Silke Otto-Knapp: Bühnenbilder / The 90s Onstage

Silke Otto-Knapp: Bühnenbilder
From the mid-1990s, Silke Otto-Knapp (1970–2022) developed a unique approach that both responds to and reflects on formal and thematic questions regarding the representation and embodiment of the performing arts within the medium of painting.

Otto-Knapp’s final work cycle Versammlung (2022), which was conceived for the Kunstverein in Hamburg during the artist’s life, is central to Bühnenbilder. Here, the Lower Saxony-born artist delves into histories of theatre, dance and cinema, with a focus on forms of ritualised gathering on stage, while questioning the relationship between rehearsal and artistic practice, as well as performing and exhibiting. Versammlung will be shown in dialogue with Otto-Knapp’s work from the last decade, where Bühnenbilder pursues the formal developments from the individual work to the multi-panelled painting, to painting-as-architecture within an expansive wall-less choreography developed with Otto-Knapp for the Kunstverein. 

Painted with watercolour pigments in high contrast greyscale Otto-Knapp’s depictions of theatre, dance, film and opera, from the single figure to the full proscenium, are present. The body of work in Bühnenbilder negotiates the relationship between figure and ground, between negative and positive space. Depth of space within the painting of Otto-Knapp becomes legible through choreographed bodies. It is precisely these bodies that are at the centre of a moment of tension: between the impossibility of representing movement in the medium of painting and the potentiality of the body in motion inherent in her work. 

The choreographies, stages and costumes that Otto-Knapp draws upon such as those of Anna Halprin, Natalia Goncharova, Judson Dance Theatre or Michael Clark generate an extended and differentiated art history. Bühnenbilder identifies and gives body to performance art and avant-garde theatre as important currents and constitutive movements in contemporary art, thereby performing art history anew.

On April 13, 2024, a symposium on the exhibition and work of Silke Otto-Knapp organised by Sabeth Buchmann and Milan Ther will take place as part of the exhibition.

Curator: Milan Ther
Assistant curator: Martin Karcher

The 90s Onstage
Examining performance art in relation to society, economy, public spaces and politics of Türkiye in the 1990s, The 90s Onstage presents cross section of cultural history and work by collective initiatives of the decade. The exhibition consists of interwoven formats and approaches that put a variety of media—visual art, performance, television, theatre, painting, music videos, talk shows and installation, elements of stage design—into dialogue. 

During this decade the interdisciplinary comes to the fore in Instanbul’s art scene. The medium of performance in particular offers artists looking for contemporary forms of expression an escape from the boundaries of defined discipline. As the concept of the stage, however, is redefined by a new generation of artists, opening it towards social reality, the concept of performance expands into new media and thereby changes the idea of art itself. 

Here, performance is used as a key point of inquiry, opening multiple avenues of critical interpretation. The 90s Onstage assembles an archive of materials that document performances, events as well as exhibitions. Featuring a variety of media ranging from live performances, music videos, and clips to TV programmes, the exhibition spans the years from 1988 to 1999 and extends into the early 2000s. It traces the intersection of a diverse range of performances that gain an increasing visibility in public parks, bars, historical landmarks, and abandoned sites, exploring unexpected connections that widen the understanding of the stage. In this context, the stage becomes an interface for re-negotiating reality and gives form to fleeting and perpetual communities.    

Organised in cooperation with Salt, Istanbul, The 90s Onstage at Kunstverein in Hamburg is programmed by Amira Akbıyıkoğlu, with researcher Mine Söyler and designer Emirhan Altuner. This exhibition is an iteration of the project that took place at Salt Beyoğlu and Galata in Istanbul from September 15, 2022 to April 2, 2023, as part of Our Many Europes by L’Internationale.