Marcus Weber
KRAZY DOG MOON KAT
ISBN 978-3-86442-251-5
Erschienen 2019 bei der SNOECK Verlagsgesellschaft, Köln
dt. /engl.
Euro 20,- (in der Villa Merkel)
The book on the occasion of Marcus Weber’s exhibition KRAZY DOG MOON KAT presents for the first time a wide selection of paintings by the artist, who was born in Stuttgart in 1965 and now lives in Berlin. They are narrative tongue-in-cheek images, allusive group portraits and urban landscapes with grotesque re-wordings of social orders, and caricatured and exaggerated individual characters. There are flashes of painterly sophistication, so that some works may be read as a capriccio, desolate and romantic at the same time. Great painters seem to always resonate – Marcus Weber displays an unmistakable enthusiasm for artists such as James Ensor and Philip Guston.All in all, this creates a grotesque mixture mocking each and every hierarchy, based as much on productive bridging into the realm of comics by Georg Herriman as on art history. Weber is a genre painter in the best tradition who paints images of society. Unconventional communities are moved into focus – such as isolated men at bar counters, characters reading art magazines, certain types slouching in design furniture, and café house scenes where masked people gather together – but above all, delicate details receive the utmost attention, such as three scoops of ice cream or a piece of cake known as Donauwelle. As a subtle and multi-layered reaction to current political and social conditions, these works outrival so-called new history painting, which is usually exhausted by painted copies of press photos. Accordingly, the New York Times (May 2, 2018), on the occasion of his first solo exhibition in the United States, attested to the artist a surprisingly up-to-date approach in his emulating the immutability of real life.
“Hidden/Secret—Strategies des Verborgenen” presents three positions that focus on subversion as an artistic strategy. In three different ways, works by !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Sina Ataeian Dena and Francis Alÿs investigate the realities of the media. With bold readiness to violate borders, these artists explore unconventional paths in order to penetrate realities that appear to be known. The works do not allow a complete discovery of what is hidden. Instead they offer an extension of familiar levels and a sharpened perception of the realities of society and the media.
To tell a simple Teheran story, one sometimes has to take compicated detours. The film Paradise by Sina Ataeian Dena was filmed in Iran without official permission. Surprising solutions were found for realizing every single image. The Paradise Handbook is a making-of that provides the reader with a perspective on subversive strategies and digital image manipulation techniques for film making under restrictive conditions.
Alberto Zamora Ruiz paints. One series of pictures, for example, shows interiors resembling still lifes and overflowing with monitors, computers, laptops, strips of cable, personal odds and ends, ashtrays and so forth: the scenes are precariously cropped. The choice of section to be shown stages and exaggerates the visual presentation. Genuine rhythmic staccatos are placed along the edges of the picture. The paintings can be read as a commentary reflecting on the media and focusing on the pictorial machines of our days, as experimental arrangements of pictures within pictures; at the same time, one can discover the sites of mysterious activities in them.
JAK will remain anonymous.
JAK will only show artistic work.
However, JAK emerged in many ways over the last years – as an artist, author, psychotherapist, religious academic.
The ongoing film project SOUL BLINDNESS lended its title to the exhibition at Villa Merkel. JAK is also a director and screenwriter too. JAK’s artistic work develops highly complex and follows an extremely precise conceptual conciseness.
JAK is working on a film since 2013. The process of development differs from that of a normal, structured film shoot. Throughout ongoing exhibition activity, step by step JAK writes the story of the script, continuing it with each exhibition. In the process, JAK employs media such as drawing, text, video, sound, sculpture, painting, photography or installation. It revolves around the phenomenon of the psychological anomaly agnosia – the soul blindness. Acts from the script of SOUL BLINDNESS transformed and concretized for the exhibition to stages and sceneries inviting you to dive into the visualized intellectual world of JAK.
Has JAK been brought to life through your actions as the reader of these lines? In your mind, has JAK developed a body, attributes, or autonomy?
Allan Kaprow (Atlantic City, NJ, 1927 – 2006 Encinitas, CA) is world-famous as the pioneer of the concept and the art form of the happening. His environments – gigantic, transforming installations made of car tires, barrels, or ice blocks – are a milestone in recent art history.
However, Kaprow began as a painter, not least during his studies with Hans Hofmann. He also studied with the art historian Meyer Shapiro and the composer John Cage, early on displaying a readiness to traverse artistic and theoretical boundaries. It was a time when the range of artistic materials was expanding: visual art materials came from industry and from everyday life, silence and noise expanded the scope of music, and everyday human interactions entered choreography and dance.
The exhibition in Villa Merkel in Esslingen featured a number of discoveries. For the first time, the paintings created by the artist between 1946 and 1957 were the sole focus of an exhibition. The young artist’s position and the influence of his role models become apparent, as does his interest in the topic of space and his endeavor to create a connection between and merge the achievements of Jackson Pollock and John Cage.
In visual art, the theme of narration lies within a tradition that dates back many centuries. Both the depiction of literary sources, such as in mythological and religious history painting, and the portrayal of historical events dominated artistic production for a long time. On the most fundamental level, storytelling is a defining force in all social and societal aspects of life. Within an intellectual framework, this has led to a transdisciplinary interest that extends beyond
the scope of literary narration to take into account psychological, sociological, political and juridical contexts. Open narrative structures, narrative fragments, and the individual experience of the creator and recipient can be named as a few areas of focus in many investigations.
In light of this background, the exhibition Stories in Your Mind presents select international positions in contemporary art that, due to specific narrative features, create the effect of storytelling and lead to a subjective experience of perspective. Stories in Your Mind focuses on the interaction between the artwork and the beholder, with the individual works reflecting a confrontation with the topic of narration on a conceptual level, whether it be through the deployment of text as a sculptural form or the use of media to transform textual connections.
GOOD SPACE – POLITICAL, AESTHETIC AND URBAN SPACES directs its focus to the perception and experience of public spaces from a present perspective and casts light on current issues such as how, in spite of limited resources, the future can be designed and social life can be successful. Coming to the fore in the exhibition are functional and aesthetic redefinitions of sites by specially built structures that facilitate innovative experiences also of public spaces. The subjects of reflection are the complex forms of urban experience, aspects of bio-spacing or the developmental models for cities and societies conceived from the fringes of society. The architecture of informational structures is treated as well as issues of surveillance and invisibility in the digital realm. There is a vivid representation of how the study of the evolutionary processes of plants can give rise to future-relevant methods in the areas of bio-design or urban ecology. Interactive interventions invite participation – enough to briefly sketch out the thematic issues raised by GOOD SPACE.
"Home" continues Doherty’s meditations, in video and photography, on the changing political landscape of Northern Ireland. Doherty examines the borders between the present and the past and be-tween reality and memory. Doherty’s use of the cam-era reveals his interest in surveillance technologies on the one hand and his concern with the tradition of the romantic landscape on the other. Our attention shifts from day to night and from urban areas to natural sites, from panorama to close-up. The camera seems to wander from the familiar path and to lead us into blind alleys or dead spaces.
Ed. by Andreas Baur and Marcus Weber for the Villa Merkel, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen, Snoeck Verlag Köln, 2015
Texts (German / English) by Esther Leslie, Andreas Baur, Marcus Weber. An Interview from Marcus Weber with Peter Saul and a reprint of an obituary on Maria Lassnig by Paul McCarthy
152 pages, Format 28x21cm, with coloured illustrations
Hamish Fulton, born in London in 1946, is working on an entirely independent body of work that is rather poetic and borne by a distinguished, authentic and open-minded attitude. For over 40 years, he has been conveying and acknowledging »walking« as an art form: Walks. Fulton makes Walks in all corners of the world, such as a walk »From Coast to Coast« in the UK, for instance. They result in wall drawings and images, photos and objects capturing in a variety of ways the defining phenomena of the Walks. At the same time, according to the motto »No Walk, No Art«, they can also be read as a passive protest against the excesses of urbanization that Fulton formulates in a sympathetic, yet uncompromising way. In 1994, Hamish Fulton, for the first time, directly involved other people in his work with a Group Walk. This volume documents the nucleus of the exhibition at Villa Merkel in Esslingen (9/3–8/6/2014), and the Walks recorded by the artist in recent years.
Ed. by Andreas Baur and Tina Plokarz for the Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Snoeck Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne, 2014.
Texts (German/English) by Andreas Baur, Hamish Fulton, Freddy Langer, Tina Plokarz
64 p. with 30 coloured illustrations, hardcover with dust jacket
Applying the philosophical theorems of Gilles Deleuze, the works of Panhans offer an impressive investigation into the relationship of image and time, motion and time as well as body and memory. He successfully connects philosophical questions with the psychology of the present. On the one hand he reveals the identity-establishing and increasingly absurd influence on our thoroughly digitised consumer society, while on the other hand he seems to ask with Deleuze, à propos Henri Bergson (Matière et mémoire, 1896): " Does this mean that [...] cinema is only the projection, the reproduction of a constant, univeral illusion? As though we had always had cinema without realising it?"
Edited by Katja Blomberg, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König: Berlin, 2014
Texts (ger./eng.) by Dr. Katja Blomberg, Reinhard Braun
“What Use Are Pictures?” – especially in today's times, this is a downright radical and simultaneously impertinent question. The same-named exhibition at the Villa Merkel, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, and the Kunstsammlung Jena takes as its theme the extremely varied utilizations of photography on the basis of some four hundred photographs from a renowned private collection in southern Germany which are outstanding, even bizarre, sometimes strange, but always astounding. The publication is published on the occasion of same-named exhibition.
Ed. by Andreas Baur for the Galerien der Stadt Esslingen, Bernd Stiegler, Felix Thürlemann
Texts (German) tutorial project at the Universität Konstanz under the supervision of the instructors Bernd Stiegler and Felix Thürlmann
304 p. with 250 coloured illustrations, hardcover
»Crossing Media« is the name of the format now to replace the photo triennial first held in 1989 in Esslingen, which is also being expanded to include a festival comprising video presentations, performances, readings, discussions and concerts. The keyword »crossover«, i.e. the blurring and infusing of genres and disciplines, no longer describes such new things, it’s true, but does apply as a process to a lot of that which contemporary art denotes. Such a crossover process not only gives rise to those works of art that are surprising to our viewpoints and other modes of experiencing them, but it once again makes it apparent that within art there can be no more standard explanations. All artistic works and actions, especially at this festival, share the fact that they refer back to a stage-like presentation or display for their comprehension and presentation. Even as visitors arrive in the spacious entrance hall of the villa, they are surprised by a delicate construction by Banks Violette with a gleaming black stage floor and ceiling, from which a jumbled assortment of neon tubes appears to fall; it bears the title »Kill Yourself«. Or in the next room, where a large, empty sculpture plinth stands carefully illuminated on a red carpet in the floor space: this is »Public Sculpture« by Julien Berthier. Walking around the work visitors are transported by the artist’s symphonic hammer strikes on bronze statues in the open space into an ephemeral sound situation – or one might even say they are surrounded with a sculpture of sound. These examples are representative of many others by the 17 artists exhibited, as compiled in this comprehensive volume. Other participants of »Crossing Media. Art as a Stage« include Nevin Aladag, Birgit Brenner, Daniele Buetti, Kurt Caviezel, Beate Engl, Rainer Ganahl, Johan Grimonprez, Paul Harrison/John Wood, Christine Hill, Eva Kotátková, Jung Lee, Alexandra Leykauf, Atelier van Lieshout, Andres Lutz & Anders Guggisberg and Philippe Ramette.
Edited by Andreas Baur, Snoeck Verlag: Köln, 2013.
Texts (ger./eng.) by Andreas Baur, Anne Horny, Tina Plokarz, Anka Wenzel
In the spring of 1963, Manfred Kuttner and his fellow students, Konrad Lueg, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter organize the legendary “Demonstrative Ausstellung” (Demonstrative Exhibition) at Kaiserstraße 31A in Dusseldorf. This marks the beginning of so-called German Pop Art, where the now-legendary term Kapitalistischer Realismus (Capitalist Realism) is born. In 1960, Manfred Kuttner escapes from East Germany to Dusseldorf. At the Dusseldorfer Kunstakademie in the class of Karl Otto Götz, he becomes involved with Informel, and soon also with ZERO and the Fluxus movement. At the end of 1962, he discovers the fluorescent “Plaka” paint which has recently been launched and marketed by Pelikan. The following months, he creates a series of some 30 geometrically structured paintings in fluorescent colours and 15 articles for daily use painted likewise in luminous colours. In addition, he shoots the film “A–Z”, does a photo series with body paintings, and writes the script for an experimental play entitled “Unfall” (Accident). In 1964, Manfred Kuttner ends his artistic career and works in the following years as a graphic designer. Not until recently has Manfred Kuttner’s oeuvre again come to public attention in solo and group exhibitions. With a solo exhibition at the Villa Merkel in Esslingen and one at the Langen Foundation in Neuss, the oeuvre of Manfred Kuttner is being presented for the first time in its full glory.
Edited by: Andreas Baur und / and Marcus Weber, Villa Merkel, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen; Christiane Maria Schneider, Langen Foundation, Neuss
Texts by: Birgit Hein, Tobias Kuttner, Christine Mehring, Thomas Scheibitz, Sabine Sense, Franz Erhard Walther, Marcus Weber
Pages: 192, Language: German / English
The appeal in dealing with gold for contemporary art seems to lie in the multifaceted levels of expression and significance that are associated with this auratic material. Between fascination, adoration and desire, the noble metal plays for hundreds of years a major part. Gold invariably invokes reactions – a potential that is exploited with great diversity by 18 international artists.
Edited by Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Villa Merkel Esslingen
Texts Klaus H. Orth, Anne Schloen, Harriet Zilch
German/English
204 pages, Numerous ills. in color, Hardcover
The Villa Merkel and the Bahnwärterhaus become a platform for current artistic approaches. An expanded discourse on painting is on offer: a group of 27 artists from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart – students, graduates and visiting students from Reto Boller’s class – are introducing themselves in an international context.
Texts Reto Boller, Andreas Bauer, Nadine Bracht
Edited by Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar and Verlag Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart
80 pages
In his work the Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih engages with particular aspects of modernist history such as political and social utopianism, modernist architecture and design and the origins and evolution of cinema. For exhibition he created an architecture in architecture along the lines of the Chicago World Exhibition in 1893. The show at Villa Merkel, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, was the first comprehensive solo exhibition by Tobias Putrih in Germany.
Edited by Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Necker / Anka Wenzel
Over a period of three weeks the three artists Anike Joyce Sadiq, Max Santo and Ines Wuttke showed installations and performances specially created for the Bahnwärterhaus. The examination of illusion and fiction is inherent in all three positions, as well as partly found objects, narration motivs and dramatic scenarios.
56 p., coloured pictures
Breitseite – Im Fokus: Raum (Broadside – In Focus: Space) addresses artistic positions concerned with both the interior of space – especially exhibition spaces – and also the externals of spatial structure. The view of exterior of a spatial structure and seeing the interior are driven by various artistic approaches. The rooms in the Villa Merkel are analysed, processed and changed. New forms of perception emerge , concrete and applied experience come to light.
Breitseite – Im Fokus: Raum features sculptures that create an individual spatial structure and transform the exhibition space itself.
Breitseite – Im Fokus: Raum also features photographs that reinterpret spatial structures from the outside and explore the interior of a space.
Texts (German/ English) by Andreas Baur, Stephan Günzel, Maria Wäsch
80 p., coloured pictures
Darren Almond – Nocturne is a solo show of one of the most outstanding British contemporray artists at Villa Merkel. The transience of time in the fleeting moment of beauty: works in various media – photography, film or installation – show where Darren Almond´s interests lie. He addresses subjects such as signs of the times, landscape and journeys, and also political and historical memory. The fleeting quality of a moment, the fragility of human existence, all this is shown to viewers.
The special nature of this publication in cassette form relates to the specific execution of individual works, sometimes as a concertina folder or a simple booklet. Thus all of the photographs in the exhibition are adequately covered and the film receives a form of publication which can been viewed in particular as a mirror of the artist’s experiences.
Cassette, edited by Andreas Baur
Texts (German/English) by Andreas Baur, Tim Ingold, Johannes Meinhardt
Snoeck Verlag, Köln.
3 concertina folds of 18, 6 & 32 p, two stappled note books each of 44 p with 400 coloured illustrations in all.
310 x 305 mm, cassette
The picture that marked the beginning of the show presents a trunk-feather (?)-fur creature transported from intermediate or dream worlds, scarcely ever seen in this form. It is looking back with one eye. This picture gave the exhibition just one of many animal-shaped spirits, just one of the strange hybrid creatures, one of the masks that inhabit psychedelic worlds. They all came along as figures grown out of patches of dirt and clumps of colour, permeated with heraldic forms, accompanied by ornaments, as artificial things, developed from material of painting.
Edited by Andreas Baur for the Galleries of the city of Esslingen on the Neckar
Texts (German/ English) by Andreas Baur, Maria Wäsch.
Verlag für moderne Kunst, Nuremberg.
Melanie Smith was born in 1965 in Poole, United Kingdom, and now lives in Mexico City. Her installations, paintings and video works address a wide range of issues relating to perception, as well as philosophical questions with an emphasis upon socially relevant issues. Her impressive contribution to the Venice Biennale in 2011, which she readopted in a markedly extended form in her first museum-based solo show in Germany this summer at the Villa Merkel, Esslingen, wowed audiences across the board.
Hrsg. von / edited by Andreas Baur
Texts (German/English) by Andreas Baur, Aoife Rosenmeyer, Johanne Sloan
120 p with 100 coloured illustrations
280 x 210 mm, softcover
Euro 20,- (Villa Merkel)
