Kunstverein Hamburg

BEING LAID UP WAS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT MAKING ART
An experimental exhibition format in two chapters
27 June – 11 October 2020

Participating artists: Sarah Abu Abdallah, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Katrina Daschner, Nazli Dincel, Cordula Ditz, VALIE EXPORT, Chris Hegedus, Luise Helm, Fabian Hesse, Kerstin Honeit, Sarah Jacobson, RP Kahl, Matt Kazmann, Helene Kummer, Dörte F. Meyer, D.A. Pennebaker, Laure Prouvost, Jennifer Reeder, Kathrin Resetarits, Pipilotti Rist, Isabella Rossellini, Susanne Sachsse, Jessica Swale, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Tatjana Turanskyj, Saralisa Volm and Vanessa Stern

“Meg told me that John felt that being laid up was no excuse for not making art,” writes Ashley Bickerton in a tribute to John Baldessari. And Baldessari was right, a lot of art has been created in the last weeks. Like most branches of life, the arts and culture scene has considerably suffered during the Corona crisis over the past few months and continues to do so. A time of upheaval like this is nevertheless an opportunity to rethink how we work and to develop new possibilities for presenting art. In cooperation with the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg we transfer the laboratory of the present into the exhibition space.

A clear sign and perceptible feeling of this is the unity and display of solidarity among all artists. Multi-discipline collaborations can come out of a variety of collective endeavors. With the experimental exhibition series BEING LAID UP WAS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT MAKING ART, the Kunstverein in Hamburg would like to set an example of solidarity: in two chapters, actors from different branches of the arts and culture scene in Hamburg will be invited over the summer to present their work together with many international colleagues.

CHAPTER 1
Humor post-#MeToo
27 June – 16 August 2020
Curated by Bettina Steinbrügge & Maike Mia Höhne

Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary TOWN BLOODY HALL (1979) is the starting point for our examination, which we developed in cooperation with the Short Film Festival Hamburg. In the New Yorker Performance Theater, Norman Mailer moderates a debate on the topic A DIALOGUE ON WOMEN’S LIBERATION joined by feminists like Germaine Greer and Susan Sontag. An agitated man who had also commissioned the film, Mailer stands at the center of the dialogue as they debate the aspirations of the women’s movement in the early 1970s.

The first chapter of the exhibition series checks in on the status of humor post-#MeToo: what is actually funny and how do we carry on? What do we want to laugh about? What do we need? How do we want to live with each other and what do we need to do so? In times of social distancing, the question poses itself anew. In installations, film screenings, performances, and talks about different generations, we will discuss new forms of society that can now be created for the future. We look for the unspoken.