Suddenly, Last Summer
“Suddenly, Last Summer”
Exhibition serie August 2011 – February 2012with Simon Faithfull, Will Foster, Ingo Gerken, Claudia Olendrowicz und Nici Wegener
in front of the former Schauspielhaus Erfurt, Klostergang 4, 99084 Erfurt
After the pilot project Resources and Visions by the Resource Group in 2007/08 the fictive collective around the curator and artist Nici Wegener is going to bring back a disused, cultural place into the center of Erfurt's public life in summer 2011. Under the exhibition title Plötzlich, letzten Sommer (Suddenly, last Summer), a series of artistic interventions will be realized in the front yard of an former theater, to address the permanent vacancy of the building and to give a temporarily, spotlighted transform to the former theater site. The guiding principle Suddenly, last Summer, is pointing to a temporal contrast, the coupling of glorious Past with a much-needed now.
The hereby emerging project space XAU (X = space, unknown variable, AU = Aurum, gold) sees itself as a monitor, stage and backdrop in one and uses particular three orphaned nondigital displays for dialogue and actively dealing with public.
---
Curatorial & artistic direction: Nici Wegener
Curatorial Support: Lars Hayer
With the generous support of Kunsthaus Erfurt, Liegenschaftsamt Erfurt, Kulturdirektion Erfurt and Utopean Public Art.
Simon Faithfull
Simon Faithfull
“Berlin to Erfurt (in 6 Drawings)”
in front of the former Schauspielhaus Erfurt, Klostergang 4, 99084 Erfurt
Wandering the world over the last ten years, Simon Faithfull has consistently made drawings on an electronic device that record his presence, at a particular moment, somewhere on the surface of the planet. To date, over 600 observational sketches record what he saw in each of these places or journeys. These details of everyday life have slowly built up to record his wanderings from Kottbusser Tor to Antarctica and back.
The drawings have been sent out to the world in a number ways - via email, postcards and more recently via his channel Limbo (an iPhone App, Twitter & Facebook feed). Via these channels the viewer receives drawings the moment they are made. Limbo is an instantaneous platform that mirrors the process by which the drawings are made - the artist now using a bespoke drawing programme that turns his iPhone into a personal, transmitting sketchbook. As the archive of drawings slowly build up, they are creating a personal atlas of the world, mapping time and space, as experienced by one individual, on an ongoing basis.
Faithfull's work can be seen to as an attempt to understand and explore the planet as a sculptural object. To test its limits and report back from its extremities but also to explore the everyday and the mundane. To connect and collapse space. Traveling from Berlin to Erfurt Faithfull will make drawings that record the details of this very normal journey but these drawings will be simultaneously printed out so that on his arrival in Erfurt, Faithfull will be confronted with an exhibition of large scale prints displayed in disused 'Schaukasten' - the drawings from the journey having travelled faster than himself.
Will Foster
Will Foster
“Three is a cardinal number”
in front of the former Schauspielhaus Erfurt, Klostergang 4, 99084 Erfurt
Three is a cardinal number is an intervention in response to the political climate surrounding the Pope Benedict XVI Where there is God, there is the Future pastoral visit to Germany. The adapted XAU display cases in Erfurt make space for a double-sided triptych. The triptych brings together appropriated iconography spotlighting several conflicting beliefs and opinions present across the globe. The triptych stands as a testimony to a lack of social equilibrium while at the same time asking passers by to situate themselves in relation to topics such as: gay, bisexual and transgender rights, contraception, segregated education and the origin of the universe. The realization of this artwork has encountered disruption and uncertainty, as it is situated on the edge of the high security policed zone which will be temporarily set in place during the popes visit.
Claudia Olendrowicz
Claudia Olendrowicz
“Windy times or: primarily we are sensual beings”
in front of the former Schauspielhaus Erfurt, Klostergang 4, 99084 Erfurt
The theatre, the belonging lawn and the displays were linked, three layers which had a function in common. Today, these layers coexist, each one for itself: the theatre is closed but still attracts interested looks, the lawn is a dog park and the displays offer space for graffiti artists.
“The wind blows through the unglazed parts of the displays, it passes the leaves of the trees and whispers through the holes of the panels which blind the former theatre. As a given phenomenon, the wind keeps the connection, keeps the existence. We perceive this wind sensually, it affects indirectly. Wind is varied: on the one hand it is natural, on the other hand it is individual. Wind can lead to confusion, as well as it can bring clarity. As an element for all and everything it is also a private companion of a person, it can evoke thoughts, can accompany and support personal states of feeling – primarily we are sensual beings.”
In her artistic intervention Claudia Olendrowicz installs nine mobile windbreaks on the lawn in front of the ruins, whose dimensions result from the dimensions of the nine missing panes of the display cabinets. The windbreaks are made of solid fabric, which could have been potentially used for seating in theatres. “The selected fabric is not bought from a professional trader, it was purchased at a market. Also, the colour had been chosen by happenstance – the decision for the fabric and its colour was made in order to avoid a strong relation to the past or the future. Present is the wind, which, through the movement of the windbreaks, becomes visible by forming the material, it exists together with it, like another level, perhaps another option.”
Ingo Gerken
Ingo Gerken
“HÖHERE ORDNUNG (HIGH ORDER)”
in front of the former Schauspielhaus Erfurt, Klostergang 4, 99084 Erfurt
HÖHERE ORDNUNG (HIGH ORDER) is a passing arrangement at the side of the road. An ensemble of elements from the street and for the street. The three vitrines of XAU Projects are no longer vitrines. Their showcase status is updated and newly adjusted, their significance gets a different grounding. They are just parts of a group now. A group of objects. There are no functions anymore. Just objects. All these objects are deposited objects. Abandoned objects. Discarded objects. Systematic objects. Naked objects. They stand for a common position. The objects are adamant. In sequence: the object is in position and opposition. The object is coordinated. The object is informed. Resistance is formulated. Placed, produced, cancelled, accomplished. It is right here and right there. And there as well. Things just get mentioned three times. And then never again.
HÖHERE ORDNUNG (HIGH ORDER) is a temporary arrangement at the side of the road. An ensemble of elements from the street and for the street. The three vitrines of XAU Projects are no longer vitrines. Their showcase status is updated and newly adjusted, their significance gets a different grounding. They are just parts of a group now. A group of objects. There are no functions anymore. Just objects. All these objects are deposited objects. Abandoned objects. Discarded objects. Systematic objects. Naked objects. They stand for a common position. The objects are adamant. In sequence: the object is in position and opposition. The object is coordinated. The object is informed. Resistance is formulated. Placed, produced, cancelled, accomplished. It is right here and right there. And there as well. Things just get mentioned three times. And then never again.
HÖHERE ORDNUNG (HIGH ORDER) is a fleeting arrangement at the side of the road. An ensemble of elements from the street and for the street. The three vitrines of XAU Projects are no longer vitrines. Their showcase status is updated and newly adjusted, their significance gets a different grounding. They are just parts of a group now. A group of objects. There are no functions anymore. Just objects. All these objects are deposited objects. Abandoned objects. Discarded objects. Systematic objects. Naked objects. They stand for a common position. The objects are adamant. In sequence: the object is in position and opposition. The object is coordinated. The object is informed. Resistance is formulated. Placed, produced, cancelled, accomplished. It is right here and right there. And there as well. Things just get mentioned three times. And then never again.
Nici Wegener
Nici Wegener
“In the Zenith of Time”
in front of the former Schauspielhaus Erfurt, Klostergang 4, 99084 Erfurt
“Time is the longest distance between two places.” (Tennessee Williams)
In the Zenith of Time is a temporary intervention in three acts. As an open-stage play it uses the area of the former Schauspielhaus in Erfurt, which was sent into an eternal sleep and disqualified to be a cultural wasteland since summer 2003. Set in the freezing cold winter month February 2012 and under the direction of artist Nici Wegener more than 600 black helium balloons will start a dialogue with the orphaned space and escaped time.
Act I
The Alienating
Act II
In the Zenith
Act III
The Vanish
As the final artistic contribution to the exhibition series Suddenly, Last Summer the intervention will constitute a solemn farewell of a place whose future is not ours to see.
Contact / Info
Address: Klostergang 4, 99084 Erfurt
Opening hours: Mon – Sun, 24h / day
Email: info[at]xau-projects.com