Stellung Nehmen
28 May - 21 Aug 2016
Franz Erhard Walther, Der Drehung entgegen, 1986
Courtesy KOW, Berlin, galerie Skopia, Genève et Collection de la Fondation Franz Erhard Walther
© Photo : Rémi Villaggi / Mudam Luxembourg
Courtesy KOW, Berlin, galerie Skopia, Genève et Collection de la Fondation Franz Erhard Walther
© Photo : Rémi Villaggi / Mudam Luxembourg
STELLUNG NEHMEN
28 May – 21 August 2016
In 2016 the kestnergesellschaft celebrates its 100th anniversary. With its artistic programme and its exhibitions over the past one hundred years the institution has acquired profound relevance for art history and has rendered itself politically and socially relevant, too, because of its unique history. During the reign of the National Socialist regime in Germany the kestnergesellschaft betrayed neither Modernism nor its Jewish director at the time: Justus Bier. For over three years the committee took great personal risks to defend Justus Bier from the government which took reprisals against him. Justus Bier managed to flee to the USA while the kestnergesellschaft was forced to close their institution in 1936 since they continued to refuse cooperating with the Nazi regime. With this in mind the kestnergesellschaft will show the group exhibition »Stellung Nehmen« during its anniversary year 2016. The exhibition will comprise works by different artists which attach great significance to the position of the observer. Every aesthetic experience is a form of statement. Yet there are artistic approaches that interpret every possible reaction from their recipients as part of their artistic impetus.
28 May – 21 August 2016
In 2016 the kestnergesellschaft celebrates its 100th anniversary. With its artistic programme and its exhibitions over the past one hundred years the institution has acquired profound relevance for art history and has rendered itself politically and socially relevant, too, because of its unique history. During the reign of the National Socialist regime in Germany the kestnergesellschaft betrayed neither Modernism nor its Jewish director at the time: Justus Bier. For over three years the committee took great personal risks to defend Justus Bier from the government which took reprisals against him. Justus Bier managed to flee to the USA while the kestnergesellschaft was forced to close their institution in 1936 since they continued to refuse cooperating with the Nazi regime. With this in mind the kestnergesellschaft will show the group exhibition »Stellung Nehmen« during its anniversary year 2016. The exhibition will comprise works by different artists which attach great significance to the position of the observer. Every aesthetic experience is a form of statement. Yet there are artistic approaches that interpret every possible reaction from their recipients as part of their artistic impetus.