ART-PRESENTATION: William Kentridge-NO IT IS !
William Kentridge is a visual artist, filmmaker, director and a great storyteller. His interdisciplinary work is being presented for the first time in a combination of exhibitions, performances and lectures. Two curiosity cabinets in the exhibition at the Martin-Gropius-Bau make it possible to experience the method of working in the studio.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Martin-Gropius-Bau Archive
The Martin Gropius Bau is staging a comprehensive exhibition of William Kentridge’s complete multidisciplinary oeuvre titled “No It Is!”, which also extends to a series of lecture-performances by the artist taking place from July 5-17, as part of the Foreign Affairs festival this summer. At the center of his creative process is his visual work. The spectrum of works presented here ranges from drawings through his famous animated films. “Reversals of Fortune” is a three video installation-homage to the French pioneer of cinematic art, Georges Méliès. Just like his role model, Kentridge experiments with the technical possibilities of the cinema and tries out the interrelation between technology and artistry. In the self-staging of the artists in their films the work process is elevated to a work of art. In “Seven Fragments” (7-channel installation) the shots are played in reverse, in this way developing their own narrative force. The coffee runs out and returns to the espresso pot, the brush collects its drawings again, books that fly towards the beholder are grabbed from behind. “Day for Night” reverses the tonal values, the white of the paper becomes the dark of the night sky and black ants become bright constellations and galaxies. In “Journey to the Moon” the objects themselves narrate a story. The videos are already self-portraits of his studio work and the entrance to the curiosity cabinets. At the same time Kentridge has for the first time provided a glimpse into his studio, the Wunderkammer, or curio cabinet, in which he creates: in two rooms in the Martin-Gropius-Bau we are allowed to see how he works, developing everything out of drawing. He once said: “Drawing is a way of thinking. In the drawing I put ideas together and give them coherence” He was alluding to Paul Valery’s comment, apropos Degas, that it is not that drawing makes forms visible, but rather the seeing of the forms, the process of perception. The title “NO IT IS !”, evokes the contradiction of the images. It also transcends the boundaries of the museum itself, extending to the lecture performances “Six Drawing Lessons” (2012), an autobiographical, artistic and political story that gathers the themes of his oeuvre from the earliest days to the present and links the two venues (the Martin-Gropius-Bau and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele).
Info: Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Berlin, Duration: 12/5-21/8/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon 10:00-19:00, www.berlinerfestspiele.de
