Inge Mahn
dal 5/6/2015 al 17/7/2015
Segnalato da
5/6/2015
Inge Mahn
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
For the first time, Inge Mahn's sculptural installations are also accompanied by her works on paper. The drawings, relentlessly produced during her travels on which she wasnot able to work on sculptures, were created between 1978 and 2000 during her stays in Norway.
Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to present an exhibition with works by Inge Mahn at Goethestrasse 2/3. This is the artist's second solo exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler. The previous one took place in Stuttgart in 1975, being at that time her first solo presentation altogether.
Inge Mahn is known for her sculptural and performance work, the former based almost exclusively around the material of plaster. In all media, Mahn's approach deals with everyday life and objects, often distorted or placed in a new context and reacting very closely to its architectural and social environment. The position of the observer is always part of Mahn's work, with her focusing closely on how to create a mental and physical access to the artwork itself. Even though the majority of Mahn's sculptures take over the form of existing objects, the artist never creates copies of it, but rather portraits, thus questioning the scope of the term 'portrait' itself.
The space of the exhibition is visually divided by a spatial sculpture Roter Teppich (Red Carpet), first shown at Mahn's solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf in 1980. As described by Stephan von Wiese in the catalogue Inge Mahn. Baustellen/Construction Sites (2011): “For reasons of content alone, Mahn's otherwise consistently white color spectrum was broadened: the color “red” was a constant, unchanging emblem of sovereignty spanning the humble ground, a color-symbol whose colorful identity had to be maintained. The fact that the carpet here climbs the walls makes an imaginary walk along it into an Ascension of potentates. The red carpet line becomes independent, loses its function, turns into a piece of art, a sculpture in space. The putative solemnity of the unfurled carpet is presented as a comedy number.”
Kinetic sculptures, represented in the exhibition by the works Stuhlkreis (2000), Erbsenzählen (2009) and Unruhe (2002), appeared in Mahn's work mostly during the last 15 years. In these sculptures, the forms slide, spin and bump, filling the space with constant musical whirl.
For the first time, Inge Mahn's sculptural installations are also accompanied by her works on paper. The drawings, relentlessly produced during her travels on which she wasnot able to work on sculptures, were created between 1978 and 2000 during her stays in Norway, the Caribbean or her residency in MoMA PS1 in New York.
Image: Inge Mahn, Staffelei mit acht Bildern, 1978; Photo: def image Courtesy: The artist and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris
Opening: 6 June 2015, 6-8pm
Galerie Max Hetzler
Goethestrasse 2/3 / Berlin
Tue - Sat 11am to 6pm