Paweł Althamer, "Bródno People", 2010, from the collections of Sammlung Goetz © Paweł Althamer, courtesy of Sammlung Goetz, photo: Achim Kukulies
Paweł Althamer is among the artists featured in the current exhibition of works bridging the representation of figurative sculptures of the post-war era with contemporary works at the Ludwig Museum
The main theme of the exhibition evokes the well-known dictum that the catastrophe of World War II sets a fundamental severance with slogans of human rights and human dignity . In this context, the collected post-war works in the Ludwig Museum in a very direct way present the oppressed, hurt and vulnerable human beings and comprise the argumentative core of the exhibition.
In their sculptures Germaine Richier, Gerhard Marcks and Alberto Giacometti put forth a traumatised human with a face and body, clothed in an artistic form that expresses the spirit of the era, deprived of its voice. These works are also a starting point for contemplating contemporary installations of such artists as Phyllida Barlow, Paul Chan and Zoe Leonard. As opposed to their predecessors, the aforementioned artists by attempting to get closer to the increasingly complex and divided condition of contemporaneity, abandon figurative art and seek a meaning in spatial relations and multifariousness of materials.
The exhibition also features Paweł Althamer’s sculptures of his neighbors from Bródno, a derelict district of Warsaw which is known for its stereotypical drunkards and hooligans roaming the streets. Althamer has attempted to cast various perspectives on the way his fellow residents are perceived, by having them dress up in space suits and embody the true 'alien' character that is thrust upon them.
Before the Law has been put together in cooperation with the Siemens Stiftung and is the alst exhibit prepared by Kasper König at the Museum Ludwig.
Artists: Paweł Althamer, Carl Andre, Phyllida Barlow, Joseph Beuys, Karla Black, Monica Bonvicini, Reg Butler, Paul Chan, Fritz Cremer, Jimmie Durham, Katharina Fritsch, Alberto Giacometti, Candida Höfer, William Kentridge, Marko Lehanka, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Zoe Leonard, Giacomo Manzù, Gerhard Marcks, Marino Marini, Henry Moore, Bruce Nauman, Germaine Richier, Ulrich Rückriem, Thomas Schütte, George Segal, Andreas Siekmann, Andreas Slominski, Ossip Zadkine.
Curators: Kasper König, Thomas D. Trummer, Anna Brohm, Andreas Prinzing.
The exhibition opens on the17th of December, 2011 and runs through the 22nd of April, 2012.
Museum Ludwig
Heinrich-Böll-Platz
50667 Cologne
www.museum-ludwig.de
Source: press release