calendario eventi  :: 

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17/9/2009

Three exhibitions

Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg

Ursula Mayer
Ellipse in Time
September 19 - November 22, 2009

Ursula Mayer (*1970, lives in London) has repeatedly turned to the subject of architecture and its social functions in her films. She does not see spaces as merely film settings or locations, but instead casts them in the role of fictitious characters within a narrative. They stand on an equal footing with the protagonists, who are usually well-known female characters portrayed by actresses using authentic period dress and poses modeled on photographs or film footage. Removed from their time and historic context, they enter into a dialogue in which their relationship remains indifferent, thus allowing various interpretations.

This is also true of "Interiors" (2006). It is set at 2 Willow Road in Hampstead, London – the house designed by the architect Ernö Goldfinger, where he lived with his wife Ursula Blackwell and his family until his death in 1975. In addition to his wife’s studio and various pieces of furniture designed by Goldfinger, the modernist building houses an extensive art collection with works by well-known representatives of modern art, ranging from Max Ernst to Marcel Duchamp. In the late 1930s, the house was a popular gathering place for the artistic avant-garde. In "Interiors" it serves as a backdrop for two women of different ages, who echo each other’s actions although they never encounter one another directly. They stride through the striking rooms of the house, apparently lost in thought and fascinated by the artworks sur-rounding them. Although the house looks lived in, the two women seem like extras on a movie set or silent observers of an unfamiliar environment. The private, “feminine” sphere of the home is contrasted with the outside world, which features only as the noise of a thunderstorm in the background. The spiral staircase that links the different levels of the building serves as a hinge between the real exhibition space and the setting of the fictional narrative of the film. The projection extends over an entire wall and opens up a further space where the lines between fact and fiction are blurred. The alternating use of black-and-white and color footage further manipulates time and reality. A sculpture by Barbara Hepworth is assigned a central role, acting as both a connecting and a dividing element between the female characters and reflecting their hopes of uniting life and art.

The silent film "Memories of Mirrors / Dramatic personalities after Mary Wigman and Madame d’Ora" (2007/08) stages reenactments of well-known photographs that Madame d’Ora took of Mary Wigman’s Dance Company in the 1920s. These images are visual representations of Wigman’s philosophy; the dancer/choreographer developed her own style of modern dance that broke away from its subordination to music and was characterized by dramatic, expressive gestures. Madame d’Ora (born Dora Kallmus) discovered dance as a subject early in her photographic career and found innovative approaches to representing scenic arrange-ments and minimalist poses. The central female figure in Ursula Mayer’s film wears a se-quined dress that, with her movements and the play of light and shadow, becomes a shimmer-ing, iridescent gown. As the choreography unfolds, her initial self-reflection in a mirror is shifted to the audience, which itself becomes part of the tableau vivant as the mirror reflects the light and short-circuits the space between the dancers, the camera, the projector and the spectators.

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Nina Canell
Five Kinds of Water
September 19 - November 22, 2009

In her fragile installations, the Swedish artist Nina Canell (*1979, lives in New York) transmutes man-made objects and ‘natural’ objets trouvés into experiments on changeability. Electrical appliances and neon tubes are combined with water and wood, with funnels, musical instruments, and broomsticks, which are taken out of their familiar utilitarian contexts and mounted into unhierarchical assemblies. Each element – also in the sense of sculptural and formal balance – plays an essential but not absolute role as part of a transitory event. The material becomes actor, developing its own temporal and narrative logic. Canell’s works can have a ghostly atmosphere, where, for example, mist rises from a knothole in a floorboard to disperse in space. The element of a natural event breaths temporary, visible life into the material, extending this experience to the exhibition space, since there are more potentially breathing holes in the floorboards. This fragile aliveness brings nature mysticism to mind, at times calling our perception of reality into question. Despite latent invisibility, sound, as well as music and energy are elements in Canell's installations, developing a synaesthetic horizon of experience. Objects and natural events are given a sculptural, temporary, almost performative form in which the various materials influence one another, giving rise to narrative associations that remain constantly in motion.

The exhibition is funded by Culture Ireland.

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Ali Maria Robohm
September 19 - November 14, 2009

The Living Archive on the ground floor of the Kunstverein presents hitherto unknown drawings and designs by the Hamburg illustrator and graphic artist Ali Maria Robohm (1908-1993). In the 1950s and 1960s, she was instrumental in shaping the graphic appearance of the Kunstverein Hamburg, producing not only numerous posters and invitation cards but also drawing for the design of exhibition spaces. She also worked as graphic artist for the Hamburg Port Authority and as book illustrator.

Her many-facetted work is particularly striking in her use of typography. The works on public display for the first time include hand-drawn exhibition posters on Ernst-Wilhelm Nay or Jackson Pollock, as well as sketches and typographic samples. Robohm’s treatment of typography shapes form and space and thus relates closely to architecture. For instance, perspective architectural and spatial drawings interrelate with her graphic designs. The majority of the works presented date from the early 1930s and clearly reflect the architectural and typographic trends of the period. It is not by chance that her construction drawings and collages recall the designs of Bauhaus artists, for this was where various fields such as architecture, art, design, and typography blended in inimitable fashion. Robohm’s geometrical designs, like her use of photographic collage elements with the promise of direct pictorial impact follow in the steps of modernistic design principles.


Image: Ursula Mayer

For further information please contact Beate Anspach, Tel. +49(0)40 322158 presse@kunstverein.de

Opening Friday, September 18, 2009, 7 pm

Kunstverein Hamburg
Der Kunstverein, since 1817 Klosterwall 23 20095 Hamburg
Hours
Tuesday – Sunday and Public Holidays 12 am – 6 pm
Open on Good Friday, Easter Monday, May 1st, Whit Monday, Ascension Day, Feast of Corpus Christi, October 3rd
Admission
5,- Euro / Reduced 3,- Euro
Free entrance for members of the Kunstverein, kids and
young adults under age 18

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