DYSTOTAL
March 13–June 5, 2016
Jülicher Str. 97-109
D -52070 Aachen
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–5pm,
Thursday 10am–8pm
T +49 241 1807104
F +49 241 1807101
info@ludwigforum.de
Questioning, intervening, carrying forward: this is how the 17 artists of the group exhibition DYSTOTAL approach various—mostly minimalist—positions and visions from classical modernism through to the 1990s. They all have in common strategies of appropriating, copying, and imitating the vocabulary of forms characteristic of historical avant-garde movements. By critically exploring the visual language of these predecessors they have reassessed the potential of the total or the “total work of art,” tapping into a spectrum that ranges from nostalgia through to the emphatic sense of a new beginning and a foundering in stagnation.
Matching this spirit, the curators—Lars Breuer, Sebastian Freytag, and Guido Münch from the Düsseldorf artist group Konsortium—have come up with an exhibition concept for the works that, as witnessed by its monumental character and climactic dramaturgy, takes up the idea of the total work of art. Here the curators have acted as collaborating directors: following a combinatory method they have transformed the main hall of the Ludwig Forum into an enormous “total” installation, the architecture, paintings, and sculptures all interacting with one another in terms of both form and content. The aesthetics of computer games encounters classicistic forms, Romantic elements face up to film stills from science fiction blockbusters. Work, reference, and exhibition architecture are scarcely distinguishable from one another—similarly to the roles of artist and curator.
27 works from a diverse array of genres are on show—wall works, paintings, installations, sculptures, and architectures, most of them specially created for the exhibition.
The accompanying catalogue DYSTOTAL will be released in mid-April, published in the Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König.
Participating artists: Linda Arts, Ford Beckman, Heiner Blum, Nicolas Chardon, Tim Cierpiszewski, Neil Clements, Markus Ebner, Angela Fette, Gabriel Kuri, Gerold Miller, Renato Nicolodi, Jan van der Ploeg, Martin Pfeifle, Anja Schwörer, Esther Stocker, Sebastian Wickeroth, Lars Wolter
Curators: Konsortium (Lars Breuer, Sebastian Freytag, Guido Münch)
Ludwig Forum: Esther Boehle
Supported by the Stiftung Kunst Kultur und Soziales der Sparda-Bank West and Mondriaan Fonds.
