IN SEARCH OF A LOST LAND
[AUF DER SUCHE NACH EINEM VERLORENEN LAND]
Wallpapers + Flyer + Books + Video + Musicbox
Curator: Herbert Molderings
KÖLNISCHER KUNSTVEREIN | Josef-Haubrich-Hof 1 | Cologne
June 22 - 24, 1986
TAGGED: ►Review
Invitationcard | Catalog
CATALOG UNAUSGEWOGEN - This irritating title was chosen by us for an exhibition series in which exhibition organizers living in Cologne are committed to those artists who seem to them important, interesting and too little noticed today. Each of the art mediators, who open a short exhibition each Sunday morning, and also those who present their views in a lecture, were free to make their own subjective decision. They did not coordinate their opinions beforehand and therefore acted in a balanced way. It was precisely the fact that in Cologne there are not only many artists, galleries and museums, but also many freelance exhibition organizers, i.e. those who are not permanently tied to an institution, that was a starting point for this unusual series of exhibitions.
This also encouraged the publisher Michael Wienand to venture a book in which each of the eight art mediators had the opportunity to report on their personal experiences with art, artists and the organization of exhibitions. This is followed by a justification and the presentation of the artist he proposed for this project.
A book with texts by the participating exhibition organizers will be published, approx. 150 pages with 10 color and 100 black-and-white illustrations as well as a biography and bibliography, DM 20; in bookstores DM 28.
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REVIEW
LITTLE EFFORT
Dietmar Kirves at the Cologne Kunstverein
Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Nr. 143, Kölner Kulturberichte, 24. Juni 1986
Herbert Moldering's short exhibition, which he is now organizing as the third freelance exhibition organizer as part of the Kunstverein's "unbalanced" series, is unspectacular. Due to a change in the original concept of the exhibition series, his presentation is limited to the Berlin artist Dietmar Kirves. Two favorites, it was initially said, were to be presented by each of the eight Cologne exhibition makers in a bunk. When the concept changed in favor of four-day short exhibitions, the installation of Mechthild Frisch's sculptures became impossible.
But this is how Dietmar Kirves' show turns into a well-presented modesty: photocopies of text and images hang on the walls, some showcases are stocked with photo books, notebooks and brochures. Photography, collage, and text are the media. In general, direct juxtaposition dominates - the indirect reference or contrast of text and image. Short and large print, Kirves' stories and poems are meant to overcome the visitor's reading fatigue, and once one begins, their quality of creating images with suggestion delights.
Since Kirves turned away from painting and sculpture in the late 1960s, he has consistently chosen the simplest means for his aesthetic ideas. Thus, his art is traditionally not one of museums and galleries; it can be multiplied and brought to the people without much effort. This claim is probably one of the reasons for Herbert Moldering's choice, who wants to counter the "hollow" art of the last five years with ideas that demand more than just a visual confrontation.
But Dietmar Kirves' self-chosen outsiderness apparently also gives birth to a certain grief: two jackets with the inscription "Künstler Todschlag Dienst" and an advertisement form that, in order to protect established artists, makes it a punishable offense for unauthorized persons to "produce art things" correspond to a kind of cheap humor that comes across as rather thin-blooded even as a provocation. (Exhibition until 25.6.) - da
