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6/3/2010

Albrecht Schafer

Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen

curated by Stefanie Kreuzer

The exhibition Albrecht Schäfer–Ein Tag presents a comprehensive retrospective of the work by the artist born in Stuttgart and now living in Berlin. Alongside a selection of works comprising a variety of media, such as installation, sculpture, video, frottage, and collage, there are also works that engage most resolutely with the castle's specific architectural and atmospheric situation.

Many of the materials used by the artist, for example, plaster, pencil shavings, roof battens, or paper lampshades, are deployed in an unusual and surprising way, thereby disrupting the observer's accustomed structures of perception. Light plays a particularly important role for Albrecht Schäfer here. "Seams" are repeatedly formed on a variety of levels where and whenever the building and the works themselves come into contact. Light manifests itself variously as rays, spots, shadows, twilight, or by its very absence as it is palpably diverted or broken up over the respective materials that make up the different works. On account of the familiar and commonplace materials used, the works themselves invite the viewer to question his or her thinking, i.e. the rules and norms of perception and comprehension, in a surprising and playful manner.

In the work "Ein Tag" which gives its name to the exhibition, the layout of a daily newspaper is broken down into its constituent parts especially for the sequence of rooms in the museum. For this purpose, the text is cut out sentence by sentence and presented on the wall of the castle, from left to right at eye level as a single line of text, with photographs and images from the newspaper inserted at appropriate places. The artistic intervention in the rooms can be interpreted variously, depending upon one's physical point of view; sometimes as a line of text, then occasionally as a blurred horizontal line marking out a kind of "section" throughout the whole building. In this way, the perceived oscillation of the line becomes the crux of the installation. On the one hand, it fixes, in its continual progress and within a precise system of coordinates, all the images, photographs, or newspaper cuttings that Albrecht Schäfer has hung beneath the horizontal line; on the other, it also appears as a self-contained work of art. Thus, actual reflection upon the multiple interpretations becomes a fundamental, integral element in the understanding of the works.

The show is part of a series of exhibitions staged by Museum Morsbroich that invites artists to engage actively with the special characteristics of the baroque moated castle. The exhibition is curated by Stefanie Kreuzer. Albrecht Schäfer will have an artist talk during the art fair ART COLOGNE on Friday, April 23, at 5 pm in the Rhineland Lounge.

A 160 page catalogue including one hundred colour photographs, texts by Ben Carter and Clemens Krümmel, a preface by the museum's director, Markus Heinzelmann, and an interview between Albrecht Schäfer and Stefanie Kreuzer will be published by the Kerber Verlag to accompany the exhibition. [ISBN 978-3-86678-392-8.]

Press conference: March 4, 2010 at 11 am
Opening: March 7, 2010 at noon

Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen
Gustav-Heinemann-Strasse 80, 51377 Leverkusen
Opening times: Tuesday 11 am until 9 pm.
Wednesday - Sunday 11 am until 5 pm.
Closed on April 2, 2010 and April 5, 2010.

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