Since the founding of the kestnergesellschaft in 1916, the history of this renowned institution has been closely linked to the conscious efforts of numerous participants who have supported contemporary art and taken position in various ways. With the group exhibition STELLUNG NEHMEN, the kestnergesellschaft is taking up this theme and turning its gaze to the present: the show brings together works that explicitly call on viewers to take their own positions. Eight selected artists from the areas of performance, video, painting, installations, and site-specific interventions will be presented. Some works were created specifically for the exhibition at the kestnergesellschaft.
Beginning with the artist Franz Erhard Walther’s concept of the artwork, according to which the work is completed with the participation of the viewer, visitors to the exhibition STELLUNG NEHMEN will be invited to reflect on the production and reception of the artworks and to take their own positions on art. Christian Falsnaes’s video work »First« (2016), for instance, asks the first visitor of each day his or her opinion, while visitor comments will augment and expand the installation »It’s not just a matter of black and white« (2016) by Christian Philipp Müller during the exhibition.
But the involvement of visitors extends far beyond action-based participation. Visitors’ personal imaginative abilities can be a central component of their individual aesthetic experience, as in the sound installations by Joseph Beuys and Martin Kippenberger or the painting »Punch This Painting« (2010) by Ahmet Ögüt.
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