma, New York; New York Public Library; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; Art Metropole Archive, National Gallery Ottawa; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Cabinet des Estampes, Genève; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich; Paul Getty Center, Malibu; Zona Archives, Firenze.

For the exhibition, an album of stickers will be issued, consisting of a collection of images from the Maurizio Nannucci editions. The aim of this catalogue is to motivate the reader to become actively involved and fill the album himself with the stickers of his choice.


Esther Shalev-Gerz: Geht Dein Bild mich an?
Does Your Image Reflect Me?
Est-ce que ton image me regarde?
May 26-September 22, 2002

"History is like a text in which the past is captured as if it was an image on light-sensitive paper. At first, the future has the necessary chemicals to develop the image so that it can be recognised clearly and in focus." (Walter Benjamin, Collected Works, Frankfurt / Main, 1980, illustration no.1,3, pg.1238)

The Sprengel Museum Hannover has invited Esther Shalev-Gerz to deve-lop one of her projects about remembrance. Her research commenced at the formel concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen, near Hanover, a place fil-led with horrifying history yet, oddly, this history is entirely absent in nearby Hanover today. Shalev-Gerz approached this period by examining histo-rical and current photographic documentation, focussing on the stories of two women: one was in Bergen-Belsen during the war, the other in nearby Hanover. Her installation forces the viewer to reflect on what remains as traces of history and the hidden histories and fates contained in everyday existence, the image of a city and the landscape.

Isabelle Choko grew up in Lodz as the daughter of assimilated Jews. Af-ter Hitler's troops invaded Poland, she had to relocate to the Jewish ghetto. After her father's death, the Nazis deported the girl and her mother to Auschwitz, then Celle, and finally Bergen-Bergen. Her mother died there. Isabelle Choko was 16 years old at the end of the war.

Charlotte Fuchs is an actress. She studied in Gera, where she first appeared in the theatre professionally. She relocated to Berlin in 1932, moving on. In 1934, she followed her husband to Hanover, who was also an actor. Her two sons were born there in 1939 and in 1944. Her husband was shot by Canadian troops in 1945; she didn't know of his fate until 1948.

Neither of the women knew each other until this video project brought them together.
Isabelle Choko tells the viewer about starvation, abuse and survival strategies in the ghetto and in the camps. "I was always hungry...I never had enough to eat. I noticed that reading helped enormously. That was my way of spending time. I worked and I read. ...When I returned, my father was dead. What did I do? I found a book and read all night long." Charlotte Fuchs tells, among other things, about how difficult it was to get by in the collective political atmosphere. "Intelligence and circumspection helped her to live well. The worst was in 1939; that was the most difficult period in terms of hiding one's anti-fascism. In our first flat, every morning when a neighbour appeared, greeting me with a "Heil Hitler", I let them in and didn't go out. I waited until they had disappeared into their own flat before Iwent out." Working with the stories of these two women's lives is Esther Shalev-Gerz' way of posing the question, " Does Your Image Reflect Me?" the concept and exhibition title. The front section of the Upper Gallery con-tains an installation in three rooms. There are four video images projected in the first room, diagonally. The two women tell their stories, listening to each other. In the second room, large format photographs hang, showing the past and present Bergen-Belsen. In the third room Esther Shalev-Gerz shows her privat version of that moment, when Isabelle Choko and Charlotte Fuchs come together at the first time.

Financial support, graphic design and Vincent Perrottet's translation of the text was made possible with the assistance of the Institut Francais de Hanovre ( http://www.kultur-frankreich.de )

Esther Shalev-Gerz
Esther Shalev-Gerz was born in Vilnius (Lithuania) in 1948. She studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem from 1975-1979, and then spent a year in New York. Shalev-Gerz has been working threedi-mensionally since 1971; her photographic oeuvre dates back to 1973. She taught at the Bezalel Academy and at the Bat Yam Academy for the Arts as well from 1982-1983. The Departamento de Escultura of the Valencia Polytechnic University, Ecoles des Beaux Arts in Paris, Marseilles and Cherbourg invited her to teach from 1988-1989. In 1984 she settled in Paris, making it her focal point. Her installations in the 1980s included L'Huile sur pierre at Tel-Hai (Israel)and the Mahnmal gegen den Fa-schismus (monument against fascism) in Hamburg-Harburg together with Jochen Gerz. Towards the end of the 1990s, her interest moved towards multimedia projects using video and photography. Esther Shalev-Gerz' work is repeatedly concerned with the "Third Reich" period. After the "Mahnmal gegen den Faschismus" project, in which a lead column carrying a petition signed by local residents was then, step by step, lowe-red into the ground until it could no longer be seen, she commented, "For me, the monument is a building block in a process that continues. The idea could revolve around fascism or any theme that comes out of it, those are concepts that I can work with. Whether as a monument, a video, or a book. The monument was a means to confront people. I believe that this process will continue as it takes root in language so that we can write with it, tomorrow."

The exhibition will be opened on May 26, 11.15 am. Prof. Ulrich Krempel will speak. The curator, Prof. Ulrich Krempel, will lead a tour of the show on May 28 at 6.30 pm.

For further information please contact:
Curator: Prof. Ulrich Krempel
Tel +49 (0) 511/ 168 - 4 44 00, +49 (0) 511/ 168 - 4 50 93

Press and Public Relations: Michael Quasthoff
Tel.: +49 (0) 511/ 168 - 4 39 24, Fax: +49 (0) 511/ 168 - 4 50 93

SPRENGEL MUSEUM HANNOVER
Kurt Schwitters Platz * 30169 Hannover
Fon 0511/ 1268 4 3875 * Fax 0511/ 168 4 5093

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