Korpys/Löffler
29 Nov 2007 - 03 Feb 2008
KORPYS/LÖFFLER
November 29, 2007 – February 3, 2008
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Andree Korpys and Markus Löffler have been addressing the question of how reality is constructed and staged in media images. A key motivation in their work is to question the postulated and widely accepted truth content of this mise-en-scène. Their artistic-investigative works focus in particular on locations and structures of power, as well as on the representation of that power in the form of architecture, hierarchies, control mechanisms, or the use of force. Contrary to all expectations, however, the artists concentrate on what appears trivial, such as places on the margins of historico-political events, or casual actions of the featured main and minor characters. These unimportant, unspectacular moments reflect a modus operandi of power that is shown to best effect in just such invisible moments, shielded from public view. Korpys/Löffler combine fictional, biographical, and documentary material in videos, drawings, photographs, and complex installations to devise a succession of narrative threads and visual references as an alternative to those dictated by mass media and official image campaigns.
In 1996, with the America films (WORLD TRADE CENTER / UNITED NATIONS / PENTAGON, 1997), Korpys/Löffler turned their attention to three internationally known institutions, instinctively selecting three sites that were soon to become the focus of farreaching geopolitical developments in the wake of 9/11. With a Super-8 camera, they filmed architectural details and practical items, traffic, passersby, and people waiting in the immediate vicinity of these centers of power. They were specially interested in the security precautions, the black limousines, and the ubiquitous bodyguards. By means of camerawork, editing, and the soundtrack, the artists generated dramatic suspense; coupled with the specific visual aesthetic of the film stock, a conspiratorial atmosphere reminiscent of American thrillers is created. In spite of this, the images remain enigmatic and expectations go unfulfilled.
On the occasion of the state visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Berlin in May 2002, which took place under the strictest security, Korpys/Löffler acquired a press pass to film this political event. In contrast to the standardized repertoire of official media images, the resulting 30-minute film THE NUCLEAR FOOTBALL (2004) focuses on purely formal protocol events as arrival, military parade, and farewell, on security measures and the leather briefcase from which the film takes its name, which contains instructions for triggering a nuclear first strike. The main stylistic device used here is a monotonous, whispering voice revealing supposedly confidential, exclusive information; but these details are generally accessible, sometimes even banal. This feature, the unemotional gesture, and a symbolism of EURE KINDER WERDEN SO WIE WIR, 2007 DV 27:04 Min. foregoing symbols in film images reveal how political power today represents itself via formalisms and codes.
A work realized in 2007 takes its title from a battle cry chanted by anti-globalization protesters at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany: EURE KINDER WERDEN SO WIE WIR! (Your children will turn out like us!). Here too, Korpys/Löffler were accredited as journalists, documenting the events surrounding the meeting of international economic powers that drew a concentration of prominent state figures and organized protest. Once again, some of their images show things not featured in media accounts, but which are undeniably part of the whole: close-ups of nature, earthworms and beetles bearing witness to things carrying on regardless; then helicopters that may be flying in the mighty rulers or taking care of security, as well as footage capturing the atmosphere among the demonstration tourists. As in earlier works, this ‘other’ point of view, with the deliberately non-moralizing stance that can be sensed in the visual idiom, is capable of clearly highlighting what is actually at stake.
At the Secession, Korpys/Löffler will show a total of six film works including a brand new site-specific video production. Not least, the exhibition architecture developed by the artists deploys the method of reversed perspectives and appearances. A ‘corridor’ along the central axis of the Hauptraum illustrates the ambivalent position typical of Korpys/Löffler: the visible supporting construction is located inside the corridor, so that the inner walls actually appear as outside walls. Is the supposed corridor finally just a space in between?
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog (German/ English).
ANDREE KORPYS (born 1966 in Bremen) lives in Berlin.
MARKUS LÖFFLER (born 1963 in Bremen) lives in Bremen.
SOLO SHOWS (selection): 2007 Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg; 2006 Kleines Seemannsheim für ausmontierte Seelen, Sprengel Museum Hanover; Für ein Leben nach dem Tod, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe; 2004 unter Bildhauern, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; Münchenschlinge, Kunstraum Munich; Korpys/Löffler, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn; The Nuclear Football, Galerie Otto Schweins, Cologne; 2002 Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe; 2000 Kunstverein Graz; Kunsthalle Nuremberg.
GROUP SHOWS (selection): 2007 History will repeat itself, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, Kunst-Werke Berlin; Reality Bites, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis; Die Stadt von Morgen, Akademie der Künste, Berlin; 2006 SNAFU, Medien Mythen, Mind Control, Hamburger Kunsthalle; 40JahreVideoKunst.de, ZKM Karlsruhe, K21 Kunstsammlung NRW, Lenbachhaus Munich, Kunsthalle Bremen, Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig.
November 29, 2007 – February 3, 2008
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Andree Korpys and Markus Löffler have been addressing the question of how reality is constructed and staged in media images. A key motivation in their work is to question the postulated and widely accepted truth content of this mise-en-scène. Their artistic-investigative works focus in particular on locations and structures of power, as well as on the representation of that power in the form of architecture, hierarchies, control mechanisms, or the use of force. Contrary to all expectations, however, the artists concentrate on what appears trivial, such as places on the margins of historico-political events, or casual actions of the featured main and minor characters. These unimportant, unspectacular moments reflect a modus operandi of power that is shown to best effect in just such invisible moments, shielded from public view. Korpys/Löffler combine fictional, biographical, and documentary material in videos, drawings, photographs, and complex installations to devise a succession of narrative threads and visual references as an alternative to those dictated by mass media and official image campaigns.
In 1996, with the America films (WORLD TRADE CENTER / UNITED NATIONS / PENTAGON, 1997), Korpys/Löffler turned their attention to three internationally known institutions, instinctively selecting three sites that were soon to become the focus of farreaching geopolitical developments in the wake of 9/11. With a Super-8 camera, they filmed architectural details and practical items, traffic, passersby, and people waiting in the immediate vicinity of these centers of power. They were specially interested in the security precautions, the black limousines, and the ubiquitous bodyguards. By means of camerawork, editing, and the soundtrack, the artists generated dramatic suspense; coupled with the specific visual aesthetic of the film stock, a conspiratorial atmosphere reminiscent of American thrillers is created. In spite of this, the images remain enigmatic and expectations go unfulfilled.
On the occasion of the state visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Berlin in May 2002, which took place under the strictest security, Korpys/Löffler acquired a press pass to film this political event. In contrast to the standardized repertoire of official media images, the resulting 30-minute film THE NUCLEAR FOOTBALL (2004) focuses on purely formal protocol events as arrival, military parade, and farewell, on security measures and the leather briefcase from which the film takes its name, which contains instructions for triggering a nuclear first strike. The main stylistic device used here is a monotonous, whispering voice revealing supposedly confidential, exclusive information; but these details are generally accessible, sometimes even banal. This feature, the unemotional gesture, and a symbolism of EURE KINDER WERDEN SO WIE WIR, 2007 DV 27:04 Min. foregoing symbols in film images reveal how political power today represents itself via formalisms and codes.
A work realized in 2007 takes its title from a battle cry chanted by anti-globalization protesters at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany: EURE KINDER WERDEN SO WIE WIR! (Your children will turn out like us!). Here too, Korpys/Löffler were accredited as journalists, documenting the events surrounding the meeting of international economic powers that drew a concentration of prominent state figures and organized protest. Once again, some of their images show things not featured in media accounts, but which are undeniably part of the whole: close-ups of nature, earthworms and beetles bearing witness to things carrying on regardless; then helicopters that may be flying in the mighty rulers or taking care of security, as well as footage capturing the atmosphere among the demonstration tourists. As in earlier works, this ‘other’ point of view, with the deliberately non-moralizing stance that can be sensed in the visual idiom, is capable of clearly highlighting what is actually at stake.
At the Secession, Korpys/Löffler will show a total of six film works including a brand new site-specific video production. Not least, the exhibition architecture developed by the artists deploys the method of reversed perspectives and appearances. A ‘corridor’ along the central axis of the Hauptraum illustrates the ambivalent position typical of Korpys/Löffler: the visible supporting construction is located inside the corridor, so that the inner walls actually appear as outside walls. Is the supposed corridor finally just a space in between?
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog (German/ English).
ANDREE KORPYS (born 1966 in Bremen) lives in Berlin.
MARKUS LÖFFLER (born 1963 in Bremen) lives in Bremen.
SOLO SHOWS (selection): 2007 Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg; 2006 Kleines Seemannsheim für ausmontierte Seelen, Sprengel Museum Hanover; Für ein Leben nach dem Tod, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe; 2004 unter Bildhauern, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; Münchenschlinge, Kunstraum Munich; Korpys/Löffler, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn; The Nuclear Football, Galerie Otto Schweins, Cologne; 2002 Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe; 2000 Kunstverein Graz; Kunsthalle Nuremberg.
GROUP SHOWS (selection): 2007 History will repeat itself, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, Kunst-Werke Berlin; Reality Bites, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis; Die Stadt von Morgen, Akademie der Künste, Berlin; 2006 SNAFU, Medien Mythen, Mind Control, Hamburger Kunsthalle; 40JahreVideoKunst.de, ZKM Karlsruhe, K21 Kunstsammlung NRW, Lenbachhaus Munich, Kunsthalle Bremen, Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig.