The Corona-crisis has changed our lives a lot. Many countries have limited public activities; several are almost totally shut-down. Schools, universities and shops are closed. This stop of public life, also affects cultural institutions like museums, art spaces and galleries. Many cultural operators defy this standstill and take it as a challenge to enhance their digital undertakings. There are different approaches: some publish photos of the oeuvres of their closed or postponed exhibitions, others broadcast videos of their shows or fair booth online. Moreover, there are live streamings or interactive visits available. The list of encounters worldwide is already long and still growing. All these initiatives are not only a possibility to maintain an artistic exchange, but also the opportunity to “visit” exhibitions, which are in normal times inaccessible because of the geographic distances.
Here some examples:
Podbielski Contemporary: Pleasure Garden
Weltkunstzimmer: Exact Confidence Limits. Thomas Neumann. Photography since 1994
Konrad Fischer Galerie: Hans-Peter Feldmann – Thomas Ruff – Juergen Staack
Galerie Tanja Wagner: Art in Quarantine
Galleria Enrico Astuni: #RestiamoConnessi #Let’sGetToghetherAnd FeelAlright
Kirsten Klöckner: Wunschprogramm
fortyfivedownstairs: Cally Lotz – Stiff Upper Lip
Pleasure Garden
Podbielski Contemporary
Via Vincenzo Monti 12, Milan, Italy
https://podbielskicontemporary.com
With “Pleasure Garden” Pierre André Podbielski converted his long period research about photographers on the artistic Nude into an exhibition. Now the show is online and carries us into the Milan based gallery. Here one can gain an overall impression of the arrangement and approach single oeuvres. Information on the photos are accessible by hovering the marks beside the works. There are some iconic images such as Rene Groebli, Ferdiando Scianna and Enzo Obsio, confronted to positions of contemporary artists.
Exact Confidence Limits. Thomas Neumann. Photography since 1994
Weltkunstzimmer
Ronsdorfer Str. 77a, Düsseldorf, Germany
www.neumannthomas.com
Already as pupil, Thomas Neumann travelled to the Belarus. Many other visits to states of the former USSR should follow. Born in 1975 in Cottbus (East Germany at this time) the artist has a particular relation to these countries, since his biography is connected to the Soviet history. In his current exhibition, he looks back to these journeys and the works he created in the last 25 years. Due to the current restrictions on public events, the show is only visible on individual appointment. Nonetheless, at the artist’s website there are several impressions of the exhibition’s view and single works. An introduction is available at the website of the Weltkunstzimmer. Additionally, Hatje Cantz Publishers released a deepening book on the exhibition.
UPDATE: Until now, Thomas Neumann and the Weltkunstzimmer made six video tours through the exhibition. They are available at vimeo. Moreover, Thomas cares about his lonely artworks and entertained them. Dmitrij Dihovichnij sang Russian songs and the bass baritone Thomas Huy interpreted two songs of Franz Schuberts “Winterreise”.
Hans-Peter Feldmann – Thomas Ruff – Juergen Staack
Konrad Fischer Galerie
Platanenstraße 7, Düsseldorf, Germany
www.konradfischergalerie.de
The Konrad Fischer Galerie unites three generations of Düsseldorf-based photographers in its current exhibition. Despite different artistic approaches, the works on view have in common that they are dealing with floral elements. While Hans-Peter Feldmann presents large-sized colour photos and plastic reproductions of flowers, Thomas Ruff superimposes digitally recorded flowers or leaves. For this propose he works with the (pseudo)-solarisation or the Sabattier effect. Juergen Staack brought cyanotypies of shadows of desert flowers from Mongolia and China. Moreover, he questions the relation between the current flood of images and transience. The installations of his latest series “Light Sketch” comprise flowers whose shadows are casting on open notebooks once a day. At the gallery’s website you can find impressions of the exhibition and an introduction text.
UPDATE: A visual tour through the exhibition is now available here. Additionally one could watch a video of “Light Sketch” on Facebook and Instagram.
Art in Quarantine
Galerie Tanja Wagner
Pohlstraße 64, Berlin, Germany
https://tanjawagner.com/art-in-quarantine/
“Art in Quarantine” is a weekly online program where the Galerie Tanja Wagner presents in cooperation with the chosen artist works that speak of our time. In addition to the proposed texts, photos and videos on the gallery’s website there are offers in the social media, as a live interview with Šejla Kamerić scheduled for Saturday 28 March 2020. Until then, you could send your questions to the gallery. Beside Šejla Kamerić as the featured artist of this week, there are videos with comments on the work of Anna Witt online.
#RestiamoConnessi #Let’sGetToghetherAnd FeelAlright
Galleria Enrico Astuni
Via Iacopo Barozzi, 3/D-E-F, Bologna, Italy
www.galleriaastuni.net/news-en
Also the Bolognese Galleria Enrico Astuni wants to stay in touch. For this occasion, they started a series, presenting the artists of the gallery. A short CV and impressions of past exhibitions are available as well as a review on the previous collaborations between the artist and the gallery. The first publication was about Öystein Aasan. Christian Jankowski will be the next artist.
Kirsten Klöckner – Wunschprogramm
https://www.facebook.com/kirsten.kloeckner
Well-known for her interactive way of working, the Berlin based painter Kirsten Klöckner decided not to stay lonely at home, but address her public once more via social media. Since 2012 she works on the project “BeuteKunst” (looted art), meanwhile consisting of three parts with different sources of inspiration. For “Wunschprogramm” (desired programme) the artist asks people to express their wishes. These dreams, ideas and longings find a visual expression in Kirsten’s paper works. Since several days, she exposes one of the results in her studio’s window and posts a photo on Facebook and Instagram, connected with the question to the public “What was the wish, which inspired me to this painting?” The internet community actively takes part in commenting interpretations. After two or three days, Kirsten reveals the represented wish to restart with a new painting. Besides, the artists still accepts new wishes to be painted.
Cally Lotz – Stiff Upper Lip
fortyfivedownstairs
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Australia
https://callylotzartist.com/exhibitions/stiff-upper-lip
If one would interpret the exhibitions title as keep calm and carry on”, Cally Lotz’s show might be an encouraging appeal in the Corona-crisis. However, the almost hyper-realistic paintings are talking about psychological states like containment, austerity and isolation, which were relevant even before the pandemic spread. Due to the cancelled opening of the exhibition, Cally spontaneously published photos of her new paintings online. Meanwhile the gallery fortyfivedownstairs “opened” an online exhibition with the single oeuvres and exhibition view. Moreover, there is a video on YouTube.
Museum Leuven – Virtual Tours
Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 28, Leuven, Belgium
https://www.mleuven.be/en/VisitMdigitally
The Museum Leuven “M” has large offers on the possibility to visit or revisit its exhibitions virtually. Within the past shows, we had a closer look to “OPEN M”, where Flemish Brabant artists were presented. It is a wide range of different techniques, such as painting, sculptures, animation film, photography, drawings, etchings and silk-screen prints. You could stroll through the exhibition and discover the artists more closely by the three-lingual online catalogue. Inter alia there are exhibitions as Nel Aerts’ “The Waddle Show: A Counteract”, “Madness. Students at M” – a confrontation between historical and contemporary artworks on the theme “Madness” and “De Arenbergs” an encounter with the historic collection of Leuven’s high nobilities family Arenberg. Moreover, there is #getMathome, with videos presenting the M’s artists and the first edition of the museum’s magazine online.
Besides these initiatives, several artists, galleries and institutions are constantly expanding their virtual offer. It is worth to research your favourite art institutions and artists to discover or rediscover and stay in touch with the artistic world.