PREVIEW: Reinhard Mucha-An Initial Suspicion

Reinhard Mucha is a central figure in the cohort of artists known as the ‘model makers’ on account of their theatrically staged, maquette- or prop-like compositions. In his formative years as a student of Klaus Rinke at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the 1970s and early 1980s, Mucha developed the makings of what would later become a singular, mature style of pristine and dense autobiographical assemblages made of repurposed industrial materials such as linoleum, wood flooring, aluminium panels, and glass.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Archive

Reinhard Mucha’s oeuvre, with its redefinition of sculpture, photography, and installation, is considered one of the most important artistic positions from the 1980s to the present. “Der Mucha – An Initial Suspicion” is the first major survey exhibition of the artist since the double exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern and the Kunsthalle Basel in 1987.  With the title of the exhibition, Mucha refers back to the restaurant guide DER MUCHA, which was widespread in Austria in the 1980s and on which the design of the exhibition catalog is also based. Taking up Mucha’s almost sculptural handling of language and words, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen pursues the initial suspicion that his oeuvre needs to be explored anew in its entire breadth. During his studies at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art from 1975 to 1982, Mucha had already exhibited works that were groundbreaking for the artistic developments of the 1980s and beyond. This applies in particular to the significance of his multifaceted oeuvre in relation to the genre of installation, the institution-critical reflection of the art exhibition industry and the museum, and the handling of material in art, as well as to the awareness of history and the reflection of society. The distribution of works between K20 and K21 results in two very different spatial situations for the two parts of the exhibition. While the Grabbe Hall of K20 offers Reinhard Mucha the unique opportunity to combine three large-scale installations and several multi-part works into a self-contained overall installation, the second floor of K21 presents a par-course of twelve rooms with more than sixty works spanning more than forty years. Here, the exhibition is not shown on the second floor as usual, but rather on the bel étage of the former Ständehaus. The key work on permanent display here is “Das Deutschlandgerät, that becomes the starting point of the exhibition. Mucha originally conceived this expansive, site-specific work for the German Pavilion at the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990, where he exhibited together with the Düsseldorf-based photographer couple Hilla and Bernd Becher. As a partial reconstruction, the installation was specially adapted to the former plenary hall of the Ständehaus in 2002 and expanded to include a sound and video installation. On the occasion of the exhibition, the work has now undergone a second technical and content-related adaptation by the artist. Opposite the “Deutschlandgerät” is the early key work “Wartesaal” which has not been shown publicly since documenta X in 1997. In a sense, these two installations form the energetic poles of the exhibition, around which the other rooms are oriented. Among these are current works such as # “Hashtag mit Lichtblick im Schmerz” (2001/2019] 2001, as well as important land-marks from the 1990s such as “Dokumente I-IV” (1992), the installation for DOCUMENTA IX  as well as early works such as “Baden-Baden” and “Standard II” (1984/2022), which are reunited for the first time in a new way.  At the center of the presentation in K20 is “Das Figur-Grund Problem in der Architektur des Barock (für Dich allein bleibt nur das Grab)” (1985/2022), one of the few surviving installations of utilitarian objects and museum furniture. For the first time since 1985, the work, one part of which is in the collection of the Musée national d’art moderne / Centre Pompidou in Paris, has been recreated in its complete form. In addition to these, in which office and museum furniture represent fairground attractions that have solidified into sculptures, “Frankfurter Block” (2012/2014/2016) and “Stockholmer Raum (Für Rafel Moneo)” (1998) are exhibitions within the exhibition. Each brings its demountable museum space along and contains several previously independently conceived works. The show thus also becomes an exhibition about exhibiting. The museum space, the institutions of exhibiting and presenting, are repeatedly challenged and put to the test by Mucha’s works.

Photo: Reinhard Mucha, Material für Dr. Schwarz, 1981/2019, Glass holders, float glass panes, letter copies, solid wood, float glass (exhibition showcase), hardboard and bitumen felt cardboard with oil paint imprint (floor covering, found object) on blockboard (plinth), solid and plywood, floor gliders (2 footstools), 24 packs of Brandt – Der Markenzwieback, 183 × 77 × 49.9cm, Courtesy Sprüth Magers, © muchaArchive / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022

Info: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K20, Grabbeplatz 5 , Düsseldorf, Germany & K21, Ständehausstraße 1, Düsseldorf, Germany, Duration: 3/9/2021-22/1/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.kunstsammlung.de/en/