Ursula Mayer
Ellipse in Time
September 19 – November 22, 2009
Nina Canell
Five Kinds of Water
September 19 – November 22, 2009
Ali Maria Robohm
September 19 – November 14, 2009
Opening: Friday, September 18, 2009, 7 pm
Der Kunstverein, since 1817.
Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg
Ursula Mayer (*1970, lives in London) has repeatedly turned to the subject of architecture and its social functions in her films. She does not see spaces as merely filmsettings or locations, but instead casts them in the role of fictitious characters within a narrative. They stand on an equal level with the protagonists, who are usually well-known female characters. They are portrayed by actresses, who wear authentic period dresses and act out a certain pose which then are modeled on photographs or film footage. Removed from their time and historic context, they enter into a dialogue in which their relationship remains indifferent and therefore allows various interpretations. The additive exhibition concept on the upper floor of the Kunstverein is completed with the two works “Interiors” (2006) and “Memories of Mirrors / Dramatic personalities after Mary Wigman and Madame d’Ora” (2007/08). The processual nature of the growing exhibition is demonstrated by deliberate interventions in the configuration of the works and examination by the artists in terms of content. The films of Ursula Mayer not only add a further medium to the sculptures and installations of Karla Black and Kostis Velonis already in place but take up their thematic strings, weaving them into an overall picture. For the presentation of her 16mm films, the exhibition level is blacked out; carefully aimed spots illuminate the extensive works of Black and Velonis.
In her fragile installations, the Swedish artist Nina Canell (*1979, lives in Berlin) transforms man-made objects and ‘natural’ objets trouvés into experiments on changeability. Her exhibition “Five Kinds of Water” on the ground floor of the Kunstverein approaches the transitory properties of water in a wide range of ways. Water occurs directly as a material that changes form and presence and in indirect reference as the white sand of a dried-up waterhole in the desert. In the exhibition water thus becomes a metaphor for exploring various states of matter: objects and natural events are lent sculptural, temporary, almost performative form in which the various materials influence one another while remaining constantly in motion. The formless and changeable nature of water thus provokes questions about the shaping of substances, their properties, and their potential changeability. The materials themselves become protagonists, developing their own temporal and narrative logic.
The Living Archive on the ground floor of the Kunstverein presents hitherto unknown drawings and designs by the Hamburg illustrator and graphic artist Ali Maria Robohm (1908-1993). In the 1950s and 1960s, she was instrumental in shaping the graphic appearance of the Kunstverein Hamburg, producing not only numerous posters and invitation cards but also drawings for the design of exhibition spaces. Robohm’s treatment of typography shapes form and space and thus relates closely to architecture. For instance, perspective architectural and spatial drawings interrelate with her graphic designs. The majority of the works presented date from the early 1930s and clearly reflects the architectural and typographic trends of the period. It is not by chance that her construction drawings and collages recall the designs of Bauhaus artists, for this was where various fields such as architecture, art, design, and typography blended in inimitable fashion.
The exhibition of Nina Canell is fundedy by Culture Ireland. The Kunstverein is funded by Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Behörde für Kultur, Sport und Medien.
For further information please contact Beate Anspach, presse@kunstverein.de
