Museum Abteiberg

Open Dress

26 Oct 2014 - 19 Apr 2015

OPEN DRESS
Nairy Baghramian with Lukas Duwenhögger, Danh Vo and Lutz Bacher
26 October 2014 – 19 April 2015

ICHI ICHO-GO-E: Japanese for “one meeting one chance” (Nō Theatre)

On December 14, the first constellation of works in OPEN DRESS that included a cabinet presentation of rare paintings by Lukas Duwenhögger presented alongside with a depot situation of half-unwrapped objects by Lutz Bacher, Nairy Baghramian, and Danh Vo will now change for the next scene. Nairy Baghramian has installed “Formage de tête”, a spatial installation from 2012, which has been recently acquired for the collection of Museum Abteiberg through a generous grant from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Bacher’s sculpture “Big Boy” (1992) will be installed in a separate museum space and added by one further previously unseen work by Lutz Bacher: . On view are the “Llamas” (2014), a group of seventeen llamas made from wire, paper-maché, and coloured paper, that the American artist found in a most-probably folkloristic context and shipped overseas to Mönchengladbach. These found objects will fill the foyer and several other areas of the museum from December 14 onwards. NOTE: The new date for the following scene TUTTI is changed from January 18 to February 1, 2015. More information to follow for TUTTI, which will include an artistically intended change of the “Llamas” installation and a performance by the father of Danh Vo for Vo’s work “Dirty Dancing”.

OPEN DRESS: Based on a concept conceived for a german Kunstverein in 2008 this project explores now the extension into the institution of the museum. At Museum Abteiberg there will be a series of interwoven single presentations in which the parameters of the solo exhibition step into relation to the group exhibition.

The connection and the contrariness of differing artistic practices to stand beside one another is here on debate. Baghramian’s concept is a comment and response to an ever increasing global art world in which large group exhibitions are evidence of a process of putting works together without the visible substantive participation of the artist. The concept of “OPEN DRESS” attempts or develops a connection back to the artist of this necessary involvement. Here the peer group is not the motivation for this invitation, rather positions are confronted that have different significances in the institutional field - eading also to questions about the necessity, the duration, and the quantity of public representation.

Invited are three colleagues who are differently beside one another. A long personal proximity exists between Nairy Baghramian and the painter Lukas Duwenhögger, a graduate of the art academies Munich and Düsseldorf, who over the last years has been living and working in Istanbul. The connection also exists with the danish-vietnamese (i.e. bi-national) colleague Danh Vo for many years. To the american colleague Lutz Bacher, female with a male pseudonym, exhibiting now again after many years of inner immigration an seclusion, there was no previous personal contact. Baghramian became interested in her work for this particular project.

In the background there is an art historical and political interest that speaks about the present times of artists, museums, and viewers. In this respect, it is significant that positions that have differing perceptions in the institutional field of exhibitions and collections, are now compared. Questions are raised regarding the necessity, duration, and the quantity of public representation. Hence the exhibition began with a very single programmatic presentation of borrowed works by Lukas Duwenhögger, who has remained distant for many years to the mushrooming art scene and the rampant curators’ exhibitions, therefore precisely matching an important conceptual position. Baghramian herself, Dahn Vo and Lutz Bacher are intervening in this scene, which was considered a first rehearsal. This will be followed by the presence of more objects as well as other constellations of objects that were first unwrapped or not yet there. The mystical titles of all scenes, i.e. December 14, February 1, and March 15, follow international terms from theatre.
 

Tags: Lutz Bacher, Nairy Baghramian, Lukas Duwenhögger, Danh Vo