Outset is pleased to have supported productions by Kristina Buch, Susan Hiller and Goshka Macuga for documenta(13) curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director of Museo d’Arte Contemporanea – Castello di Rivoli, Turin.
KRISTINA BUCH
The Lover, 2012
Open-air installation
Commissioned for dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel
What at first glance appears to be an elevated and rather robust plant feeder filled with thistles, nettles, trees and all sorts of flowers turns out to be a highly fragile piece of art. German artist Kristina Buch carefully selected indigenous plants thus creating a delicately balanced eco-environment to feed her equally carefully home-bred butterflies, which she daily sets free on this 10 by 10 meter sized universe. This setting free is a daily process of love, dedication and devotion and it is what matters to Buch and what constitutes its beauty. Buch continues to emphasize the ephemeral character of her work – since it is out of her and anybody’s reach – whether the butterflies, themselves being the very epitome of ephemeral creatures, will stay or move on to other flowers and blossoms outside of Buch’s environment.
The art work’s title refers back to ‘Ars Amatoria’, Ovid’s three volume instruction to men and women on how to love and be loved.
SUSAN HILLER
Die Gedanken sind frei, 2012
Multi-media installation
Commissioned for dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel
Susan Hiller has devised a sculptural presentation of her personal collection of songs relating to political freedom. Five jukeboxes situated in different bars or cafes around the town of Kassel allow members of the public to select songs according to their own interests, preferences, memories, and beliefs. Music included ranges from songs inspired by the Peasants Revolt of 1524-26, the suffragettes movement, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the Civil Rights movement, and the recent revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
‘Die Gedanken sind frei’ is an old German song celebrating freedom of thought and conscience. Hiller’s long-standing interest in aural experience and the power of voice to communicate directly on many levels has led the artist to produce this new work which follows on from The Last Silent Movie (2007-08) and The J. Street Project (2002-05) in its commitment to the retrieval of lost or obscured historical ‘ghosts’.
GOSHKA MACUGA
Of what is, that it is; of what is not, that it is not, 2012
Tapestries
Commissioned for dOCUMENTA(13), Kabul
Outset is proud to be a supporting partner to the Fiorucci Art Trust in commissioning the production for display at the Kabul exhibition site of dOCUMENTA(13).
Macuga was prompted by the curatorial proposition to create a section of dOCUMENTA (13) in Afghanistan to explore the possibility of pairing Kassel and Kabul. The commission followed on from research compiled for various international projects, in which Macuga questioned her role as an artist and her ability to respond to the context of the art institution and its role in mediating issues concerning a broader social context.
Macuga juxtaposed, in postproduction, documentation of two events with research and symbolic references combining them in two large tapestries to be presented separately in the rotunda of Museum Fridericianum, Kassel and the Queen’s Palace, Kabul.
In Kabul, in February 2012, as part of the documenta seminar programme, she organised a lunchtime event to which she invited over 100 cultural figures currently present in Afghanistan: artists, foreign embassy representatives, NGOs based in Kabul, journalists and intellectuals. She then documented this event with a group portrait.
The other event was when Macuga received the Arnold Bode Prize at the award ceremony in October 2011 at the Fridericianum in Kassel. Similarly, she documented those attending the ceremony. The resulting images illustrate the problematic translation of the two contexts: Kassel and Kabul. The work generated in Kassel is presented in Kabul and consequently the work made in Kabul is presented in Kassel. The artwork is not accessible to the viewer fully, only partly in both locations, and will reject on the impossibility of simultaneously accessing these spaces physically and mentally.
