Park McArthur
Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456
15 Aug - 04 Oct 2020
PARK MCARTHUR
Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456
15 August – 4 October 2020
Welcome to “Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456”, an exhibition by Park McArthur. My name is UVM. I work at Kunsthalle Bern and one of my jobs involves distributing exhibition invitation cards to locations around the city. At exhibition openings I note how many people come to the Kunsthalle. Park McArthur asked me to record this exhibition in German and English.
Let us enter Kunsthalle Bern.
You are cordially invited to Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456, an exhibition by Park McArthur that will be presented on Kunsthalle Bern’s website in German and English and in the building of Kunsthalle Bern from August 15 to October 4, 2020.
Guests who wish to visit the exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern are encouraged to bring headphones and a charged device with wifi capacity. Sanitized devices, chargers and headphones are also available to borrow.
Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456 is a series of visual and material descriptions of the interior and exterior spaces of Kunsthalle Bern as well as the artworks installed therein. It moves through the Kunsthalle’s seven galleries, the building’s elevator, courtyard, and nearby transportation stop. The exhibition reflects McArthur’s inquiries concerning the venue’s existing conditions, the people linked to it, the building and its history. More broadly it explores various possibilities for sharing and experiencing an art exhibition.
While preparing the exhibition McArthur sought to learn from people who recall Kunsthalle Bern through memory and through direct, daily experience. Speaking to current employees, the institution’s photographer, as well as artists and art historians familiar with the Kunsthalle, McArthur asked questions about the building’s physical structure, its uses, and some of the tangible realities which inform the spaces’ functioning. The exhibition arose out of these questions and necessities.
One of the infrastructures that this particular exhibition relies upon is the building’s wireless network. McArthur asked to permanently expand the building’s existing wifi so that the network reaches all of the seven galleries as well as its courtyard, bar, and adjacent park. Park McArthur named the exhibition after the existing Kunsthalle_guests network and its Gaeste.Netz.5456 passcode.
The exhibition was realized with great intimacy as McArthur did not travel to Bern, Switzerland in order to make or install it. The exhibition comes from questions raised about the particular possibilities that distance provides. After all, Kunsthalle Bern’s audience has always included people who do not travel to Bern, Switzerland. This exhibition’s approach to such a constellation of individual and social realities might be understood as an invitation to reflect upon the confrontation of presence, and upon whom presence relies, wherever one might be. What is presence if not a response to what and who is not there, to the objects and objectivities that are absent and may to a limited extent be our influence.
Welcome to Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456. The guests are here. The guests are online and in the galleries. The guests are at Kunsthalle Bern. The guests are elsewhere.
Park McArthur’s (*1984, born in North Carolina, USA) work was previously exhibited at Kunsthalle Bern in the group exhibition Die Zelle, 2018.
Previous solo exhibitions include Essex Street, New York; MoMA, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Chisenhale Gallery, London and Lars Friederich, Berlin.
Selected group exhibitions include the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York; Secession, Vienna; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Wattis Institute, San Francisco; 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo; MoMA PS1, New York; Ludwig Forum, Aachen.
Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456
15 August – 4 October 2020
Welcome to “Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456”, an exhibition by Park McArthur. My name is UVM. I work at Kunsthalle Bern and one of my jobs involves distributing exhibition invitation cards to locations around the city. At exhibition openings I note how many people come to the Kunsthalle. Park McArthur asked me to record this exhibition in German and English.
Let us enter Kunsthalle Bern.
You are cordially invited to Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456, an exhibition by Park McArthur that will be presented on Kunsthalle Bern’s website in German and English and in the building of Kunsthalle Bern from August 15 to October 4, 2020.
Guests who wish to visit the exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern are encouraged to bring headphones and a charged device with wifi capacity. Sanitized devices, chargers and headphones are also available to borrow.
Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456 is a series of visual and material descriptions of the interior and exterior spaces of Kunsthalle Bern as well as the artworks installed therein. It moves through the Kunsthalle’s seven galleries, the building’s elevator, courtyard, and nearby transportation stop. The exhibition reflects McArthur’s inquiries concerning the venue’s existing conditions, the people linked to it, the building and its history. More broadly it explores various possibilities for sharing and experiencing an art exhibition.
While preparing the exhibition McArthur sought to learn from people who recall Kunsthalle Bern through memory and through direct, daily experience. Speaking to current employees, the institution’s photographer, as well as artists and art historians familiar with the Kunsthalle, McArthur asked questions about the building’s physical structure, its uses, and some of the tangible realities which inform the spaces’ functioning. The exhibition arose out of these questions and necessities.
One of the infrastructures that this particular exhibition relies upon is the building’s wireless network. McArthur asked to permanently expand the building’s existing wifi so that the network reaches all of the seven galleries as well as its courtyard, bar, and adjacent park. Park McArthur named the exhibition after the existing Kunsthalle_guests network and its Gaeste.Netz.5456 passcode.
The exhibition was realized with great intimacy as McArthur did not travel to Bern, Switzerland in order to make or install it. The exhibition comes from questions raised about the particular possibilities that distance provides. After all, Kunsthalle Bern’s audience has always included people who do not travel to Bern, Switzerland. This exhibition’s approach to such a constellation of individual and social realities might be understood as an invitation to reflect upon the confrontation of presence, and upon whom presence relies, wherever one might be. What is presence if not a response to what and who is not there, to the objects and objectivities that are absent and may to a limited extent be our influence.
Welcome to Kunsthalle_guests Gaeste.Netz.5456. The guests are here. The guests are online and in the galleries. The guests are at Kunsthalle Bern. The guests are elsewhere.
Park McArthur’s (*1984, born in North Carolina, USA) work was previously exhibited at Kunsthalle Bern in the group exhibition Die Zelle, 2018.
Previous solo exhibitions include Essex Street, New York; MoMA, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Chisenhale Gallery, London and Lars Friederich, Berlin.
Selected group exhibitions include the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York; Secession, Vienna; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Wattis Institute, San Francisco; 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo; MoMA PS1, New York; Ludwig Forum, Aachen.