calendario eventi  :: 

X

14/8/2009

Isa Genzken

Museum Ludwig, Koln

Those were the magic words that Ali Baba uttered in order to enter the mountain cave where the 40 thieves kept their rich booty stashed away. This unexpected discovery almost cost him his life; ultimately it turned a lowly woodcutter into a distinguished man of charity. In this story from the Thousand and One Nights, scintillating splendour and staunch loyalty are closely intertwined with unprincipled destruction and envy. Open, Sesame! This catchphrase has been chosen by sculptor Isa Genzken as the title for her most comprehensive solo show to date, which Museum Ludwig has developed in cooperation with the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

From the aerodynamic wooden sculptures with notches that she made in the 1970s, to her recent frail installations in space, her works come across as a symbol of the tightrope act between beauty and destruction, grace and brutality that is not only experienced by Ali Baba in the tale, but also by us in our daily lives. With the current social, political and economic conditions in mind, Genzken reveals the unstable, bewildering and contradictory sides of our existence by questioning things that seem quite incontestable. And time and again the focus of her artistic work is directed to contemporary architecture, or the way exceptional circumstances are dealt with in society. With her ellipsoid sculptures, her architectural plaster and concrete pieces of the 1980s, and her recent works made of consumer goods and everyday objects, she still remains within the coordinates of a traditional sculptural approach. At the same time, however, her works distinguish themselves by a certain fragility, imperfection and openness that develop a highly charged relationship to the surrounding space and hint at an autobiographical, psycho-emotional dimension. With this she poses a challenge both to the achievements of modern sculpture as well as to contemporary concepts of the "work" that have followed on from Minimal Art and Conceptual Art. As a result, her position in the current art discourse has become authoritative and exceptional in equal measure.

In recent years Genzken has regularly put on large solo shows in international museums and exhibition spaces. These, however, have always been restricted to a few groups of works or have been geared to creating new works. With over 70 pieces, the exhibition Open, Sesame! offers for the first time the opportunity to trace Isa Genzken's artistic development over the course of more than 30 years - in all its thematic and formal complexity.

Image: Filming Children III, Detail, 2005, various materials, Museum Ludwig, Köln, Foto: Lothar Schnepf, Köln, © Isa Genzken

A catalogue is published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König Köln.

The exhibition is accompanied by talks (Paul Groot, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh and others).

Anne Buchholtz
Press and Public Relations
Telefon +49-221-221-23491 Telefax+49-221-221-24114 E-Mail buchholtz@museum-ludwig.de

Museum Ludwig
Heinrich-Böll-Platz, 50667 Köln
Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday:
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Every first Thursday of the month 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Closed on Monday

stampa

permanent link