Kunsthalle Wien #FemaleFool Booklet I’m Isa Genzken, The Only Female Fool

Museumsquartier I’m Isa Genzken, The Only Female Fool 28/5 – 7/9 2014 www.kunsthallewien.at “Genzken’s urban aesthetic the sculptural field. It casts a critical operates at levels at once indexical, look at the present in her work, and connotative, denotative, material, takes this as the starting point for a symbolic and allegorical”, Joshua radical reinvention of reality. Formal Decter writes in the publication that rigor is confronted with a playful accompanies the exhibition. “She combination of materials, and the seems to have an intuitive grasp homogeneous with the disparate. of cities as territories of wonder, However, the diversity of expression complexity, fear and hope.” is never arbitrary, but corresponds to the dynamics of the big city, The large-scale exhibition at which on account of its ambivalence Kunsthalle Wien focuses on still serves as the main source of Genzken’s fascination with the inspiration for Genzken. The classical urban. Her sculptural exploration rigor of modern architecture, the of architecture is accompanied by post-modern fascination with the reflections on the social and the lived trivial and the motley combination of space in the global metropolises. vastly different styles in the real urban Genzken’s Social Facades (2002) space, constitute the raw material with their reflective surfaces are of her sculptures and assemblages, reminiscent of the reflective surfaces collages and films. of corporate buildings, however they also distort our own image, which is Genzken shares this exploration thereby reflected in the shimmering of contradictions of urban life and and reflective sheets from the DIY its inherent potential for social store that are pasted with image change with artists such as Gordon objects. Her New Buildings for Matta-Clark and whose (2014) are euphoric, utopian designs work she admires. In the exhibition that teach the actually built conformity selected works of these artists are tristesse, how great contemporary showcased with works by Genzken in building could look. The Beach Huts a dialogue, which is intended to focus (2000) celebrate the improvised on the parallels in their explorations temporary dwelling, as another place of the urban space. Works by Carl of longing. Science Fiction/Hier und Andre, Jasper Johns, Gerhard jetzt zufrieden sein (2001), which Richter, and was jointly produced with Wolfgang Lawrence Weiner are also exhibited. Tillmans, forms with its large reflective For Genzken they are a source of cubes a resonator that duplicates the inspiration, of artistic dialogue, and environment and suggestively draws communal works. the viewer into the abstract space of pictorial illusion. Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen

Although Genzken’s multifaceted A publication with texts by Joshua work in essence entails a surprising Decter and Tom McDonough is wealth of ideas, it nevertheless published by Sternberg Press to provides for a clear anchorage in accompany the exhibition.

2 Ellipsoids and New York Hyperboles “To me, New York had a direct link with sculpture ... New York is a city of incredible stability and solidity. And then the height of the buildings ...” (Isa Genzken in conversation with Wolfgang Tillmans). The photographic series New York shot between 1998 and 2000 comprises approximately 600 b/w and colour photographs. They are pictures of skyscrapers, facades, reflecting window fronts, urban canyons and Isa Genzken, Blau-grün-gelbes Ellipsoid ‘Joma’, buildings that are mirrored in other 1981, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne buildings. Urbanity presents itself in these images as an agglomeration of Ellipsoids and Hyperboles are among impressive and elegant skyscrapers, Genzken’s earliest works. She a symbol of modernity. These produced these lacquered wooden images, that were shot with no great sculptures in the seventies aided by a effort yet seem to pursue a strong carpenter and a physics student. composition, are reminiscent of the The shape of the elongated, photography of the Neues Sehen streamlined sculptures was (New Vision movement), which itself calculated by a computer, in those days a very elaborated process. The perfectly converging parallels of the coloured wooden sculptures only touch the floor in one respectively two places. They give structure to the space that surrounds them. With their polished and shiny lacquered surface they enjoy an uncanny presence, where reified associations are overshadowed by geometrical constructedness. Centre of gravity and point of contact create a tension that is absorbed by the sculpture’s curvatures. In these works the surface appears to possess a certain depth, while depth presents itself as a curved folding of the surface.

Isa Genzken, New York, N.Y., 1998/2000, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne

3 was characterised by Bauhaus. New Buildings Their detailed view is abstract and often diagonally shifted to emphasise for Berlin the dynamics of architecture. The speed of a metropolis is visualised in the geometrically structured buildings and the grid-shaped roads that aim to accelerate. I Love New York, Crazy City is the title of collaged books Genzken made in 1996 in which she pays homage to her beloved city.

Isa Genzken, New Buildings for Berlin (Alpha), 2014, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne

Architecture, probably Genzken’s most important subject, is succinctly expressed in her models for New Buildings for Berlin. These abstract models for high-rises follow the utopian spatial concepts of classical modernity like Mies van der Rohe’s design for a glass skyscraper in Berlin’s Bahnhof Friedrichstraße from 1922. “Only skyscrapers under construction reveal their bold constructive thoughts, and then the impression made by their soaring skeletal frames is overwhelming”, van der Rohe noted then. Genzken elaborates on this constructive thought and arranges coloured glass into sculptural formations. The work refers to the principles of modernism with its visionary, even societal

4 requirements but at the same time mirror of a reifying subjectivity or a takes credit for the sculptural sphere product of a society that tries to find that lies beyond reification. its fulfilment in consumerism.

Social Facades Stelen

The columns titled Stelen are often associated with Genzken’s longstanding interest in modern architecture, in particular the skyscrapers of New York. The columns are laminated with foils, sometimes even pictures and postcards. The slim, rectangular steles also explicitly refer to the minimalism of Post-War American Isa Genzken, Soziale Fassade, 2002, Courtesy art, that Genzken had engaged Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne from the beginning of her career. Naming them after her friends and Social Facades are pictorial objects people that are important to her, covered by Genzken with reflecting foil and other reflective materials. They lead to think one can see oneself in them, but all they do is provide a distorted image. Akin to the facades of corporate buildings with their reflective exterior that allows the inside to look out, but prohibits the outside from glancing in, they are attractive and repulsive at the same time. Ultimately nothing but faceless facades, they are reminiscent of the external shell of modern architecture, but whose reflective surfaces resist presenting any definitive “outward appearance” which continually shifts depending upon their surroundings. Where we hope to find our face, we discover instead the physical recalcitrance of metal, plastic Isa Genzken, A, B, C, D, 2002/2003, and reflecting foil. Social Facades Courtesy private collection Jarla Partilager and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, are thus an expression of the Photo: Mathias Johansson contemporary social constitution,

5 furthermore lends the work an air of Ohren (Ears) abstract portraits, that allow for an individual design despite the array of uniformly structured sculptures made from DIY store supplies: post-Fordist do-it-yourself- constructions of subjectivity.

Science Fiction/ Hier und jetzt zufrieden sein sein

The work is a collaboration between Isa Genzken and Wolfgang Tillmans and was created for an exhibition in Museum Ludwig, Cologne, in 2001. Genzken’s Isa Genzken, Ohr, 1980, Courtesy Galerie mirrored wall-units that capture Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne the spectator in a convoluted reflection confront Wake, Tillmans’ In New York Genzken made a series monumental photograph. Tillmans of photographs that featured the shows us the remnants of a party in ears of women she talked to on the his studio. The institutional space of street. The ear is exhibited as the art merges into the informal dance body’s endogenous “receiver”. As floor. The mirrors’ presence and Genzken’s work contains a whole the spatial dynamics they create, range of “world receivers”, abstract form a typical dissonance with the sculptures with antennas, the ear is deserted party scene: “here” and also interpreted as a recording device “now” react to a “there” and “then”. for outside impulses and receives Space and time overlap and even auditory messages. Magnified, the the reflective surface – a central photographs dissolve the sensory theme in Genzken’s work since organ into a plastic form, which by all 2000 – suddenly oscillates between means is equal to any loudspeaker or euphoria and an illusion that only world receiver. The body is objectified superimposes reality. and made into a machine that processes external information. In their factual, cool documentation the photographs mask all individuality and uncover the sculptural in two- dimensional reproductions. “I think that photography has a lot to do

6 with sculpture – because it is three- Hemden (Shirts) dimensional and because it depicts reality.” (Genzken)

Atelier (Studio)

In the 1980s Isa Genzken lived in Cologne, when the city was a centre of contemporary art. Together with Isa Genzken, Hemden, 1998, Courtesy Galerie Wolfgang Tillmans she created Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, © Kunsthalle Wien, 2014, Photo: Andrea Fichtel the photographic series Atelier that was shot in the Cologne Cathedral and features Genzken at the centre These different paint-splattered of this imposing piece of sacral shirts have hardly ever been architecture. The title Atelier suggests exhibited before. The objects are that the Cologne Cathedral was by all means meant to be worn and an inspirational place for Genzken are based on the idea of sculptures and her artistic creativity. De facto, that are instantly transferrable into the vertical alignment that extends the sphere of social encounters. The upward reflects Genzken’s interest for textiles, covered with traces of neon modern high-rises from a historical and silver colourings, were worn point of view. Genzken’s presentation by Genzken and she also posed in of the cathedral pushes the them for photos. They are designed surroundings comprising cloisters, objects, yet function as pieces of buttresses and prayer chairs into the clothing and emphasise once more background and thus sovereignly Genzken’s claim that through artistic contradicts the claim that man has to appropriation and disassociation be subordinate to sacral architecture. ordinary goods can become contemporary mirrors of the self.

Isa Genzken/Wolfgang Tillmans, Atelier, 1993, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne

7 Beach Huts Sculptures in Beach Huts are improvised houses public spaces that Genzken assembled out of different materials: a cube laminated with confetti is juxtaposed with a house completely coated in mirrors, comprising four mirror pieces supported by an espresso-box. The basic principle of the reconstructed space becomes evident in the works that are constrained to the premises they are based on. More concerned with tectonics than architecture Isa Genzken/, U-Bahnstation and determined by the principle König-Heinrich-Platz, , 1992, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne of bricolage – the improvised combining of what is available – the Beach Huts give off a playful Numerous projects for public vibe. Ultimately they are modelled spaces as well as drafts for constructions of a space that is unrealised projects show how designated to take off one’s clothing important it is to Genzken that her and change into bathing gear. works reference their surrounding The latent voyeurism that such spaces. The enamel wall-image places attract is implied by created in cooperation with the transparent, partially open Gerhard Richter for a metro station constructions as these designs in Duisburg represents art in urban oscillate between architectural transit areas; the oversized Rose models and sculptures. that was erected in the MoMA’s courtyard displays a subtle shift in the scale of contemplation. Abstract frameworks that capture the environment like window views create their own form of spatial presence. Genzken explains that her sculptures are not about appropriating space nor do they contain or define a certain perspective. With their restrained design Genzken’s works for public Isa Genzken, Strandhäuser zum Umziehen, spaces insist on being proposals 2000 (detail), Courtesy Collection FRAC Nord- how the world can be viewed from Pas de Calais, Dunkerque and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne a different perspective.

8 Haare wachsen Favourite artists, wie sie wollen artist friends, and Haare wachsen wie sie wollen collaborations was created in 2002 for Galerie Meerrettich in Berlin, Rosa- “After all, art is often on the edge Luxemburg-Platz, in those days in the sense that in one moment ran by the artist Josef Strau. The it seems very close, and the next work comprises a collection of moment you find it doesn’t. You can bamboo shoots that proliferate see this quality in the artists I love like hair from the roof of that small, ... I always ask myself, ‘Who did detached building. Later the you love when you were young?’ exterior sculpture was exhibited Michael Asher, Lawrence Weiner, on the roof of the Italian pavilion Dan Graham, Carl Andre – almost during the Venice Biennale in 2003. only Americans. And then I ask, During the exhibition it can be ‘As you got a little older, who did seen on the rooftop of Kunsthalle you love then?’ Wolfgang Tillmans Wien Karlsplatz. Genzken sees and …” (Isa Genzken sculptures as objects that are in conversation with Wolfgang charged with content and through Tillmans) Looking at her life and their placement in outdoor and work a few characters that are indoor spaces establish a constant personally or artistically close relationship with these spaces, to Genzken can be added to this thus providing a dialogue with small group of contemporary the respective architecture and favourite artists. In the exhibition its social as well as ideological selected works from Genzken’s charge. The unruly hair becomes artistic environment with its defined a plea for the proliferations of the quantitative limits will be contrasted urbane, which have become a with her own work. defiant reaction to the universally increasing endeavours of Between 1982 and 1993 Genzken conformity. was married to the painter Gerhard Richter, she was a student at his master class in Düsseldorf. In 1992 they collaborated on a commission to decorate a subway station in Duisburg (first draft: 1980), where Genzken’s sculptural interest in materials and Richter’s love of planes and colours came together. Dynamic, conically shaped circular segments trace the orbit of Mercury and Venus. Richter’s Kugel II from 1992, on the other hand functions

9 as a real movable small sculpture, and photographed the concerts. as its polished surface mirrors its The aim was not to document scaled down environment. the personalities of the music industry, but to explore their poses. “Mobile” in a different way are Graham’s artistic and theoretical works of art that, solely based work equally focuses on the subject on artist’s instructions, can be and its relations to its environment. performed at different locations. In For Graham the self is not an his Declaration of Intent from 1968 atomistic entity, but is imminent Lawrence Weiner expressed that in the network of relationships an idea by itself can be a work of or environmental structure. His art and the decision as to condition photographs taken from the photo- rests with the receiver upon the and text montages he created occasion of receivership. Along this together with Robin Hurst in 1987 line of thought his instructions for called Private ‘Public’ Space: The TWO MINUTES OF SPRAY PAINT Corporate Atrium Garden feature DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR glass houses in corporate buildings FROM A STANDARD AEROSOL that reflect the city dweller’s dream SPRAY CAN could be implemented of earth as a Garden of Eden, but in the exhibition space without might just as well be interpreted further interference of the artist. as a parallel world to the suburban Weiner’s inherent intention to shopping malls. “dematerialise” an artwork and to integrate the spectator in the “I was twenty-one when I first production and reception of art is went to New York, and I was so very similar to Genzken’s concept fascinated by the architecture of sculpture. and glad that something like that existed and that I was able to This also includes blurring the have this visual experience that I boundaries of public and private thought to myself, this is where I and cross pollinating the languages want to live. To me, New York had of sculpture and architecture, a direct link with sculpture – that typical also for the work of yet must have been it.” This is how another conceptual artist from Genzken in 2003 remembers her Genzken’s circle of friends: first impression of this city, a city Since the 1960s Dan Graham she would frequently visit, roam and has addressed the organisation explore in the years to come. This of spaces of labour, production, manner of re- and de-construction corporate organisation, or the of certain locations illustrates a emergent sameness of middle- spiritual kinship between Gordon class housing developments Matta-Clark and Genzken. With within the expanded post-war his nonuments and anarchitecture, territories of American suburbia. Matta-Clark sought to intervene In 1981 Genzken roamed the clubs in cities when and where it had an of New York with Dan Graham impact: at strategic architectural

10 sites that were emblematic of Because of its radical site-specific transitions from urban neglect or character, his comprehensive work decay towards redevelopment and can only take its place in the annals gentrification. In his project Reality of the art system as reprints of his Properties – Fake Estates (1973) the texts and writings. artist offers a “deadpan burlesque of the capricious character of private Hommage à Jasper Johns is the property and real estate investment: title of an image that Isa Genzken he purchased the deeds of produced in 1992. One half consists miniscule plots of unclaimed urban of a transparent plastic foil covered territory at auctions for twenty-five in ochre-orange paint, the other dollars apiece and documented half comprises chequered gold and these nearly invisible, innocuous silver cubes of mirror foil pasted sections of the urban to reveal vertically on top of each other. “It is ownership as an absurd condition.” dedicated to Jasper Johns. As he (Joshua Decter). basically did these flags, I mean he is so famous because of his flags, Isa Genzken cultivated long- and I was thinking of a flag too, and standing ties of friendship so I did this ...“ with Michael Asher, one of the first conceptual artists in the Johns started producing his US. In the late 1960s and early numerous variations of the 1970s his “subtle yet deliberate American flag from 1954 onward interventions – additions, with his unique technique: a alterations or subtractions – in medium is covered in a collage particularly environments” aimed made from shreds of newspaper, to be a conceptual intervention a popular image is chosen and to reconsider the way exhibition transferred to the medium in spaces worked: to have empty encaustic and oil paints. exhibition walls and merely exhibit the movable partition walls, the His flags will never flutter when removal of the partition wall there is victory or defeat, as they are between the exhibition space flat and still. They refute the artistic and the office area of a gallery zeitgeist: when Johns painted his or removing the doors of the first flag in New York, the dramatic exhibition space so it can be open expressive gestures of Abstract all day and night, are some of his Expressionism were triumphing most famous interventions that over here. he simply called dislocations. The artist wants to enhance Like flag, the other central theme our awareness of the automatic in Johns’ work also borrows from production of ideas concerning a pool of familiar signs: Targets, order and layout through shifts in which also are a familiar pattern, space and modifications. Asher did a reality and metaphor combined. not bequeath any physical work. Johns brought both back to mind;

11 the simple target that is magnified, Program broken down by colour and surface; the metaphorical quality of the mounted boxes with hinged lids Opening on top in which plaster casts taken from a face or parts of the body Tue May 27, 7 pm are arranged. Associations are provoked, destroyed, linger in space and are revived. Lectures

Tue May 27, 6 pm Jennifer Kabat The Bauhaus Disco: 18 Thoughts on the Grace Building, Ghost Estates and Isa Genzken

The New York-based writer and critic Jennifer Kabat introduces the work of Isa Genzken, particularly with regard to its relation to architecture. (In English, free admission)

Tue Sep 2, 6 pm Vanessa Joan Müller We Are The Only Female Artists

Vanessa Joan Müller talks about female artists‘ careers in the male dominated post-war art world. (In German)

Talk

Wed Jun 25, 6 pm Daniel Buchholz & Nicolaus Schafhausen Who is Isa Genzken?

Daniel Buchholz, long-time gallerist of Isa Genzken, and Nicolaus Schafhausen talk about their personal approach to the artist’s work and its development over the past decades. (In German)

12 Filmscreenings The grandparent’s house and their everyday life seems the antitheses to Thu Jul 10, 7 pm the world reflected in Genzken’s other works, yet insists on the concept of Isa Genzken, Zwei Frauen im lived space as a social sphere. Gefecht (Two women in combat) 1974, 16mm transferred to DVD, b/w, Thu Jul 24, 7 pm silent, 8 min. Performers: Isa Genzken, Warum ich keine Isa Genzken, Susan Grayson Interviews gebe (Why I Don’t Do Camera: Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Interviews) 2003, DVD, colour, sound, 10 min. Two artists – Isa Genzken and Susan Camera: Armin Krämer Grayson – exchange clothing. One is tall and slim, the other one shorter and In Warum ich keine Interviews gebe, a bigger, but somehow the shirts, skirts, 10 minute film based on improvisation, bras and shoes seem to fit both women Kai Althoff plays an investigative art in different ways, as is documented by journalist who wants to question Isa the repeated exchange. Genzken about her work. Genzken concludes that to conduct interviews Isa Genzken, Chicago Drive would be quite the opposite of 1992, 16mm transferred to DVD, creating art and answers the question colour, sound, 26 min. about her approach to contemporary Camera: Ray Wang art by replying that the necessity to answer such a question is the reason Chicago Drive is a cinematic why she does not do interviews. dialogue with Chicago’s famous architecture, captured by camera Isa Genzken, Empire/Vampire, trips along the high-rises’ facades, Who Kills Death reflective windows and motorways 2003, DVD, colour, silent, 40 min. and translated into an abstract matrix Camera: Christoph Manz of modernity. Empire/Vampire comprises a Isa Genzken, Meine Großeltern im sculptural group made out of Bayrischen Wald (My Grandparents everyday objects that evoke in the Bavarian Forest) catastrophic scenarios as if seen 1992, video, colour, sound, 63 min. in a diorama. Genzken develops a dystopian view on the present In 1992, shortly before they passed in these assemblages that are away Isa Genzken made a film about presented on pedestals at eye level. her grandparents. It is a personal document capturing the everyday The video Empire/Vampire, Who Kills routine of a married couple that Death shows how Genzken captured lives secluded lives. It makes the the eponymous group of works private public without disclosing it. on film, aided by her cameraman

13 Christoph Manz and how she Education interprets it as a sculpture that is incessantly moving and changing. Program

Thu Sep 4, 7 pm Sunday Tours Sunday, 3 pm Isa Genzken/Wilhelm Schnell, Guided tour in German through the Ground Zero exhibition with free illycaffè. The tours 2007/2008, DVD, colour, silent, are free of charge with admission. 6 min. Guided tours by appointment The video by Wilhelm Schnell and Isa Visit the exhibition together with our Genzken shows Ground Zero in New well experienced art educators. York seen from the 36th floor of the Millenium Hotel. Art conversations and tours for all levels (available in German Isa Genzken/Kai Althoff, Die and English) Kleine Bushaltestelle (Gerüstbau) (The Little Bus Stop [Scaffolding]) For more information on tours and 2012, digital film, colour, sound, education programs: 71 min. +43 (0)1 5 21 89-1253 [email protected] Between 2007 and 2010 Isa Genzken kunsthallewien.at/education shot a movie in collaboration with #Vermittlung Kai Althoff that moves between slapstick and improvisational theatre. They act out different couple constellations and take on different Colophon roles. At home and on the road, in Berlin, Cologne or New York they © 2014 Kunsthalle Wien GmbH shot the film with a simple camera. The loosely connected sketches Director: and scenes feature love, sex, the Nicolaus Schafhausen weather, disease, money and art time and again. Many episodes, laid CFO: out antagonistically or as a dialogue, Ursula Hühnel-Benischek can be interpreted as allegories of contemporary creative existence and I’m Isa Genzken, The Only Female Fool its aporia. 28/5 – 7/9 2014

Exhibition

Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen

14 Curatorial Assistants: Education Team: Andrea Fichtel Wolfgang Brunner Vivien Trommer Daniela Fasching Lilou Vidal Maximiliano Kostal Ursula Leitgeb Exhibition Management: Alexandra Matzner Katharina Götschl Anna May Martin Pfitscher Technicians: Michael Simku Beni Ardolic Johannes Diboky Assistant to CFO: Frank Herberg Sigrid Mittersteiner Mathias Kada Othmar Stangl Finances: Mira Gasparevic External Technician: Gerhard Gosch Harald Adrian Doris Hauke Hermann Amon (Video, Audio) Danilo Pacher Visitor Service: Christina Zowack Art Handling: Marc-Alexandre Dumoulin Scott Hayes Exhibition Booklet Johann Schoiswohl Andreas Schweger Publisher: Kunsthalle Wien GmbH Marketing: Dalia Ahmed Texts: Katharina Baumgartner Lucas Gehrmann Bernadette Vogl Vanessa Joan Müller Michael Wuerges Ellen Tiefenbacher (Intern) Editing: Dalia Ahmed Press: Katharina Baumgartner Katharina Murschetz Stefanie Obermeir Design: Julia Gartner (Intern) Antoine Begon Boy Vereecken Curator Public Program: Vanessa Joan Müller Print: Rema Print Education: Isabella Drozda Belinda Hak Stefanie Fridrik (Intern)

15 Information

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Opening hours: Daily 10 am – 7 pm, Thu 10 am – 9 pm

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Kunsthalle Wien is Vienna’s exhibition space for international contemporary art and discourse.