11/7/2013
Anne Imhof
Portikus, Frankfurt
Parade. The artist examines traditional images, structures, and processes and develops new tactics that contribute to an expanded conception of performance. The exhibition shows how Imhof has found ways to straighten out the impermanence of performance in terms of time as well as space by introducing a variety of media such as film, drawing, and installation.
Portikus is pleased to present the first institutional solo exhibition of Anne
Imhof. Taking up the history of performance in the domain of art as well as music
and choreography, the artist examines traditional images, structures, and processes
and develops new tactics that contribute to an expanded conception of performance. A
crucial aspect of this endeavor is her engagement with a much-discussed genre often
felt to be fraught with problems: the documentation of performance. The exhibition
at Portikus shows how Imhof has found ways to straighten out the impermanence of
performance in terms of time as well as space by introducing a variety of media such
as film, drawing, and installation.
The films on display in the main gallery show three performances by the artist. The
work School of the Seven Bells translates Robert Bresson’s film Pickpocket (1959)
into a complex choreography that took months to develop and rehearse, portraying the
dance of pocket-picking. Imhof’s most recent work, Aqua Leo, 1st of at least two,
created for the exhibition at Portikus, is based on rituals and secret signs the
doormen at the legendary music club Robert-Johnson in Offenbach exchange at night.
The artist takes up insiders’ codes that hint at affiliations in particular
communities and sets them in new contexts.
Anne Imhof’s works are designed from the outset to exist in multiple versions that
unfold over an indeterminate period of time and in various places. The performance
Ähjeii, for example, was first staged in 2010 as the artist’s contribution to the
annual Städelschule Rundgang; a more elaborate implementation was presented at the
same event in 2011. In 2012, she filmed another enactment and then showed the video
while performing a live sound composition to go alongside. For her exhibition at
Portikus, Imhof went back toÄhjeii once more, filming the choreography in a public
space without spectators, effectively producing an imitation advance documentation
of the piece. This turn exemplifies the artist’s strategy of disassociating the
medium of performance art from the classical sequence of
“audience—event—documentation.”
Imhof applies the same approach to the two other works presented at Portikus, Aqua
Leo, 1st of at least two andSchool of the Seven Bells. Like Ähjeii, they take place
in new variants over the course of the exhibition’s duration. The actors’ movements,
gestures, signs, and glances prerecorded on film—and even the actors themselves—will
be clearly recognizable. The use of sound adds another layer to the artist’s
interest in interrogating the notion of “real experience.” Imhof has developed a
multipart composition that becomes part of the installation, with live presentations
during the performances. A language emerges that communicates not through words but
through the interplay between image, movement, and sound.
The exhibition at Portikus also features an oversized drawing attached to the
ceiling of the gallery. It shows sketches for the sequences of actions during the
performances, movement patterns for the actors, and lines indicating the division
into groups. In order to illustrate the significance of the process—including the
drafts and documents describing the development of Imhof’s pieces—for the complex
construct of the work, there is a selection of Imhof's drawings shown on the upper
floor.
The exhibition closes on September 7 with a concert by Imhof’s band Beautiful
Balance at Portikus and a party with DJ Chloé at Robert-Johnson.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication. Anne Imhof will also make an
artist’s edition.
Anne Imhof was born in Gießen in 1978 and lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. She
graduated from Städelschule in 2012, receiving the graduate prize for her final
project. In 2013 she holds the fellowship of the Hessische Kulturstiftung.
The exhibition is supported by Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main
Image: Anne Imhof, Parade, 2013. Photo by Nadine Fraczkowski.
July 12, 8 pm
Opening and performance Aqua Leo, 1st of at least two
July 13, 4 pm
Performance School of the Seven Bells, 4th of at least three
Ongoing performance starting from 11 am
September 7, 7 pm
Performance Ähjeii, followed by a concert of Beautiful Balance
From 10 pm: DJ Chloé at Robert-Johnson, Offenbach
Portikus
Alte Brücke 2 / Maininsel - D - 60594 Frankfurt/Main
Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 6pm
Wednesday 11am - 8pm
Mondays closed.
The admission is free