Dierk Schmidt
IMAGE LEAKS – On the Image Politics of Resources
Maya Schweizer / Clemens von Wedemeyer
METROPOLIS. REPORT FROM CHINA
11 March–8 May 2011
Joint Opening:
10 March 2011, 8 pm
Frankfurter Kunstverein
Steinernes Haus am Römerberg
Markt 44
60311 Frankfurt
Main, Germany
www.fkv.de
The starting point for many of Schmidt’s projects are the conditions of artistic production before the backdrop of broader economic and political interrelationships. Often, he focuses on the production of images and the accompanying image politics of governments, multinational companies, or media conglomerates, which he views as the successors to the past century’s forms of state representation. The newly produced work, “IMAGE LEAKS – On the Image Politics of Resources” raises the questions if and how artistic image strategies can be used to counter the kind of image politics pursued by the multinational oil company BP after the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
CURATED BY: Holger Kube Ventura
MADE POSSIBLE BY: Stiftung Kunstfonds
The central work of the exhibition “METROPOLIS. REPORT FROM CHINA” is Maya Schweizer and Clemens von Wedemeyer‘s film by the same title. “Metropolis. Report from China” is an artistic comparison between Lang’s utopia of the 1920s and a contemporary communist system verging on capitalist working conditions. The project investigates aspects of the utopian in architectural environments and thereby raises the question as to the relevance and social reality of such urban utopias. In their film, Schweizer/von Wedemeyer refer to social-critical issues and the architectural settings of major historical events. Through images as well as conversations and interviews with workers and architects responsible for the construction of the Chinese mega-cities Shanghai and Beijing, the film thus documents the urban fabric, which is determined by social inequality.
For the exhibition at the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Maya Schweizer and Clemens von Wedemeyer are showing a reworked version of their project “Metropolis. Report from China”, which they present as a dense installation of photographs, slides, and film-historical material. Also on view is Maya Schweizer’s work “Newlaville”, which through the use of large posters and slides draws on a 2002 advertising campaign promoting the radical modernization of old neighborhoods in Beijing.
CURATED BY: Holger Kube Ventura, Stefanie Spiegelhalder
MADE POSSIBLE BY: The exhibition is taking place in conjunction with Thermostat, a cooperative project involving 24 French centres d’art and German Kunstvereine. It is an initiative of the association of French centres d’art, d.c.a and the Institut français. The project is also supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the French Ministry of Culture and Culturesfrance, and the German Commissioner for French-German Cultural Cooperation.
OPENING HOURS: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 11 am–7 pm,Wednesday: 11 am–9 pm and Saturday and Sunday: 10 am–7 pm
INFORMATION: www.fkv.de
PRESS CONTACT: Julia Wittwer (Press officer), Stefanie Spiegelhalder (Assistant)
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Steinernes Haus am Römerberg, Markt 44, 60311 Frankfurt / Main, Germany
phone: +49.69.219314–30/-40, fax: +49.69.219314–11, e-mail: presse@fkv.de
