David Claerbout: Die reine Notwendigkeit

In the framework of the “In the Städel Garden” series and as part of the programme offered by Flanders & the Netherlands Guest of Honour at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the Städel Museum presents a work produced by the Belgian artist David Claerbout (b. 1969) especially for this occasion. The film Die reine Notwendigkeit (2016) is a surprising adaptation of the animated movie classic The Jungle Book of 1967. Claerbout’s one-hour loop turns the sentimental and comical story about dancing, singing, and trumpet-playing jungle animals into a film that has dispensed all “humanization” of the animals—but also its young protagonist Mowgli—and portrays them instead in a manner befitting their species. Baloo, Bagheera and Kaa, whose songs and slapstick acts have been delighting children and adults alike for decades, are now back to being pure bear, panther and python. For Die reine Notwendigkeit, the artist painstakingly redrew the frames of Wolfgang Reitherman’s prototype by hand, one by one, and then assembled them to create an entirely new film. Now no more than shadowy outlines, the animals move around before a jungle backdrop. Claerbout alludes to the original only in the work’s title, Die reine Notwendigkeit, a reference to Baloo the Bear’s song about the “bare necessities of life.”

The exhibition David Claerbout. Die reine Notwendigkeit (The Bare Necessity) is being carried out with support from Flanders & the Netherlands Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2016, the Government of Flanders and the Städel Gartengesellschaft.

“In the Städel Garden”
With this series, the Städel Museum pursues the aim of offering its freely accessible garden grounds as a venue for changing installations, performances and events in the area of contemporary art.

Curator: Dr. Martin Engler, Head of the Contemporary Art Collection

Press contact: Paula Stuckatz: T (+49 69) 605098 268 / F (+49 69) 605098 188 / stuckatz [​at​] staedelmuseum.de
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