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6/5/2013

A Little Might Music...

Essl Museum Contemporary Art, Klosterneuburg

Curated by René Block

Exhibition Organisation: Andreas Hoffer, Eva Köhler

The important German curator, museum director, collector and gallerist René Block has been invited by Agnes and Karlheinz Essl to curate an exhibition from the holdings of the Essl Collection. With >A Little Might Music . . . Report from the Depot<, Block wishes to demonstrate the powerlessness of the curator in the face of the power of the paintings. The focus is on the artistic trends in the Austria of the 1960s, Vienna Actionism, avant-garde and their offshots. René Block has already combined many roles in the internationtal art world and his résumé contains the essential cornerstones of recent German art history, in which he has been decisively involved. He opened his first gallery in Berlin as a 22-year-old, with the exhibition “Neodada, Pop, Decollage, Kapitalistischer Realismus” [Neodada, Pop, Decollage, Capitalist Realism]. In 1974 Block launched a gallery at the New York adddress 409, West Broadway, in Soho. He started with an action by Joseph Beuys with the title “I like America and America likes me”, in which Beuys shut himself inside the gallery with a coyote for four days – which took him to the limits of his physical and psychological capacity. Although René Block in his New York gallery primarily dedicated himself to the Fluxus artists, in 1977 he conceived an exhibition there with the title “The spirit of Vienna”, which focused on works by Austrian artists. There were points of contact with many of the Austrian artists who had had to leave Austria in the 1960s and 1970s and who had found an exile in West Berlin; thus Block lived for a year in a commune in Berlin with H. C. Artmann. Christian Ludwig Attersee had also rented a place in the same house. A frequent guest was Gerhard Rühm, with whom Block worked closely together on exhibitions and soirées. Block later co-founded “Art Cologne”, curated biennials in Sydney and Istanbul, and for many years managed the Fridericianum Gallery in Kassel and galleries in Germany and New York. Not least he is considered as one of the most important sponsors of the German Fluxus movement and organised concerts, actions, performances and happenings with artists from the international Fluxus movement. Early on he discovered artists who today have reputations and names, such as Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik and Sigmar Polke.

For years part of René Block’s curatorial focus has been on the south-east European area and Turkey; since 2004 he has also been the jury president of the Essl Art Award CEE. With his exhibition in the Essl Museum, Block addresses the role of the curator, which is familiar to him, which feels a powerlessness in view of the flood of images. Against this background he approaches a theme that has long been a blank spot on his own artistic map, when in the depot of the Essl Museum he explores what happened in the Austrian avant-garde of the 1960s. Block was then at the centre of the Fluxus movement in Germany, where post- war art was developing completely differently than in Austria. “It is like diving into unknown waters. Here I am not talking about the ocean of global culture, not about a clear mountain lake of a strict conception, but rather of a lake created by a dam, which has continually grown as a result of the inflow and continues to expand, which has depths and shoals. I am talking about what is probably the largest private collection in Austria. If one dives down to the bottom of this, then there are a range of possible approaches for an exhibition. If I have chosen the 1960s, then it is also because my interest and involvement with art began in that period. If I have chosen Austrian, Viennese art from the 1960s as my starting point, it is also because I can finally deal more intensively with this important artistic parallel world to my previous practice,” says René Block. Block’s selection is diverse but concentrated: the Vienna avant-garde of the 1960s, with Arnulf Rainer, Oswald Oberhuber, Maria Lassnig, the Viennese Actionists Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch are at the beginning but also at the centre of the exhibition, which spans an arc from artists such as VALIE EXPORT/Peter Weibel, C.L. Attersee, Franz West, Bruno Gironcoli, Gerhard Rühm, Rudolf Schwarzkogler and Erwin Wurm.

The private collection of Agnes and Karlheinz Essl, comprising more than 7,000 works, gives a unique overview of international contemporary art, which is marked by a collector’s passion. Since the opening exhibition “The First View” by the curator Rudi Fuchs in 1999, ever new international curators have been invited to curate exhibitions from the Essl Collection. Most recently the German artist Albert Oehlen received a carte blanche for an exhibition from the collection.

The Essl Museum will publish a catalogue with numerous pictures and a talk between collectors with René Block, Agnes and Karlheinz Essl.

The art education team offers guided tours and workshops during the exhibition, for example the special guided tour >A LITTLE MIGHT MUSIC...< every Sunday at 11.00 a.m., further details on the programme ART EDUCATION >>

Visitors can use the free shuttle-bus service from the centre of Vienna, Albertinaplatz 1. Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m., 12 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.; return from the Essl Museum at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m

Press photos are available upon request at the Press Office or via download from PRESS >>

PRESS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE
Erwin Uhrmann (head), uhrmann@essl.museum, +43 (0) 2243/370 50 60
Regina Holler-Strobl, holler-strobl@essl.museum, +43 (0) 2243/370 50 62

Opening: Tuesday, 07 May 2013, 7.30 p.m.

ESSL MUSEUM – Contemporary Art
An der Donau-Au 1, A-3400 Klosterneuburg / Vienna, Austria
Opening hours: TUE – SUN 10.00 – 18.00, WED 10.00 – 21.00
Tickets Essl Museum: regular € 7,- und reduced € 5,-

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