Kölnischer Kunstverein

Keine Donau

04 Nov - 17 Dec 2006

Peter Kogler, Keine Donau, exhibition view, Kölnischer Kunstverein 2006, photo: Manuel Gorkiewicz
KEINE DONAU

Cameron Jamie
Peter Kogler
Kurt Kren
4.11.–17.12.2006 | Eröffnung 3.11. | 19 Uhr

The exhibition Keine Donau (No Danube) unites three generations of artists and relates their works to one another. Cameron Jamie and Peter Kogler have integrated works by the underground filmmaker Kurt Kren, who died in 1998, into their jointly developed exhibition focusing on the interrelationships between art, film and architecture. Experimental films by Kurt Kren, who is considered one of the most important representatives of the international film avant-garde and a pioneer of structural film, are shown in a dialogue with the most recent spatial works by Peter Kogler and work by the American artist Cameron Jamie.

The title of the exhibition is taken from the film „Keine Donau“ by Kurt Kren. A radical and confrontational questioning of the medium of film and a close analysis of perception are characteristic for Kren’s film work. He developed his films from the very foundations of cinema – movement, material, light and perception – and experimented not only with light and perception, but also with technical equipment. Kurt Kren’s vibrant and dynamic pictorial language is shaped by extremely quick cuts based on scores of serial, structural and mathematical character, multiple exposures, bluring, manipulation of soundtrack, resulting in a new form of image and perception.

In the installation developed by Peter Kogler one of Kurt Kren’s most important structural films, „48 Heads from the Szondi Test“, is seen in dialogue with a new work by Peter Kogler and studies for the film „Spook House“ by Cameron Jamie. Beginning of the 1980s Peter Kogler had already started experimenting with the then newly emerging computer technologies and with these tried to find new ways of artistic expression. Starting from the conceptual experiences of Pop Art in dealing with mass media, with the idea of the serial and new reproduction technologies Kogler has since the early nineties been developing „virtual“ image worlds that are projected onto bodies and spaces, in which the boundaries between image, sculpture, architecture and media seem to be suspended. His transformations of all-encompassing signs, images and spaces point a perfect permeation of public and private spheres with these signs and an ultimate merging of the two.

Cameron Jamie’s works are marked by the phenomenon of fantasy and subcultural experiences in urban, American suburbs and European popular culture. American backyard wrestlers, spook houses or other eerie theatrically staged productions dealing with death, denial, fear and violence are only a few of the rituals of everyday culture that Cameron Jamie explores with his art. He focuses on the effects of these ritual practices on the psyche and everyday life and on their inherent imaginings and poetry.

In addition to film works, the exhibition Keine Donau also shows drawings, sketches, frame plans, objects, and a sculpture produced especially by Cameron Jamie together with the woodcarver Max Kössler for the exhibition. The exhibition also includes a selection of Actionist films by Kurt Kren, made in collaboration with his artist colleagues Otto Mühl and Günter Brus.

Of the interplay between different artistic positions results an exhibition on transgressions and expansions of boundaries. It reflects on uncanniness and the abysmal in our society, whose representation in everyday life can suddenly evoke an irritating and anxious dimension.

The night version of the exhibition also cancels out the boundaries between interior and exterior space, when the window front of the large exhibition room „opens up“ to the street and the works by Cameron Jamie, Peter Kogler and Kurt Kren shine out into the city. This is also a reference to the great cinematic tradition of the Kunstverein building.

Cameron Jamie, born 1969 in Los Angeles, lives and works in Paris.
Exhibitions (selected): Whitney Biennale, New York (2006); MUKA, Antwerp (2005); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2006); Venice Biennale (2005); Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Athens (2005); Magasin/Musée Gó-Charles, Grenoble (2004); Artangel London (2003); The Wrong Gallery, New York (2003); Galerie Christine König, Vienna (2003); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2002); Rotterdam International Film Festival (2001); Stedelijk Museum, Ghent (2001).

Peter Kogler, born 1959 in Innsbruck, lives and works in Vienna.
Exhibitions (selected): Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); Casino Luxemburg, Luxembourg (2005); Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna (2005); Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (2004); Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck (2004); Kunstverein Hannover (2004); Galerie Crone, Berlin (2004); Bawag Foundation, Vienna (2003); Venice Biennale (2003); Schauspielhaus Frankfurt (2002); Villa Arson, Nice (2002); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2001); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2000); Ars Electronica, Linz (1999); documenta X, Kassel (1997); documenta IX, (1992).

Kurt Kren, experimental filmmaker, 1929–1998, lived in Houston/Texas and Vienna.
Participation in international film festivals beginning in the mid-1960s. Internationally regarded as one of the most important underground filmmakers; numerous exhibitions, including documenta, Kassel (1977); Kölnischer Kunstverein (1977); Hayward Gallery, London (1979); Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1979); Secession, Vienna (1996); Atelier Augarten, Vienna (2006).
 

Tags: Cameron Jamie, Peter Kogler, Kurt Kren