calendario eventi  :: 

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24/8/2005

Two exhibitions

Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover

Sarah Morris
Los Angeles

Sarah Morris (born in 1967), one of the most important contemporary painters on the international scene, became known in the 1990s with large-scale paintings which were concerned with the complexity of architectural structures and their sparkling surfaces.

Also in her current series Los Angeles (2004), Morris investigates the forms and structures of urban landscapes and metropolitan constructions as the basis of our social network. The kestnergesellschaft is presenting, along with large-scale paintings, her fifth and most recent film, which has the same name. Morris herself views her films as an addition to her painting and as opportunities for experiencing the complex psychological space of a site. Thus the thirty-eight-year-old artist, who lives in New York and London, continues her investigation of the psychology and aesthetic of American cities.

The kestnergesellschaft is devoting a wall-filling presentation to her film, which was shot in widescreen format. Situated somewhere between documentation and (self-)staging, the film catches for twenty-six minutes, in coolly perfected and glossy images, the likewise perfect and narcissistic world of the film metropolis Los Angeles. In varying sequences of images, held together by the pulsing soundtrack of the British artist Liam Gillick, Morris portrays in its most extreme aspect, namely the week of the Oscar awards, the unique architecture and the inhabitants of a city which constantly stages and celebrates itself. Sterile urban scenes and architectural details of a decentralized metropolitan landscape alternate with a view behind the scenes of the dream factory Hollywood. Protagonists of the film industry, artists, starlets, producers and directors such as Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman and Bob Evans are shown without commentary and narration, in situations which they themselves have selected. A film which is also about filmmaking and which succeeds, by means of a seemingly objective viewpoint, unusual camera perspectives and disclaiming close-ups, in revealing the artificiality of this glamorous but illusory world.


Candida Höfer
photographs 2004 | 2005

Candida Höfer, born in 1944 in Eberswalde near Berlin, belongs to the most important artists who work with the medium of photography. In Hannover she will present a series of new works which turn away from the libraries upon which there has recently been so intense a focus, and she will once again direct her attention to public spaces in general.

In 2004 she photographed museums and hotels in Ireland, public memorials in Prague, and multi-functional halls and theatres in Spain. The kestnergesellschaft will display these new works for the first time in Germany in a concentrated selection of 26 large-scale photographs. Höfer creates an archive of spaces which are not directly present in our consciousness but which strongly influence our lives from day to day. The exhibition in Hannover takes up this point of view that is so important in the oeuvre of Candida Höfer and thereby makes a substantial contribution to the further development of the entire body of works.

The artist attained great recognition at the end of the 1990s with her series Zoologische Gärten, in which Höfer photographed throughout the world the architecture of zoo complexes in an extensive series of colour photographs. This work offers, in spite of all its concentration upon formal aspects, a moral or critical manner of being read as well. In other works of Candida Höfer, the everyday situation of architecture and space stands at the centre of her interest. Series carrying such simple designations as Räume (Spaces) or exhibitions entitled Orte/Jahre (Places/Years) give clear expression to their restraint and sobriety.

Höfer studied from 1973 to 1982 at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf with Bernd and Hilla Becher. Candida Höfer provided the German contribution at the Biennale in Venice in 2003, and she was represented at the Documenta XI in 2002 with her work Die Bürger von Calais (The Citizens of Calais).

Following the exhibition in the kestnergesellschaft, Höfer’s works will be shown in the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea – Villa Ghirlanda, Cinisello Balsamo/Milano.

Publication A dual-language catalogue will appear in the publishing house Schirmer/Mosel comprising approximately sixty pages with 26 coloured photographs and containing a text by Maik Schlüter.
In the publishing house Schirmer/Mosel comprising approximately sixty pages with 26 coloured photographs and containing a text by Maik Schlüter
german/english 29,80 € in the exhibition

For press photography and further information feel free to contact our press-office
phone +49 511 70120 16, fax +49 511 70120 20

sponsors
Kunststiftung NRW
Niedersächsische Sparkassen Stiftung
the kestnergesellschaft is supported by the federal state of lower Saxony


Image: Sarah Morris

Opening Thursday, August 25, 2005, 8 pm
The artist will be present
speeches
Veit Görner, director,
and Maik Schlüter, curator of the exhibition

kestnergesellschaft,
Goseriede 11, 30159 Hanover
opening hours
daily 10 am – 7 pm
Thursdays 10 am – 9 pm
October 3, 2005, 10 am – 7 pm
closed Mondays

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