Annegret Soltau Peter Weibel
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Annegret Soltau Peter Weibel Galerie Anita Beckers Braubachstraße 9, 60311 Frankfurt am Main Phone + 49 69 739 009 67, [email protected], www.galerie-beckers.de At ARCOmadrid 2020 Galerie Anita Beckers presents major works by ANNEGRET SOLTAU & PETER WEIBEL Annegret Soltau (*1946 Lüneburg) and Peter Weibel (*1944, Odessa / UA) from the 1960s and 1970s, including photography, video and installations, some of which have never been presented before. The aim is to create a dialogue between the works of these exceptional artists, based on their artistic avant-garde approach during those times and their controversial political respectively feminist themes. Annegret Soltau's search and questioning of her own female identity coincided with Peter Weibel’s political actions and performances concerning the identity of individuals and society. 1946born in Lüneburg, Germany 1967-72Studied painting and graphic arts at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (University of Fine Arts) in Hamburg with Hans Thiemann, Kurt Kranz, Rudolf Hausner, Alan Jones and David Hockney 1972Attended the masterclass at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien (Vienna Academy of Fine Arts) with Anton Lehmden 1973German Academic Exchange Service scholarship to study in Milan, Italy since1975Performance, photography and videos 1982Fellowship from the Kunstfonds (Art Foundation), Bonn ANNEGRET SOLTAU 1984Villa Massimo scholarship, Rome 1986Winner of the Kunst im Öffentlichen Raum (Art in Public Spaces) competition, Zentralkrankenhaus (Central Hospital), Bremen 1986-87Residence fellowship at Villa Massimo, Rome 1989-90Fellowship from the Kunstfonds (Art Foundation), Bonn 1998Maria Sibylla Merian Prize in the state of Hesse 2000Wilhelm Loth Prize (art prize awarded by the City of Darmstadt) 2011Marielies Hess Art Prize, Frankfurt am Main 2016Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Honor by the City of Darmstadt Annegret Soltau is a pioneer in the field of feminist art and Body Art, however, her works still generate controversy today. Again and again her artworks are considered offensive, are censored or pulled from exhibitions. In the digital age where the internet offers an anyonymous platform to users, such concrete and physical images seem disconcerting. Today, her work boasts an unbroken authenticity. In her work, Soltau draws her I. However, she does not need pencil and paper for this. Instead she needs a camera, a thread and her body. For over 40 years, the artist has occupied herself with her physical and mental identity. In doing so, she utilizes her environment, her family and children over and over in her work. ANNEGRET SOLTAU SELF ANNEGRET SOLTAU Self, 1975, photo stichings, 60 x 50 cm each, unique pieces The thread that she uses in her performances and self portraits encompasses faces and bodies like a safe cocoon; hidden and distorted but also flexible. The thread used for sewing over the photographs can also be understood as an element of drawing. However, it also frees the photographs from their purely visual experience and transports them into a haptic reality. Her early works are situated in the contrast of tangled threads and precise pin pricks resembeling embroidery, like her series Selbst (Self) from 1975. Soltau uses the needle often in her works. She stabs it into her photographs, scratchs the negatives with it or sews torn photographs together. It is as if she does not explore the limits of ANNEGRET SOLTAU her body anymore, but rather goes beyond them. More and more she neglects the anatomical laws and creates people-like monsters. The questions and concerns that the artist has explored and the prominent biographical relavance, string her oeuvre together, just like the physical threads do. PERMANENT DEMONSTRATION ANNEGRET SOLTAU Permanente Demonstration am 19.1.1976, 1976/2008, from a series of 6 Iris prints, 60 x 50 cm each, Edition of 5 ANNEGRET SOLTAU From the series Permanente Demonstration, 1976, vintage silver gelatin prints, various sizes, unique pieces Starting always with a private performance and photographing herself, her face or her body, she tears apart the pictures and creates a new composition by sewing them together. Front and back are equally important since they show the process of creation and become part of the new self-image. "My main interest is the integration of body processes in my work, in order to connect body and spirit as equal parts” Annegret Soltau ANNEGRET SOLTAU ANNEGRET SOLTAU LOS-LÖSUNG (mit Inge), 1977, vintage photographs, 50 x 60 cm each, unique pieces ANNEGRET SOLTAU In mir SELBST, 1977-91, 12 sewn vintage photographs, 129 x 279 cm, unique piece ANNEGRET SOLTAU Körperlachen, 1977-91, 2 sewn vintage photographs, 279 x 129 cm each, unique piece verso “Through the spider and later mainly through sewing, Soltau uses cultural techniques that are hundreds of years old and connects them to photography. In this way she deconstructs the femininely coded techniques of handiwork and, through her approach, creates a critical, constructive new occupation of the dichotomies of handiwork versus art, masculine versus feminine, photographic image versus installative object – and this is where the avant garde, emancipatory potential of her own artistic language was founded.“ ANNEGRET SOLTAU Leena Crasemann in: Annegret Soltau. Spinnen, Umgarnen, Nähen – emanzipatorische Fadenspiele (2015) PREGNANCY ANNEGRET SOLTAU Stills from Schwanger-Sein I, 1977-78, vintage photographs, 50 x 60 cm each, unique pieces „My pregnancies in 1978 and 1980 became an important theme for me. This personal experience yielded pictures in which I once again used myself as a model, this time myself in the process of being pregnant. The fear that my role as a mother could jeopardize my life as an artist inspired me to create a great many photos and videos. At this point I was preoccupied with the ANNEGRET SOLTAU question of how women combine creativity and motherhood.“ Annegret Soltau ANNEGRET SOLTAU Schwangerschaft / Gebären müssen, 1980, from a series of 41 pages in clear sleeves, DIN A4. A representation of psychological conditions during pregnancy in word diagrams, real documentary photos and video photos, unique piece This work is devided in the following chapters: 1st panic, 2nd conflict, 3rd hope, 4th being alone, 5th separation, 6th narrowing, 7th memory, 8th speech, 9th birth ANNEGRET SOLTAU Diagram for Schwanger-Sein I, 1. Phase, 1978, mixed media callage, 53 x 68 cm each, Edition of 3 PHOTO - ETCHINGS ANNEGRET SOLTAU Da-gegen-gehen, 1977/2012, from a series of 13 photo etchings on baryta paper, 60 x 50 cm each, Edition of 5 + 2 AP „To make my photo etchings, I used a needle to scratch the surface of the negative until it was destroyed completely. These works, some of which are large-scale, are self-portraits in which I (by progressively scratching away at the negative) make my own image appear stranger and stranger until a point of metamorphosis and expansion of the self is reached. This gave ANNEGRET SOLTAU the destruction a transcendence and a context. The resulting compositions have an ornamental order to them, down to the black part.“ Annegret Soltau ANNEGRET SOLTAU Nähe, 1980-86, 9 photo etchings, 30 x 40 cm each, unique vintage silver gelatin prints ANNEGRET SOLTAU Erwartung, 1980, tableau of photo etchings, unique triptych, 96 x 225 cm Watch Annegret Soltau‘s Video Art for free on blinkvideo.com by clicking here: https://blinkvideo.de/?scope=artists&id=114 If you need help for the registration, please contact us at [email protected] ANNEGRET SOLTAU ANNEGRET ANNEGRET SOLTAU ANNEGRET SOLTAU ANNEGRET ANNEGRET SOLTAU Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Vancouver 2008 1944born in Odessa 1960s/70sStudies of literature, medicine, logics, philosophy and film in Paris and Vienna. Doctoral thesis on mathematical logic (modal logic) 1976-84Lecturer for „Theory and Form“ and Visiting professor for Design and Art education at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna 1981 Visiting professor at the College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada 1979-85 Visiting professor for "Media art“, lecturer for "Perception theory" and Professor for photography at the Gesamthochschule Kassel 1984-89 Associate Professor for Video and Digital Arts, Center for Media Study, State University of New York at Buffalo 1984-2017 Professor for Visual Media Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna 1989-94 Director of the Institut für Neue Medien at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt/M 1986-95 Artistic advisor and since 1992 artistic director of the Ars Electronica in Linz / PETER WEIBEL Austria 1993-98 Chief curator of the Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz / Austria 1993-99 Austrian commissioner of the Biennale di Venezia 1997 Awarded with the "Siemens Medienkunstpreis" Since 1999 Chairman and CEO of the ZKM/Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe / Germany 2002 Awarded with the "Große Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich“ 2004 Awarded with the "Käthe Kollwitz Preis" 2005 Awarded with “Eyes & Ears Excellence Award" 2007 Granting of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Art and Design Helsinki 2008 Artistic Director of the Biennial of Sevilla, Biacs3 2008 Awarded with the French Order " Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" (Order of Arts and Literature) 2009 Awarded with the "Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge-Preis uer unkonventionelle Kunstvermittlung" of Stiftung Preussische Seehandlung, the "Verdienstmedaille des Landes Baden-Wuerttemberg“ and the "Europäischer Kultur-Projektpreis" of the European Foundation