Ausstellungen | Wartist

Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War (Imperial War Museum North, Manchester)

From 12 October 2013 until 23 February 2014, the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester presents the exhibition “Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War”, containing works of more than 40 contemporary artists about war in our time. The IWM’s huge and diverse collection could provide all the more than 70 works that have been made sinde the Gulf War of 1990/91. Among others, Steve McQueen, Frauke Eigen, Paul Seawright, Rasheed Araeen and Willie Doherty take part in this exhibition.

© kennardphillipps, Photo Op, IWM ART 17541 (pigment print)

Gavrilo Princip (Galerie im Weltecho, Chemnitz)

From 7 September until 4 October 2013, the gallery at Weltecho in Chemnitz presents the video installation “Gavrilo Princip” by the two Czech artists Jana Morkovska and Olga Alia Krulisova. In their work, they address the historic events of the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914, in which his wife was killed, too. This assassination is regarded as trigger for a chain of events that led to the First World War.

Wounds of the World – Magnum Photos (Osnabrück)

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

Margret Eicher: Once Upon a Time in Mass Media (Berlin)

From 25 July until 8 September 2013, conceptual artist Margret Eicher presents media tapestries in the exhibition “Once Upon a Time in Mass Media” at the Kleine Orangerie am Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin. In these large-format collages, she addresses media images and their social reception in various ways. The chosen form of expression plays a major role, too: tapestries once were tools of (self-) representation of power and authority. In Eicher’s works, too, there are numerous references on war and violence.

Das Experiment 2, 2008, Digitale Montage/Jacquard, 270 x 370 cm © Margret Eicher

Wartist Presents: „Landscapes & Memory“ – Photos by Jo Röttger, Bavarian Army Museum (Ingolstadt)

On 28 May 2013, the exhibition „Landscapes & Memory“ by Hamburg-based photographer Jo Röttger will open at Bayerisches Armeemuseum (Bavarian Army Museum) in Ingolstadt. In 27 large-format photos with their picture language that reminds of romanticism, Röttger approaches landscapes and identity while addressing desire and alienation as well as the ongoing war in Afghanistan. A bilingual catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, curated by Martin Bayer (Wartist).

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism (Berlin)

From 16 March until 28 July 2013, Stadtmuseum Berlin presents the exhibition “verfemt, verfolgt – vergessen? Kunst und Künstler im Nationalsozialismus”¹ with various works from the impressive Collection Gerhard Schneider at its location Emphraim-Palais. On the occasion of the theme year “Diversity Destroyed” on the Nazi’s takeover 100 years ago, the Stadtmuseum Berlin thus remembers the methodic defamation of modern art, up to destruction of artworks and lives. The exhibition is dedicated to all artists who had been banned, persecuted or even murdered, and whose works and lives have been nearly forgotten. It is therefore even more necessary to remember their suffering, but not the least their lives and works, to snatch them from oblivion.

Georg Netzband: Der Sieger, 1939 (Dr. Gerhard Schneider, VG Bild-Kunst 2011)

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism ↩

Marissa Roth: One Person Crying – Women and War (Berlin)

Sara Duvall mit einem Foto ihres Sohnes Aaron Reed, getötet im Irak, Chillicothe, Ohio 2005 (© Marissa Roth)

From 8 March until 3 April 2013, Berlin-based Willy-Brandt-Haus presents the exhibition One Person Crying: Women and War with photos by Marissa Roth. Since 1984, the Pulitzer Prize laureate (born in 1957 in Los Angeles) is dealing with this issue: back then, she travelled to the Yugoslav homeland of her Jewish grandparents who had been murdered in 1942 by Hungarian Fascists. In 1988, she was assigned by Los Angeles Times to portray Afghan women refugees. The subject remained crucial for her work: One Person Crying: Women and War addresses the effects of war on women within their respective societies. Continue reading

Lisa Glauer: “…later, she will build nuclear vessels” (OKK Berlin)

From 22 February until 3 March 2013, Berlin-based gallery Organ kritischer Kunst (OKK, organ of critical arts) presents the exhibition “…später baut sie Atomschiffe” (…later, she will build nuclear vessels” with works by Lisa Glauer. The exhibition will be opened with the performance “experimental production of evidence by visualisation”. Lisa Glauer uses breast milk as material for her works. This project is part of her PhD dissertation on Art and Design at Bauhaus University Weimar.

Bryan Adams: Exposed (Dusseldorf)

Private Karl Hinett (© 2011 Bryan Adams)

From 2 February until 22 May 2013, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf presents the photo exhibition Exposed with works by Bryan Adams, mostly known as musician. Many of the some 150 prints shown are glamour portraits of actors and fellow musicians. As maximum disruption to all those immaculate stars, Adams’s portraits of British war invalids are shown, too: a new series of impressive portraits of humans marked by war. Protheses replace the former limbs, monstrous scars refer to pain and injuries. According to Adams, these pictures are his way “to show the legacy of war”.

2 + 2: Phoenix Chemnitz – A Peace Day Exhibition (Chemnitzer Künstlerbund)

On 12 February 2013, the exhibition “2 + 2: Phoenix Chemnitz” will open on the premises of Chemnitzer Künstlerbund (association of Chemnitz’s artists). In this established format, two local and two external artists meet to address a specific subject. This time, the Chemnitz Friedenstag (Chemnitz Peace Day) is this issue: on 5 March 1945, Chemnitz was severly damaged – more than 2,100 people died in this bombing. How can this central event be remembered? What has contemporary art to say on war? Peggy Albrecht (* 1974) and Rose-Marie Güttler (* 1978) are the two local artists in this show, while Jan Bejšovec (* 1975, Konfliktstoff) and Martin Bayer (* 1971, Wartist) from Berlin provide external perspectives. Continue reading