Project with the Museum of Modern Art, (GfZK) Leipzig

CONCEPT

„The PUZZLE collection exhibition dedicates itself to the theme of art communication and the way this is dealt with. For this purpose the Neubau (new building) with its splinter-like arranged rooms, served as a formal framework for the exhibition“  (Julia Schäfer). For the exhibition ten various groups spread across individually allocated zones were to work with the GfZK collection over half a year. The CLASS FOR INTERMEDIA was also one of the ten groups that were invited. In the project „Puzzle: Raumzone 5“ the students were given the opportunity to confront the museum’s collection and to develop artistic and curatorial concepts in reference to it.

In the first phase of the collective project a series of lectures and discussions with the gallery personnel were proposed, which furthered the questions surrounding the activities of collection: What is an art collection? What is the difference between public and private collections? How does a collection come to being? What are the social and historical requirements for its formation? What are the criteria for the selection of art work? Etc. …

Furthermore, exhibitions-, bureau- and depot-visits were made, which gave an impression about the daily work and the functioning of an institutional exhibition space. After the first introductions phase, the praxis-orientated work followed within the framework which Julia Schäfer proposed RAUMZONE 5 as an exhibitions-laboratory for the CLASS FOR INTERMEDIA. In close collaborative work with Schäfer a series of works were developed for the room, which fit into the overall context of the exhibition like puzzle pieces.

The starting point for the installation from Sabine F. are not the art works or the collection, rather the materials that are used in order to send or store the art works- in order to protect them. The exterior (the packaging) gives reference to a precious interior. The interior is then newly defined by its reinterpretation. Installative deliberations play an important role in the work from Angelika Waniek. However here the space is reinterpreted through different colour codes: It becomes a stage and a background for the production of a lecture-performance based on the collection alongside its catalogue with its respective descriptions.

The performative actions that are on the other hand in the work of Stefan Hurtig are aimed at the production of video-clips in which he himself sings about the GfZK and its collection. The thus created videos will be presented as an installation with chosen works from the collection. Whilst with the complete absence of the works from the collection Guillermo Fiallo Montero creates an installation in which the works can be solely experienced by the narration of a series of personnel and patrons of the GfZK. Meta B. Einvald also works with questions and interviews: she does not records her data with video, rather collects it in written and tabulated form. For her the art works are not in the foreground rather the artists as people with (economical, ideal, market strategical) hopes and wishes, which are linked with the incorporation of his/her work in the collection. Franziska Jyrch deals equally with the human factor and their relationship towards the collection. She focuses on themes of memory, or more specifically that of forgetting.

As the exhibition „Puzzle“ is a constantly changing one, it was decided that each student would present his own project for the zone, and that the works would be exhibited one after the other for the entirety of the exhibition time. Each project was thus displayed over a period of circa 5 weeks.

Alba D’Urbano

Video/audio-Installation by Franziska Jyrch with works of Thomas Näther, Silke Schatz and Oliver Zwink.

Einvald, Meta B. Fiallo Montero, Guillermo Fischer, Sabine Hurtig, Stefan Jyrch, Franziska Waniek, Angelika

With many thanks to Julia Schäfer for the excellent and intensive collaboration, Heidi Stecker for the in-depth communication of information in regards to the collection. Angela Boehnke for the wonderful support and communication of knowledge regarding the archives and depots of the GfZK, Jürgen Boehnke for the active assistance, our press officer Marion Herzberg for the press communication work, and Barbara Steiner, who opened the doors of the GfZK for our students.

_{Photos by Sebastian Schröder, Marlene Morgenstern and the artists}