Chloë Bass & Bill Dietz : Trade Show

Why is the work of a dada artist installed in a small take-out restaurant? And why are hundreds of ornithological tagging rings on view in the exhibition space of the Kunsthalle? In its final exhibition of 2019, the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven dedicates itself to the questions of art and everyday life’s sites, exchange and value.

For Chloë Bass & Bill Dietz’ Trade Show, the artists stage a series of exchanges between the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven and various non-art sites throughout the city (e.g., a factory, a private home, a restaurant). For the duration of the exhibition, the museum hosts non-art objects sourced from these sites. In turn, the sites from which objects are sourced host artworks from the City of Wilhelmshaven’s Art Collection. Woven into a contextualizing and complicating framework of texts, images, and sounds, Bass & Dietz highlight the dissonances of displacement. What happens when divergent paradigms of value and exchange intersect within disparate institutional spaces? Could it be that all forms of value and exchange are bound by haunting?

In preparation for the exhibition, the artists made four longer visits to Wilhelmshaven in which they researched and engaged with various milieus, districts, and residents in the city. Chloë Bass (*1984 in New York City) works as a multi-form conceptual artist in various media (performance, situation, conversation, publication, installation). Her works have been exhibited in renowned museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. The Berlin-based (since 2003) composer Bill Dietz (*1983 in Bisbee, Arizona) works with sound and installation, and has realized large-scale public works, likewise presented by renowned international art and music institutions.

Trade Show is a continuation of the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven’s efforts to expand its presence in the city beyond its exhibition spaces, and to reach new audiences. Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, founded in 1913, and directed by Petra Stegmann since October 2018, is the oldest art institution on the East Frisian peninsula; since 1968 it is located in a building that combines Bauhaus and brutalism. 

Throughout the exhibition, artworks from the City of Wilhelmshaven Art Collection can be visited at selected exchange partner sites—including Happy Andrej Kiosk, Photohouse Daniela Schworm, Al Amore Imbiss, and—by appointment—in a family home. With works by Marcel Broodthaers, Christo, Marcel Duchamp, Richard Hamilton, Kasper König, Meret Oppenheim, and Günther Uecker.

Exchange Partners
Happy Andrej Kiosk, Preußenstr. 49, 26388 Wilhelmshaven
Mon–Sat 6am–9pm, Sun 8am–9pm

Photohouse Daniela Schworm, Kirchreihe 86, 26386 Wilhelmshaven
Tue, Wed 9:30am–1pm, Thu, Fri 9:30am–1pm + 3pm–6pm

Al Amore Pizza & Döner Kebab Imbiss, Bismarckstraße 198, 26382 Wilhelmshaven
11am–2pm + 4:30pm–10:30pm

Family Home
Visitable by appointment, contact through Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven.

Further partners (not visitable)
Ulmer Schokoladen GmbH & Co. KG
Institute of Avian Research “Heligoland Bird Observatory”
Artists’s Social Security Fund (Künstlersozialkasse)