curatorial / research
LAYERS OF TIME
a curatorial transatlantic project
concept & layout by KLAUS HU 2017_18
LAYERS OF TIME
a curatorial transatlantic project
concept & layout by KLAUS HU 2017_18
CONCEPT
As the painting process interweaves historical and contemporary quests on the subject of landscape and its clashes under different cultural notions and histories, influenced by the photographic archive and the digital realm, this proposal looks for individual positions and perspectives from Europe and the US. It centers round the notion on how time frames not only the self, but questions its canon as representation and abstraction of painting by juxtaposing and implementing the sculptural form, the collage and the photographic reference as a form to grasp contemporary painting anew inside the discourse on the Anthropocene.
WORK
Artist positions from Europe and the USA on the conflicting crisis of presence and of the baggage of history. With subjects on landscape, economics and on ecological concerns. Without limits to subjective, objective reflection and towards genre. Historical photographic archives will be juxtaposed towards the artists statements on how to grasp the timely bridge between a fading past, an overall now and a desired future, that due to its digital promise seems out of reach. This overall now is also affected by political and cultural clashes and misbalances on how to perceive the era of the Anthropocene, made visible via the artist statements and via the historical archives juxtaposed as a kind of new syncretism.
ARTISTS, WRITERS AND ARCHIVES so far considered:
(in alphabetical order)
Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI - on the uranium waste deposits within the US), Edward S.Curtis (North Western University library / photographic archive / selection of First Nation American settlements), Kiki Gaffney (Philadelphia - painting), Klaus Hu (Berlin - painting / photography), Tom Judd (Philadelphia - painting), excerpts of Geoff Manaugh´s blog BLDGBLOG as a supplement source / to be presented on screen, Levan Mindiashvili (NY / Tbilisi, Georgia - painting), NASA / JPL-Caltech (on Mars “Spirit” rover database - photography), James Reich (Santa Fe / writer - on the Church Rock spill - text of 2013), Timothy O`Sullivan (1872 / collection / archive / Duke University, Durham, North Carolina - selection of his early photographic recordings of the South West), Elisa Pritzker (NY - objects / sculpture), Ward Shelley (NY - painting / drawing / installation, Robert Smithson (estate / HoltSmithson Foundation / selection of his films / videos), Ralf Tekaat (Berlin - drawing / installation), Derrick Velasquez (Denver - objects / sculpture)
images, texts courtesy and © the artists, writers, archives and estates considered
concept, layout by KLAUS HU 2017_18
LANDSCAPE, THE ARCHIVE AND ESCAPE 2013 / 15
keynote / paper presented at Santa Fe Art Institute / New Mexico / USA 2013.
keynote / video on UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES presented during exhibition UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES 2015 in Berlin at Somos Art Space.
MAPS 2011 / 12 / research /
While "the process of globalization results in a diversification and multiplication of spaces, that are subject to new configurations and specific expansion and contraction processes, the rise of inequalities, consequently, the linear and serial space that determines our imagination as the basis of traditional map work melts away. This (also) requires new forms of symbolic representation.” "Nations states appear as a type of container,...., reflecting a 19th century constellation of states" [1] , while lines of trade are being made visible. What is the weather Forecast transgressing Rivers and Borders? There are some examples of this analysis provided by Antonia Hirschs [2] works, eg. “Average Country” of 2006, “Forecast” 2005 and “Blot” 2000, working with processes of erasure, but remaining defiantly impersonal in displacing the familiar “world as map”. In other works like “Artnews Top 200” [2], she only shows these countries, that according to Artnews magazine are home to influential art collectors.
Artists having worked in the 70s and 80 ́s like Marcel Broodthaers and Alighiero Boetti have shown earlier the unease of upcoming globalization (> Alighiero Boetti / Mappa del Mondo and M. Broodthaers / The Conquest of Space: Atlas for the Use of Artists and the military 1975). Whereas these historical lines inform current debate and irritation, more and more fostered by social networks online, few archives remain as searchable databases eg. www.clui.org / Center for Landuse Interpretation, offering an alternative view on geographical and historical mapping and access. Newer databases, like the NASA ́s image database on Space missions provide an escapist and distancing beauty, compensating the lack of differentiation needed on earthly and human matters, opening a narrow black hole (of escapism) on neoliberal globalization, Fordist capitalism and Taylorist mass production.
lit. [1] Joachim Hirsch / based on a text first published by 69pender Gallery, Vancouver Canada, © Joachim Hirsch, May 2005 Joachim Hirsch is prof. emeritus at Political science at the J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany
[2] Antonia Hirsch / Artist / researcher / writer / Vancouver / Berlin, co-publisher of Fillip / Canada
photos / works courtesy the artists / estates & archives
by DLR, NASA/JPL-Caltech, Alessandro Vitali, Robert Smithson, Vik Muniz,
John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Ward Shelley, Alighiero Boetti
site specific / selection 2001 / 19
P8_EARTH, FAIL BIGGER!
Kunst am Bau Kunstwettbewerb Neubau Engler-Bunte-Institut 1.BA Karlsruhe / Germany / presentation May 2019 in Stuttgart / Kunstkommission Baden-Württemberg
P7_ANAMORPHOSES / LEONARDO
high school Berlin 2018 anamorphosen (after leonardo)
stages of life / lebenszyklen I - VI
Konzept
Leonardo da Vinci und Albrecht Dürer sollen die Darstellung der Anamorphose erfunden haben. Die Anamorphose stellt Schein und Wirklichkeit unter Beweis, da eine Abbildung nur von einem Standpunkt aus in der exakten Proportion gesehen werden kann.
the digital age considered 2017 / submission for Humboldtforum Berlin / open call
P5_THE SWEAT LODGE a ritual hut as transparent structure to be installed at Faena Art Space, for use by its visitors.
FAENA ART SPACE Buenos Aires, Argentina 2016
P4_SHARJAH BIENNALE 2009 OPEN CALL
GREEN BOXING RING / ON HOME
Maybe
the 3 proposals had been too early for the green revolution, or may be
just right in time. The revolutions in the Arabic Countries just had
started, and I thought about the Sharjah Biennale as another sheltered
and wealthy Emirate, that, due to its high income of inhabitants could
bare some reflections about its neighbors, and some reflections about
the meaning of "HOME" from a Sharjah perspective. I have to admit, I also wanted to find out, how far this could become interactive.
P3_MAXXI ROME 2009
SITE SPECIFIC
OPEN CALL
24 LIGHTS for the atrium / foyer section of MAXXI / ROME / Each
light representing a timezone of earth time. The colors may change due
to interaction of the visitor, thus presenting a subjective daily color
pattern of timezones.
P2_EXHIBITION OF COMPETITION DESIGNS
from 6th till 11th of Sept 2011 at KUNST-RAUM
of German Parliament
Marie-Elisabeth Lüders Haus Berlin competition 2010
MARS / concept, design
While working in my studio on the MARS project and archival photos, I thought about, why not using MARS inside " Weltraum ", which in German has a double meaning ( as outer space and as inhabitable space = Welt-Raum / Welten Raum ), for projecting MARS as installation into the new to be built restaurant for the German parliament addition.
P1_VM - 2001 / 4 concept / model for a museum building as site specific concept / as overground and underground sites / concept / model / design: STUDIO KLAUS HU 2001 / 4 & 2012 (as installation)
