In contemporary art too, the art of past centuries is experiencing a veritable comeback. While in the 1980s, under the heading Appropriation Art, the art of modernism and above all the 20^th century was being cited by artists, for some years now we have been witnessing an increased orientation around Old Masters painting and traditional techniques. A younger generation is turning to the art of past epochs and, as carriers of cultural memory updating the “mnemic energies” (Aby Warburg) stored in the masterpieces for today.

 

Artists in the exhibition

Philip Akkerman, Irene Andessner, José Manuel Ballester, Glenn Brown, Léo Caillard, Wim Delvoye, Slawomir Elsner, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Jochen Flinzer, Christian Jankowski, Liane Lang, Liza Lou, Pia Maria Martin, Brigitte Maria Mayer, Chantal Michel, Jean-Luc Moerman, Yasumasa Morimura, Ciprian Mureşan, Agathe Pitié, Antoine Roegiers, Markus Schinwald, Cindy Sherman, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ged Quinn, Kehinde Wiley

 

Curator

Nicole Fritz

 

Exhibition Catalogue

152 pages, Hardcover, numerous colour illustrations
Publisher: Nicole Fritz
Essays by Nicole Fritz, Zita Hartel, Johannes Meinhardt and Klaus Speidel.
Kunsthallen-Special-prize: 30 €

The exhibition CONGO STARS will show popular painting dating from the 1960s to today, side by side with contemporary art using other artistic means. In cooperation with the Kunsthaus Graz, the Royal Museum of Central Africa Tervuren, the Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth and PICHA in Lubumbashi, about 150 works will be presented by about 70 Congolese artists who live in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Brussels, Aachen or Paris.

The conceptual departure point for the exhibition is Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s novel Tram 83, in which the author describes an imaginary place which may refer to the social reality of Congolese metropolises but cannot be associated with any concrete city. The exhibition also builds an imaginary place that draws on different realities and in doing so interweaves politics, exploitation, corruption, violence, religion, mythology, spirituality, star cult and everyday life, as well as pleasure, passion and sensual desire.

The tour of the exhibition unfolds along six chapters – Street, Bar, At home, Mythology, Stars, Exploitation. The real and imaginary places and spaces which are dovetailed have community- and identity-building functions and condense aspects of the fictional. A timeline with a great diversity of music stations, texts and originals provides information on the history of the events and on the context of Congolese art.

The exhibition title addresses popular culture, stars and heroes of Congolese society. It also refers to the stars on the national flag, the changing political systems and regimes, for not only the name of today’s Democratic Republic of the Congo was altered according to the state doctrine, but also the appearance of the national flags. CONGO STARS even points to an actual ‘reaching for the stars’, that is, Zaire’s short-lived but ambitious space programme under President Mobuto in the 1970s, which the latter attempted to implement with the support of the German company OTRAG – Orbital Transport Raketen Aktion Gesellschaft.

CONGO STARS however is anything but a “national” show of achievements of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Instead, it mixes the real experiences, projections, dreams and longings of artists who live in the Congo and in Europe. What is also tangible for the visitor is not least the longing for a positively-connoted social space located territorially and temporally ‘outside’ – a perspective for the future.

Artists of the exhibition

Alfi Alfa (Alafu Bulongo), Apollo, Prince Badra, Sammy Baloji, David N. Bernatchez, Kiripi, Gilbert Banza Nkulu, Chéri Benga (Hyppolite Benga Nzau), Junior Bilaka, Bodo (Camille-Pierre Pambu Bodo),  Claude Bosana, Dominique Bwalya Mwando, Chéri Cherin, (Joseph Kinkonda), Trésor Cherin, (Nzeza Lumbu), Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, Revital Cohen, Edisak, Ekunde (Bosoku), Sam Ilus (Mbombe Ilunga), Jean Kamba, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Kasongo, Jean Mukendi Katambayi, Kayembe F, Aundu Kiala, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Ange Kumbi, Hilaire Balu Kuyangiko, Lady Kambulu, Gosette Lubondo, Lukany, Ernest Lungieki, George Makaya Lusavuvu, Tinda Lwimba, Michèle Magema, Maho Zaire, Mampela, Manuva Mani, Maurice Mbikayi, Mbuëcky Jumeaux (oder: Mbvecky Frères), Micha JP Mika (Jean Paul Nsimba), Mega Mingiedi Tunga, Moke (Monsengo Kejwamfi), Moke-Fils (Jean Marie Mosengo Odia), Mson Becha Shérif Decor, Musondo, Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, Nkaz Mav, Vincent Nkulu, Chéri Samba (Samba wa Mbimba N’Zingo Nuni Masi Ndo Mbasi), SAPINart (Makengele Mamungwa), Monsengo Shula, Sim Simaro (Nsingi Simon), Soku Ldj, Maître SYMS (Bayangu Mayala), Marciano Tajho, Tambwe, Tshibumba Kanda Matulu, Pathy Tshindele Kapinga, Turbo

im cooperation with

Kunsthaus Graz,  Königliches Museum für Zentralafrika Tervuren,  Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth, PICHA

Curators

Sammy Baloji, Bambi Ceuppens, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Günther Holler-Schuster and Barbara Steiner.

 

gefördert im Fonds TURN der

Dreh- und Angelpunkt im Werk von Birgit Jürgenssen ist dabei der Körper. Dieser ist nicht nur Gegenstand ihrer Zeichnungen sondern auch die Erfahrungsinstanz, aus der heraus sie diese entwickelt. In den Zeichnungen der 1970er Jahre hat sie mit seismografischem Spürsinn festgehalten, was dem begrifflichen und damit bewussten Erfassen vorausgeht: Zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen, Sexualität, gesellschaftsbedingte Schönheitsvorstellungen und Geschlechterverhältnisse werden von ihr mit subversivem Humor selbstironisch ebenso reflektiert wie tiefere Schichten ihrer eigenen Identität.

War der Blick auf das Werk der Künstlerin bislang vor allem auch durch Arbeiten zum Geschlechterverhältnis geprägt, ist es uns ein Anliegen, die Perspektive darauf weiter zu dimensionieren. Die Ausstellung und auch die Beiträge im begleitenden Katalog bearbeiten zum einen bislang wenig beachtete Werkblöcke wie die Fotografien und ihr Spätwerk. Zum anderen zeigen wir, dass Birgit Jürgenssen Bilder und Symbole unserer gesamten Kulturgeschichte mit eigener geistiger und emotionaler Energie aufgeladen und so für die Gegenwart aktualisiert hat. Ihr körperbezogener Ansatz erhält gerade heute, in einer Zeit, in der es durch die Digitalisierung zu einer zunehmenden Verflachung der Alltagswahrnehmung kommt, eine neue Aktualität. Ihr Werk, das aus dem Intimen kommt, steht nicht zuletzt für ein authentisches, innengeleitetes Leben und letztlich auch für den selbstbestimmten und emanzipatorischen Impuls der Kunst.

Kuratorinnen

Natascha Burger und Nicole Fritz

Hauptleihgeber

Estate Birgit Jürgenssen

Private Leihgeber

Sammlung Verbund, Wien

Die Ausstellung wird im Anschluss an die Kunsthalle Tübingen auch an nachfolgenden Stationen zu sehen sein:
GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (Bergamo, Italien), 8. März – 19. Mai 2019
LOUISIANA Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Dänemark), Sommer 2019

Katalog

Es erscheint ein Katalog mit Textbeiträgen von:
Patricia Allmer, Michael Bracewell, Louisa Buck, Natascha Burger, Maurizio Cattelan, Melissa Destino, Marta Dziewańska, Heike Eipeldauer, Nicole Fritz, Lorenzo Giusti, Jessica Morgan, Gabriele Schor, Jasper Sharp, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Ninja Walbers

Kunsthallen-Sonderpreis: 29,90 €

In the 1960s, with the inclusion of everyday reality in art, American artists Duane Hanson, John De Andrea and George Segal turned once more to a realistic depiction of the human body. Through the use of traditional techniques such as modelling, casting and painting, they created hyperrealistic sculptures that renewed the realistic tradition in sculpture, which had long been considered to be outdated. This figurative impulse inspired subsequent generations of sculptors, who to this very day have carried on the hyperrealistic pictorial idiom of the pioneers in a contemporary manner.

Almost Alive provides a survey of the hyperrealistic movement of the past 50 years and is thus the first exhibition worldwide to focus on the development of this sculptural genre in the 20th and 21st centuries. The more than 30 exhibits on show not only outline this art movement from the 1970s to the present, but also highlight how depictions of human corporeality have always been shaped by the respective zeitgeist and in retrospect can be seen as mirroring time-bound concepts of the body.

The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Tübingen brings together hyperrealistic sculptures from around the world (U.S., Canada, Australia, Scotland, Italy, Spain and Belgium, among others) in a chronological arrangement. Starting with the pioneers of the movement from the U.S. and Great Britain, the exhibition tour leads on via Robert Gober, Berlinde de Bruyckere and Maurizio Cattelan – who under the influence of digitization in the 1990s each in their individual way updated the body anew as the seat of the Ego in the form of hyperrealistic sculptures – to more recent positions, such as that of Marie-Eve Levasseur – who addresses the theme of the influence of technology on the human body.

The sculptures gathered here not only fascinate through their veristic link to reality and their precise craftsmanship. They aim not least to draw attention to our voyeuristic media-steered patterns of reception and to the vulnerability and fragility of our own body.