Fusion // Confusion
The art of reference
12 January 2008 – 30 March 2008
Kahrstrasse 16, Essen,
Germany
A group exhibition with:
Zbynek Baladrán (Czech Republic), Michael Beutler (Germany), Luca Buvoli (Italy), Simon Dybbroe Møller (Denmark), Cyprien Gaillard (France), Dionisio González (Spain), Konsortium (Germany), Ciprian Muresan (Rumania), Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania), Veit
Stratmann (France)
Why do so many young artists deal with the beginnings of the Modern and those Modernist forms which developed thereafter? Which models do they draw on, which heroes are overthrown? These questions are the starting point of a succinct selection of younger artists from Western and Eastern Europe who have attracted international attention in the last few years. They provide a complex formulation of the ambivalent relation to the Modern, a nostalgia for its innocent purity of language, its utopian potential, but equally critique.
The term “Fusion”, often used in economics today, describes these artists’ methodology.: they take on forms, theses and construction principles from art and architecture through citation, copying or transformation, sometimes refusing clear authorship, commentating critically and ironically, merging artistic genres and transforming existing references.
A new vision of a younger artist generation of the Modern, against a background of global political and economic change, makes evident an ever growing distance to avant-garde art of the 20’s and the 60’s. The visions of the past, however, still define the aesthetic parameters of contemporary art. But the promises of “yesterday” can no longer serve as prescription of today’s reality. They no longer mean the same thing. Where can art go? Which functions can be formulated for art today – beyond the art market.
Curator: Sabine Maria Schmidt
Together with the exhibition there is an extensive catalogue with numerous essays as well as a rich program of events.
General Visitor Information
Tel. +49(0) 201 – 88 45 301
Fax. +49 (0) 201 – 88 45 330
info@museum-folkwang.essen.de
Opening Hours: Tue-Sun 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Fri to 9 p.m.
The museum is closed:
Easter Monday, Whitsun Monday
