It takes some time to open an oyster

The exhibition presents works by artists and a fashion designer who are interested in conceptual strategies, combined with a certain emotional and sometimes romantic impact. They underline strongly that there is not necessarily a contradiction between emotion and concept. On the contrary the exhibition reflects Sol LeWitt’s sentence of 1969 that conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists and it proofs LeWitts statements, that conceptual art leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach and that in this context illogical judgements lead to unforeseen experiences, are even valid for the 21st century.

In opposition to the conceptual art of the late 60ties and early 70ties in the works of the exhibition not only the idea is paramount but also the material, form and the execution are crucial for their understanding. Also if there is a likeness in both subjects and styles between the historical and the contemporary approaches, the presented works seem stronger interested in topics like the personal social, sexual and ethnical background and in the popular and mass culture developed in film, music, design and fashion. At the same time the works on show question intrinsic aspects of the context of art production, presentation and reception. In some of the works analyses of the art system as well as references to historical artists, writers and filmmakers are visible.

On view at the exhibition will be a wide range of media, from drawings, paintings, installations and film.

About the curator: Yilmaz Dziewior is the director of the Kunstverein in Hamburg where he recently curated the group exhibition “Formalism. Modern Art, today.” He works also as a professor for art theory at the Art Academy in Hamburg and as a free lance writer he contributed regularly to Artforum, Camera Austria and Texte zur Kunst. As an independent curator he organized “Sarah Lucas” (1997) and co-curated “Art-Worlds in Dialogue: From Gauguin to Global Present” (1999), both for Museum Ludwig, Cologne.

Pressetext

It takes some time to open an oyster
kuratiert von Yilmaz Dziewior
Kooperation: Centro Cultural Andratx, Mallorca; Galerie Asbaek, Kopenhagen

mit Cosima von Bonin, Michael Hakimi, Nina Könnemann, Michael Krebber, David Lieske, Henrik Olesen, Peter Pilotto, Stephen Prina, Bojan Sarcevic, Wilhelm Sasnal, Hanna Schwarz, Dirk Stewen, Jan Timme, Christopher Williams, Cerith Wyn Evans