PRESENTATION: Out Of Space-Dusseldorf Variation
“Out Of Space Dusseldorf Variation” is a five-day intervention of art in public spaces across Düsseldorf. The decentralized exhibition explores questions of how urban topologies are perceived, used, and shared with others. How can public spaces be made more accessible to a wider cross-section of society, and how is it that certain groups are excluded from public life? The works being presented reflect a wide range of approaches, encompassing the vantage points of feminists and migrants as well as the perspective of Black communities. The identifying and reevaluating of communal needs will make it possible to address the dynamics of power and the resulting social mechanisms of exclusion.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Julia Stoschek Collection Archive
The works being presented in “Out Of Space Dusseldorf Variation” reflect a wide range of approaches, encompassing the vantage points of feminists and migrants as well as the perspective of Black communities. The identifying and reevaluating of communal needs will make it possible to address the dynamics of power and the resulting social mechanisms of exclusion. The subtitle “Dusseldorf Variation” makes reference to “Sixth (Dusseldorf variation)”, a site-specific, three-part video projection by Tony Oursler, which the artist conceived for the façade of JSC Düsseldorf in 2007. The work challenges the conventional boundaries between interior and exterior, the private and public. The video Gentlemen (2003) by Oliver Payne & Nick Relph will be screened concurrently in the cinema space at JSC Düsseldorf. Featuring an eclectic selection of imagery and audio conceived in the spirit of Dada, it traces the alienated lives of youths in the London metropolis.
Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani, “2 Lizards” (2020): In eight episodes, two animated lizards who live in New York tell of the everyday experiences, fears, and joys that affected everyone’s life during the COVID-19 crisis. What value do such collective experiences possess, which for a brief moment purportedly created the same social conditions for everyone? What moral demands do we make of ourselves and others? In their collaborative work, Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani examine aspects such as community and discrimination against certain groups of people, their origins, and the specifics of their circumstances, especially in times of political upheaval. By employing vernacular conversations between the two lizards and their friends about the consequences of social isolation caused by the COVID-19 crisis reflect the precarious scale of this global phenomenon. In her artistic practice, Bennani often incorporates animated elements or figures to clarify and humorously exaggerate certain realities. The animated series 2 Lizards, which was initially published on social media in 2020, exposes the precarious production and presentation conditions for artists working in the period in which this predominantly digital work was created. In “High Performance” (2000) by Aaron Young, a racing motorcyclist leaves traces of his own turning circle on the ground as the bike’s tires burn out. While the rapid revving of the engine within a very small radius draws attention to the mechanical power of the two-wheeler, it is not the wild acceleration but rather the sustained braking that generates the oppressive atmosphere approaching an implosion. The bike completely dominates the acoustic and visual space that serves as a stage. While the driver keeps the motorcycle under control, his actions appear increasingly aimless during the brief event, until the smoke-filled space ultimately makes it impossible for the viewer to follow and, more importantly, for the rider to pursue his own performance. The pressure that has been built up in this dangerous event gradually goes up in white smoke. In his short videos, Young juxtaposes moments of control against those of ominousness, which hang over his performed events with a sense of escalating tension.
In the mystically charged scenes of Anne Imhof’s “Untitled (Wave)” (2021), the camera focuses on the uninhibited movements of Eliza Douglas, Imhof’s long-term collaborator. Facing the sea, Douglas lashes the waves with circular and rhythmic motions. The soundtrack begins as an ambient drone, but eventually fades away in steady pulses. The whole situation is character- ized by a menace that arrives from nowhere and leads nowhere, intensifying into a morbid atmosphere. By slowing down the pace and rhythm of its live-action sequences, the video frames Douglas’s movements as both torturous but simultaneously liberating. In alternating close-ups and wide shots, Imhof stages a paradoxical duel between triumphant agency and the burning hope of salvation—as is frequently the case in her body of work—while eschewing any moment of resolution that could provide unequivocal insight about the emotional state or identity of the performers. The Romantic yet naturalistic motifs of ocean and blazing sun are contrasted with nothing but the finitude of humanity’s existence and the violence that both emanates from and returns to it. In Ana Mendieta’s “Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece)” (1976), the monumental outline of a female figure is produced by lighting an effigy modeled after the artist’s silhouette. Framed against the night sky, this dramatic figure is depicted with its hands raised, almost as though in a gesture of defiance or surrender The film ends as the flames extinguish, leaving only the remaining embers. Throughout her career, Ana Mendieta used her body to express issues related to identity and self-transformation. The artist’s use of fire to create the human profile connotes themes of creation and destruction, life and death, as well as the nature of corporeality—concerns also expressed in the title Anima, the Latin word for “soul.” Set against the historical venue of the Bilker Bunker, Mendieta’s work evokes the notion of human fragility, but also gestures toward the possibility of renewal, revitalization, and regeneration exemplified in the building’s repurposing as an experimental arts space
In early works such as “Hip Hop Guangzhou” (2003), Cao Fei probed issues related to accelerated urbanization in China. Growing up during the watershed “Reform and Opening Up” of the 1980s, during which President Deng Xiaopeng implemented a slew of liberalizing economic policies, Cao Fei witnessed the dizzying changes effected on the everyday environment of her native Pearl River Delta region, firsthand. For this work, the artist recorded various city resi- dents dancing to a hip-hop tune in both private and public urban spaces. Although Hip Hop Guangzhou employs a humorous and light-hearted spirit, it simultaneously acknowl- edges the expansive and wide-ranging changes wrought on both geographic and sociocultural landscapes of China— through scenes of ongoing construction, and its use of hip- hop, a music genre popularized in China through the growing influence of American pop culture. The tongue-in-cheek, humorous graphic “It’s Even Worse in Europe” (1986) by Guerrilla Girls, displayed on the façade of “La Tête” is based on a poster created by the the anonymous feminist collective formed in New York City in 1985. This poster was designed in the wake of the Guerrilla Girls having been invited to Europe for speaking engagements and other public programs. Finding that women had even lower rates of exhibition exposure in most European countries, they stated that “Nearly all the money their governments spend on art—which is a lot more than the US spends—goes to only half the population. Europe desperately needs foreign aid—administered by the Guerrilla Girls!”
With two poster motifs, “thirst never stops” and “my jaw can probably bite through steel at this point” (both 2022), specifically conceived for the exhibition, Nora Turato’s work occupies twenty-one advertising spaces located in highly frequented inner-city squares and thorough- fares. In her practice, Turato adopts the ubiquitously circu- lating and psychologizing language of analogue and digital media, creating new linguistic and visual interrelationships that seize upon grotesque, humorous, and seemingly familiar contemporary cultural and political issues with haunting effect. Despite the fact that the posters are presented in desig- nated and prominent locations, they force visitors to ap- proach them in order to decode the messages “thirst never stops” and “my jaw can probably bite through steel at this point,” causing immediate irritation due to their subtlety.
Works by: Heike Baranowsky, Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani, Hannah Black, Tracey Emin, Cao Fei, Dara Friedman, Cyprien Gaillard, Beatrice Gibson, Guerrilla Girls, Anne Imhof, Imi Knoebel, Lina Lapelytė, Klara Lidén, Gordon Matta-Clark, Ana Mendieta, Tony Oursler, Oliver Payne & Nick Relph, James Richards, Nora Turato, Stephen Vitiello, Kandis Williams, Aaron Young
Photo: Anne Imhof, Untitled (Wave), 2021, video, 30′19″, color, sound. Video still. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York and Sprüth Magers Berlin/London/Los Angeles
Info: Curators: Junni Chen and Sophia Scherer, Duration: 31/8-4/9/2022
Venues & Hours:
1. ANDO FUTURE STUDIOS Mercedesstraße 11, Düsseldorf, Fri-Sat 13:00-21:00, Sun 13:00-17:00
2. BILKER BUNKER, Aachener Straße 39, Düsseldorf, Wed-sun 15:00-22:00
3. BILKER BUNKER OFFICE, Aachener Straße 58, Düsseldorf, Wed–Sun, 21:00-23:00
4. BUCHHANDLUNG WALTHER KÖNIG GMBH & CO. KG, Grabbeplatz 4, Düsseldorf, Wed-Sun 24 hours a day
5. DREISCHEIBENHAUS, Dreischeibenhaus 1, Düsseldorf, Wed–Sat 10:00-22:00, Sun 13:00-18:00,
6. HAFENKUNSTKINO, Platz der Medien Zollhof 13, Düsseldorf, Wed-Sun 21:00-23:00
7. HAUS DER GESCHICHTE NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN, Behrensbau Mannesmannufer 2, Düsseldorf, Wed-Sun 24 hours a day
8. HEINRICH-HEINE-ALLEE U-BAHN-STATION, WEHRHAHN-LINIE, 3ModellRäume (Auditorium, Labor, Theater), Düsseldorf, Vitiello Wed–Sun, 24 hours a day
9. HOTEL NIKKO DÜSSELDORF, Immermannstraße 41, Düsseldorf, Wed–Sun 10:00-22:00
10. JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION, Schanzenstraße 54, Düsseldorf, Cinema: Wed–Sun, 18:00-23:00, Façade: Sun, 21:00-23:00, Window Schanzenstraße: Wed–Sun, 24 hours a day
11. SALON DES AMATEURS, Grabbeplatz 4, Düsseldorf, Wed–Sun, 24 hours a day
12. LA TÊTE, HANDELSBLATT MEDIA GROUP GMBH & CO. KG, Toulouser Allee 27, Düsseldorf, Wed–Sun, 24 hours a day
