Portikus XXX

Artists: Shannon Bool, Pure Fiction, Dara Friedman, Anne Speier, Kerstin Cmelka, Peles Empire, Tobias Rehberger & Rirkrit Tiravanija

Portikus is turning 30. Founded as a small art space on Schöne Aussicht in 1987, we moved from there to the Leinwandhaus and then to the Maininsel. Portikus XXX is the name of our anniversary project that doesn’t look back, but simply keeps moving ahead, not inside Portikus itself, but in the city so important to us: Frankfurt am Main. We leave our space and, with small gestures and major interventions, present new works in urban places that shape the cityscape. In this way, Portikus XXX addresses a broad audience while, at the same time, we continue to do what we’ve been doing in recent years: making exhibitions that stimulate, expand perspectives, and ask questions.

On the occasion of Portikus XXX Shannon Bool presents new works in the cathedral of Frankfurt, Dom St. Bartholomäus. Excerpts of Dara Friedman’s Dancer (2011) are on display at Terminal 1, Frankfurt Airport along with new texts by Pure Fiction accompanied by additional readings at Terminal 2 and Le Méridien Hotel Frankfurt. Anne Speier will present one of her most recent sculptures at the Fleming’s Selection Hotel Frankfurt-City. The first episode of the new film Die Angreifbaren by Kerstin Cmelka, commissioned by Portikus, will be screened as supporting film at Orfeos Erben, Mal Seh’n Kino, and Filmforum Höchst. Peles Empire will host a bar evening serving Romanian spirit, among other things. Last but not least Tobias Rehberger and Rirkrit Tiravanija will prepare food with ingredients from the local market place, Kleinmarkthalle, served on editioned ceramics. Additionally, a summer screening program in the garden of Portikus will accompany the exhibition in the city featuring film and video works by artists that have shown at Portikus over the past 30 years.

Summer screening program
What might a minor history of Portikus told through video look like? Helke Bayrle’s Portikus Under Construction gives this history its images, building an institutional memory and body of artworks out of what is almost always erased and obfuscated: work left outside of finalized and public-facing installations within the main gallery. Though the artworks in this screening program are by no means minor in and of themselves, they work outside of the limits of these artists’ previous contributions to the exhibitionary legacy of Portikus. Almost none of these films and videos have been shown within the galleries of Portikus before, yet they provide a vehicle for reflection through their addition and deviation.  In an effort to let these relations permeate the methods of this program, groupings of films and videos will together assert the value of lack, the uncertain, the secondary, the obscured, the forgotten, and the unclassifiable. This project attempts to build a minor history of Portikus, inspired by Bayrle, from these foggy positions. Featuring Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helke Bayrle, Jimmie Durham, Morgan Fisher, Dan Graham, Mike Kelley, Nina Könnemann, Martha Rosler, Dieter Roth, Frances Stark, Josef Strau, and Thirteen Black Cats, among others.


Curated by Franz Hempel and Fabian Schöneich
Summer screening program by Levi Easterbrooks

Director: Philippe Pirotte
Curator: Fabian Schöneich

Portikus XXX on the occasion of 200 Jahre Städelschule – 30 Jahre Portikus is made possible by the generous support of Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main, Hans und Annemarie Weidmann-Stiftung, and Städelschule Portikus e.V.

The presentation of Shannon Bool is supported by the Embassy of Canada in Germany.

In cooperation with Fleming’s Selection Hotel, Le Méridien Frankfurt Hotel, Fraport, Filmforum Höchst, Kleinmarkthalle, Dompfarrei St. Bartholomäus, Orfeos Erben, Mal Seh’n Kino.

For further information, dates, and times visit: portikus.de