Dancing with Myself

Pinault Collection for the first time in Germany
In fall 2016, the Museum Folkwang in collaboration with the Pinault Collection is staging a multifaceted exhibition to examine the self-representation of artists in their works. It is the first time that the exceptional body of artworks assembled by François Pinault is to be shown in such depth in Germany. Dancing with Myself (October 7, 2016–January 15, 2017) is a wild, playful, poetic, and political dance through contemporary art moving from the late 1960s up to our own time.

In the exhibition, the artist’s own body is the starting point for the act of artistic creation and instigates a critical engagement with the self that goes beyond the classical self-portrait. The presence of the artist is shown in the individual works in a wide range of forms: body, biography, social and sexual identity, humor, melancholia—all these aspects either play a part in or serve as material for the artistic work. Dancing with Myself elaborates on the tremendous productivity (and also provocation) that can come out of this artistic encounter with the self. Beginning with the playfully Dadaist preoccupation with the close-at-hand, using one’s own body as a tool, the exhibition covers a broad spectrum ending with the individual’s political deployment of his or her own person. The show, which is divided into four sections, does not tell a closed story but rather delivers a high-contrast overview of artistic practices, from ironic role-plays to the existential experience of the passing of time.

Dancing with Myself brings together over 100 works from different artistic disciplines, including painting, photography, sculpture, and video: Rudolf Stingel’s large-format paintings come face to face with Bruce Nauman’s immense video installation For Beginners (2010). The artist duo Gilbert & George, some of whose early photographic masterpieces feature in the exhibition, have a resonant encounter with its own image in Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture We (2010). The exhibition dedicates a whole room to the works of Cindy Sherman. Her postmodern toying with traditional roles is echoed in socially critical and political works by young artists like LaToya Ruby Frazier, Paulo Nazareth, and Adel Abdessemed.

The outstanding ensembles from the Pinault Collection, punctuated by some key works from the Museum Folkwang’s collection, give rise to a playful dialogue reflecting on the diverse, quizzical, and anarchistic staging of the self in the art of the 20th and early 21st centuries, which leads us into the debates of our time.

On display are over 100 works by key figures in contemporary art: Adel Abdessemed, Alighiero Boetti, Claude Cahun, Maurizio Cattelan, John Coplans, Lee Friedlander, Urs Fischer, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Gilbert & George, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Félix González-Torres, Rodney Graham, David Hammons, Roni Horn, Kimsooja, Martin Kippenberger, Kurt Kranz, Urs Lüthi, Steve McQueen, Boris Mikhaïlov, Bruce Nauman, Paulo Nazareth, Helmut Newton, Roman Opalka, William Pope.L, Arnulf Rainer, Charles Ray, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Ulrike Rosenbach, Allan Sekula, Cindy Sherman, Jo Spence, Hito Steyerl, Rudolf Stingel, and Alina Szapocznikow.

A richly illustrated catalogue including texts by Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Sabine Flach, Kito Nedo, and Sabine Weier is being published by Steidl.

Supported by Jeunes Commissaires du Bureau des arts plastiques et de l’architecture de l’Institut français.

Public program
The exhibition will be accompanied by a range of public and educational programs. For the dates, please visit www.museum-folkwang.de or subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here.

Press contact: Museum Folkwang
Anna Littmann, T +49 201 8845 160 / anna.littmann [​at​] museum-folkwang.essen.de