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31/1/2013

Showing Its Colours

MARTa Herford Museum of Art and Design, Herford

Curators: Friederike Fast and Roland Nachtigäller

Marta Herford is nailing its colours to the mast. In a unique exhibition project, twelve international artists and artist groups make an explicit stand, using the primeval means of art to shine a light on the state of our society and its protagonists. The fact that this illumination and being illuminated can also be a very disturbing process for all is reflected in this exhibition as much as the poesy of artistic expression, the captivating nature of strong images and the sensuality of direct experience.

I believe that art has more sustainable, more convincing means of taking a public stand, of questioning the status quo and of initiating upheavals and a new way of thinking. (Roland Nachtigäller)

A passionate belief in the special power of art is the starting point of the exhibition in the Marta Herford. With “showing its colours” Marta Herford shows “what art does (with us)”.

Twelve internationally acclaimed artists take a stand, and they do it with strong pictures and sensitive poesy, with incisive observation and irritating subjectivity. In a world where credibility has become a scarce commodity, art can serve to change our way of seeing things, and to shine a different, illuminating light on life. Particularly as an irritant and a catalyst, art develops the extraordinary force with which it challenges us as the viewer to take a stand ourselves.

Many of the works shown here were created especially for the exhibition in the Marta or were adapted to suit the special architecture of the Gehry building. Brigitte Waldach, for example, takes advantage of the great ceiling height of the Long Gallery for her almost dance-like composition of violence, while Aernout Mik blends the room sculptures for his video works into the surrounding architecture. Once again the Marta has received a completely new face.

Every artistic contribution was given the space it requires. This was developed and realised in close collaboration with the artists. The artists were invited on the basis that their work is borne up by an intensive and sincere socio-political engagement. Their power lies not solely in providing information, highlighting injustices and stimulating debate, but also in using individual strategies to translate conflict into open processes and ambivalent images.

Who can we or do we even want to believe nowadays? The focus of interest is not so much on truth as on credibility. “showing its colours” also poses questions about our own credibility.
The reflexive character of what is shown is also manifested in a diverse accompanying program and in special workshop programs.

Artists:
Sam Durant, Claire Fontaine, Thomas Hirschhorn, Korpys / Löffler, Aernout Mik, R.E.P., Wilhelm Sasnal, Peter Sauerer, Tino Sehgal, Nasan Tur, Brigitte Waldach

Wednesday, 6 February, 18 to 21 hrs Marta art evening with panel discussion On this special evening, representatives of the press and the art world with strong opinions will discuss the possibility and the impossibility of political statements in contemporary art. The question of “Who can we believe?” will be explored by Prof. Dr. Georg Bussmann, who, as far back as 1970 as director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein, was responsible for the trend-setting exhibition “Art and Politics”, the free-lance author and critic Cynthia Krell, and collector Dr. h.c. Lutz Teutloff, whose virtual museum is currently showing the exhibition “Face of freedom”. Start: 19 hrs in the Marta Forum.

Simultaneously, as on the first Wednesday of every month, the exhibitions “Showing Its Colours – What Makes Art” and “good prospects - zoom” will be open free of charge from 18 to 21 hrs. In the “Art Moments” the Marta art speakers will give guided tours of both exhibitions.

Image: Aernout Mik, Osmosis and Excess, 2005, Video. Production photo: Florian Braun

Press contact:
Gwendolin Ross ‫ ׀‬Johanna Puchta
tel: +49 (0)5221-99 44 30-27, fax: +49 (0) 5221-99 44 30-18 e-mail: presse@marta-herford.de

Opening on Friday, 1 February 2013, at 19.30 hrs

Gehry-Galeries at the Marta Herford
Goebenstraße 2–10, D-32052 Herford
Opening times:
Tue – Sun and public holidays 11–18 hrs, 1st Wednesday/month 11.00–21.00 hrs
Entrance fee:
7 Euro, concessions* 4.50 Euro, families 15 Euro, groups as of 10 persons 4.50 Euro/person, school groups as of 6th grade 1.50 Euro/Person, admission free for children under 10 years, pupils and students on Tuesdays from 16.00 to 18.00 hrs, with Wittekindpass, Deutsche Bank ArtCard and D.A.CH. art card, on the first Wednesday every month from 18.00 to 21.00 hrs

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