Remastered – the art of appropriation

Curator: Verena Gamper

Kunsthalle Krems
Franz­ Zeller­ Platz 3, 3500 Krems an der Donau, Link to the website

From the exhibition text: Without the art of others, one’s own art is inconceivable, because art always develops in conscious or unconscious reference to already existing works. But what happens when a reference becomes an appropriation? When artists incorporate works by overpainting or extinguishing, or by symbolically reinterpreting, updating, or translating from the media, they lay hands on the work of others? A comprehensive group exhibition is devoted to this art of appropriation.

 

The exhibition focuses on those works that are based on the symbolic or physical appropriation of another work of art. This may seem superficially anachronistic as we live in a time of media iconoclasm that levels all visual material to the same level of meaning. But especially in view of the almost limitless possibilities, the appropriation of works of art and thus of a comparatively small and still very charged segment of image production raises exciting questions that do not arise with regard to the integration of art-foreign material. Like a burning glass, it allows a condensed view of the various aspects of appropriation, thus providing eloquent as well as enlightening comments on the art field and its reference systems. In a compilation of historical works of Appropriation Art, current positions and works not yet seen in this aspect, the art of appropriation is illuminated in its unique complexity. An interpretive categorization of appropriation strategies, for instance as homages or persiflage, is deliberately avoided, as this would limit the potential space of association of each individual work. Instead, the moment underlying each specific appropriation moves to the foreground of the decision to make a work, and thus the affection of this work. An interpretive categorization of appropriation strategies, for instance as homages or persiflage, is deliberately avoided, as this would limit the potential space of association of each individual work. Instead, the moment underlying each specific appropriation moves to the foreground of the decision to make a work, and thus the affection of this work. An interpretive categorization of appropriation strategies, for instance as homages or persiflage, is deliberately avoided, as this would limit the potential space of association of each individual work. Instead, the moment underlying each specific appropriation moves to the foreground of the decision to make a work, and thus the affection of this work.

In the exhibition are works by Enrico Baj, John Baldessari, Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Pierre Bismuth, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Mel Chin & GALA Committee, Gintaras Did ž iapetris, Braco Dimitrijevic, Marcel Duchamp, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Luigi Ghirri, Rodney Graham, GRAM, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Herbert Hinteregger, William E. Jones, Asger Jorn, Martin Kippenberger, Matthias Klos & Christian Wallner, Bertrand Lavier, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Kazimir Malevitch, Man Ray, Jonathan Monk, Klaus Mosettig, Ciprian Mureşan, Richard Pettibone, Lisl Ponger, Nada Prlja, Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Misha Stroj, Sturtevant, Rosemarie Trockel, Gavin Turk and Martin Wöhrl.

 

About Prlja’s work:

International Baroque (After Marina Abramovic)  is a performance that looks at the mass media, commenting directly on the purpose and content of daily newspapers. The project addresses the amount of negative events that are reported by newspapers on a daily basis, which is accepted without much reaction from the political or social circles.

International Baroque (After Marina Abramovic) (2009) is a performance which re-enacts Marina Abramovic’s ‘Balkan Baroque’ (1997) performance. The project ‘International Baroque’, strives in a symbolic sense (as in Marina Abramovic’s 1997 work), to ‘clean up’ or ‘wash out’ the bitter reality from society, by ‘physically erasing’ all the ‘bad’ contents from the newspapers. The performance lasted a whole day and the photographs of which this work consists, are documentation of the same.

The documentary photographs of the performance are introduced with an insert from David Elliott’s “Balkan Baroque” essay, which introduces Marina Abramovic’s early life, her relation to her partisan parents, etc [images bellow].

On re-written biographical passage from the above mentioned book, Prlja erases and adds with a pencil information personally related to her own life, her relation to her grandparents, likewise veteran partisans. Intriguingly, the remaining (unedited) part of the text written by Elliott could equally refer to Prlja’s personal history and appears as if it were written about her. With this act, Prlja emphasises the similar destiny of many post WWII partisan families in region of Ex-Yugoslavia.

 

 

 

Press coverage:

See the video of the opening

Press informations