calendario eventi  :: 

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22/2/2012

Three exhibitions

Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover

Medley tour by Andy Hope 1930

Curated by Antonia Lotz

In the exhibition Medley Tour by Andy Hope 1930, from 24 February to 29 April 2012, the kestnergesellschaft is showing new paintings by Andy Hope 1930 (*1963 in Munich, lives in Berlin) in combination with a selection of work from the past four years. Phantoms, superheroes, time machines and “suprematist ghosts” will populate the kestnergesellschaft for eight weeks, giving a current overview of Hope‟s work.

The self-adopted name of Andy Hope 1930 points to two systems of reference that are important to the artist: Hope associates the year 1930 with both the rise of the comic to a mass medium, or the birth of the superhero, and a premature abandonment of suprematism and Russian constructivism, which Hope revitalizes and continues. In Hope‟s art various elements from both systems are related and contrasted to further historical and pop-cultural images worlds.

In his exhibition at the kestnergesellschaft Andy Hope will present his new series of Medleys. A medley, among other things, is a piece of music made up of several harmonically adjusted melodies – frequently from a musician‟s entire output. Hope has taken a similar approach to his new works, in which he composes and improvises images from elements used in early works (paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures) with the intention of altering the way they are perceived through this “reinterpretation.” In drawing on his own repertoire of images Andy Hope makes new connections between figures, texts, iconographies and colors through which he undertakes a fresh and informal self-revision of his own work. His characteristic playing with time reaches a new high point in the Medleys, and it is a connecting element in all the works in the exhibition at the kestnergesellschaft. Alongside Hope‟s Phantoms, the Time Tubes, objects somewhere between painting and sculpture, and the Espace de Voyage, a kind of collapsible and thus mobile space, will take the visitor on a journey through time and the artist‟s cosmos.

Andy Hope 1930 appeared at the kestnergesellschaft – as Andreas Hofer – in the group exhibitions Made in Germany in 2007 and Back to Black in 2008. He studied at the Munich Academy of Visual Arts and the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. His works can be found in important international collections, including those of the Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Abteiberg Musueum in Mönchengladbach and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Catalogue Medley Tour by Andy Hope 1930. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with 40 color plates. In English and German with a foreword by Veit Görner and texts by John C. Welchman and Antonia Lotz.

Edition: an exclusive edition will be issued for this exhibition.

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John Smith
Bildstörung

curated by Kathrin Meyer

In the exhibition Bildstörung (picture interference) the kestnergesellschaft is showing a selection of works by the artist and filmmaker John Smith (*1952 In Walthamstow, East London). The selection focuses on films that strikingly undermine the smooth interaction of language or sound and image. John Smith reflects on the possibilities and boundaries of the medium of film. He plays with the various artistic procedures of montage (image, sound, language, cut). Interruptions and irritations question the usual functioning of film, such as the creation of tension, narrative progression or the simulation of reality. In John Smith‟s films and videos unexpected combinations lead to astute and humorous payoffs. As in Om (1986), for example, in which a supposed Buddhist monk turns out to be quite a different figure; or in Gargantuan (1992), in which a gigantic amphibian shrinks to mini-size before our every eyes.

The Black Tower (1985–87) plays expertly with the possibilities of sound and image montage. The narration tells of fear of persecution and a dark threat – an omnipresent black tower seems to pursue the protagonist through London, and ultimately entirely occupies the frame. John Smith finds his subject matter in everyday life and reflects on the social developments going on around him; he explicitly expresses himself as a part of society and an object of its politics. The Hotel Diaries (2001–07), a series of seven videos, came about in various hotel rooms during Smith‟s travels.

The artist began this work during a stay in Ireland 2001, when he switched on the television to see what was happening in the early war in Afghanistan, only to find himself confronted by a frozen frame. Proceeding from this irritation, Smith takes up his camera and thinks out loud about the significance of this unmoving television image and his own worries about the state of the broadcasting station in London. All at once the war extends into the hotel room, and the repercussions of world politics become tangible even on this personal level. In the following Hotel Diaries Smith‟s gaze also oscillates between his immediate hotel reality, with its specific interior, and global political contexts. The seven videos are a subjective and spontaneous assessment of conditions and make no claims to truth or accuracy. They follow and express Smith‟s own feelings. In doing so they exemplify Smith‟s attitude to the media conveyance of reality, an approach characterized by a revelation of its mechanisms and by taking nothing for granted.

John Smith‟s films have been shown at the 6th berlin biennale (2010), the Tate Britain (2011–12), Peer, London (2011) and elsewhere. They have received many awards and been screened at film festivals around the world. The Royal College of Art presented a comprehensive retrospective of John Smith‟s work in 2010. In 2011 he was the recipient of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award.

Works by John Smith will be shown parallel to the exhibition in the Weserburg, Bremen (21 January – 25 March 2012). Further information: www.weserburg.de

A catalogue of the exhibition will appear in autumn 2012.

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Barbara Klemm
Portraits of artists

curated by Susanne Figner

In the exhibition Portraits of Artists the kestnergesellschaft is showing portraits by one of Germany‟s most well-known journalistic photographers. Alongside photographs of famous musicians and writers, Barbara Klemm‟s presentation will centre on images of visual artists. Photographs of the painters Daniel Richter and Alex Katz will be shown for the first time, together with new ones of Richard Serra and Neo Rauch.

Barbara Klemm photographs her subjects in poses that are neither sensational nor glamorous, but that persuade the viewer of the individuality of her models. The charm of the works lie in the modesty and reticence of the photographer, who is never intrusive even when up close. In this way she is able to capture a person‟s strengths in subtle details and gestures. In her work Barbara Klemm has perfected an eye for the exceptional in the everyday.

Barbara Klemm established herself as one of Germany‟s most important journalistic photographers with her political and social picture stories. After training in a Karlsruhe portrait studio she worked for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 1959 to 2005, focusing mainly on politics and culture. Some of her images, such us those of Willy Brandt and Leonid Brezhnev, or Brandt and Helmut Schmidt, have meanwhile become icons in the “photographic memory” of German society. Barbara Klemm has also undertaken photo-journalistic assignments to many countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Aside from reportage, portraits form an important part of her output.

The Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe showed an large retrospective of Barbara Klemm‟s work in 2010. Other important solo exhibitions include the Marta Herford (2005), the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (1999), the German Historical Museum in Berlin and the Folkwang Museum in Essen (1982).

Press: Konstantin Wenzel, tel. +49 511 7012016, presse@kestnergesellschaft.de

Press preview Wednesday 22 February 2012, 11 a.m., with the artists

Opening Thursday 23 Februayr 2012, 7 p.m, with the artists

Kestnergesellschaft
Goseriede 11 Hannover
Hours daily 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., thursday 11 a.m. – 8 p.m., monday closed
admission: €7, concession €5. Free entry for members and children under 15. Your ticket entitles you to repeat visits for the duration of the exhibition and can be handed on to others.

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