ART-PRESENTATION: Christoph Faulhaber-Revolution & Architecture
Christoph Faulhaber is today one of the most promising young German artists. In his works he mainly focuses on topics such as surveillance, security and control, whereby artistic and political spheres overlap and he often walks on the border of the legal. In 2004, Faulhaber, together with Lukasz Chrobok, founded the fictional security firm “Mister Security” and acted as security officer in front of US embassies and consulates in Germany and Poland. The subsequent reactions were documented, because the power of the images plays a special role in his oeuvre.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kunsthalle Osnabrueck Archiove
In his solo exhibition “Revolution & Architecture” Christoph Faulhaber conceives, builds, designs and opens a whole series of very different rooms in the Kunsthalle Osnabrueck. In order to discover the revolutionary aspect of these “architectures” one has to look at the social implications of interior design and urban planning in general. In order to guide the visitor in that direction, Faulhaber leads him through a clever sequencing of various spaces. In the foyer of Kunsthalle Osnabrück visitors are welcomed into a plant landscape with loans from Osnabrück living rooms titled “Curia”. The ambience of a thoroughly eerie amusement park titled “#1 Paradise” is created in the nave of the former Dominican church, which is the largest exhibition space of Kunsthalle Osnabrueck. The artist displays 80 plastic balloons with a diameter of three meters each. The hallways are papered with collages of selected newspapers, objects and also architectural models from the archive of the action and performance artist. The courtyard hosts a 12 meter high scaffolding representing the façade of Rote Flora in Hamburg. In the forum the visitor then enters Faulhaber’s cinematic autobiography “Every Picture is an Empty Picture” the work is split into 15 individual films and surrounds the visitor in a circle. The two site-specific productions follow Osnabrueck’s history and everyday culture. Friedrich Vordemberge –Gildewert, co-founder of the Concrete Art movement, is a celebrated son of the city and already in 2015 the Kunsthalle Osnabrück was following in its footsteps in the exhibition “Concretely more space”. Since then, the permanent installation of the Gildewart Line by Pedro Cabrita Reis has been part of the exterior façade of the Kunsthalle Osnabrueck and visualizes the examination of the Osnabrueck-born graphic artist, painter and sculptor Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1988-1962). “Curia”, the plant landscape in the foyer also opens up against the ecological background of Osnabrück: the city is the seat of the German Federal Foundation for the Environment and the largest city in Germany to be entirely surrounded by a nature reserve.
Info: Curator: Julia Draganovic, Assistant curator: Anna Bittner, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Hasemauer 1, Osnabrueck, Duration: 15/6-21/10/18, Days & Hours: Tue 13:00-18:00, Wed-Fri 11:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, http://kunsthalle.osnabrueck.de
