Ridiculously Yours!

Initiated and conceived by Jörg Heiser and Cristina Ricupero.

With: Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Johannes Baargeld, Hugo Ball, Judith Bernstein, Jean-Luc Blanc, Anna & Bernhard Blume, Pieter Bruegel d. Ä., Nina Childress, Vladimir Chlebnikov, Yun Choi, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Jeremy Deller, Theo van Doesburg, Rosie Dowd-Smyth, Mimosa Echard, Nicole Eisenman, Max Ernst, Hans Finsler, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Isa Genzken, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Georg Anton Gumpp, Ramin Haerizadeh & Rokni Haerizadeh & Hesam Rahmanian, Raoul Hausmann, Heinrich Hoerle & Anton Räderscheidt, Marcel Janco, Alfred Jarry, Mike Kelley, Katia Kelm, Martin Kippenberger, Jakob Lena Knebl, Jiří Kovanda, Marko Lulić, Calvin Marcus, Fabian Marti, Paul McCarthy, John Miller, Shana Moulton, MRZYK et MORICEAU, Henrike Naumann, Wong Ping, Pierre la Police, Rob Pruitt, Hans Richter, Roee Rosen, Mika Rottenberg, Ashley Hans Scheirl, Jim Shaw, Roman Signer, Cora Spassvogel, Erich Spießbach

The feeling or attitude of enthusiastic embarrassment is undoubtedly associated with a notion of humorous light-heartedness—but just as much with a sense of earnest persistence, against all odds. It is certainly associated with irony—but also with a deeply unironic, rather enthusiastic belief in the necessity and possibility of persevering and continuing with something that has been recognized as unpleasant or embarrassing. One of the most important attitudes or feelings underlying modern and contemporary art is an enthusiastic awkwardness that does not shy away from the embarrassing, the unreasonably silly. The exhibition, which spans epochs, includes works by around 100 artists from all over the world and spans an arc from earlier centuries of artistic creation to the immediate past.

In modernism since the 19th century in general and the classical avant-gardes of the early 20th century in particular, a very specific dialectic is at work: on the one hand, bold innovations, radical negation, and aesthetic dogmas—but on the other hand, a certain kind of laughter that formed the basis for the creation of this exhibition project. It is a laughter that is fun and at the same time—without wanting to scandalize only—undermines all conservatism, bigotry, morality and not least avant-garde dogmatisms. By opposing the use of culture to intimidate, to secure unearned privileges, this laughter shows how authority loses its grip, how the pompous gesture and the image of the hero are invalidated.

Thematic sections feature works by numerous important artists—from Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Alfred Jarry and Elsa von Freytag-Lohringhoven, Marcel Duchamp and René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico and Sturtevant, Maria Lassnig and Martin Kippenberger to numerous younger positions of contemporary art like Paul McCarthy, Nicole Eisenman, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Isa Genzken, Katrin Plavčak, Kilunji Kia Henda, Ming Wong et all. Ridiculously Yours! flirts with the humor of disaster, bad taste, the camp approach, B‑movie culture, science fiction, horror, etc., as well as immaturity, idiocy, intuition and, of course, passion—not to mention enthusiasm.

The exhibition will take place at the two venues HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark and Neue Galerie Graz, Joanneumsviertel.

Further artists at Neue Galerie Graz: Saâdane Afif, Jack Arnold, Dan Attoe, Cosima von Bonin, Ulla von Brandenburg, Robert Breer, Giorgio de Chirico, René Clair, Josef Danhauser, Brice Dellsperger, Josef Dobner, Marcel Duchamp, Lara Favaretto, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Hans Finsler, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Jef Geys, Jacob de Gheyn, Martin Gostner, Nicholas Grafia with Mikołaj Sobczak, George Grosz, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Hannah Höch, Peter Land, Maria Lassnig, Gabriel Lester, Erik van Lieshout, René Magritte, Bjarne Melgaard, Nathaniel Mellors, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Francis Picabia, Katrin Plavčak, Rembrandt van Rijn, Sun Ra, Andreas Schulze, Kurt Schwitters, Sturtevant, Jeffrey Vallance, Jean-Luc Verna, Olav Westphalen, Ming Wong

An exhibition by HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark and Neue Galerie Graz/​Universalmuseum Joanneum in cooperation with Deichtorhallen Hamburg/​Collection Falckenberg and Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication.

Program, discourse and art education: halle-fuer-kunst.at

Press inquiries: Helga Droschl