SIMON WACHSMUTH
Monuments. Documents.
21er Haus
26 September to 17 January 2016
Simon Wachsmuth,
Alexanderschlacht, 2007
260x560 cm
Eisenblech, lackiert
© Bildrecht, Wien, 2015 Foto: © Nils Klinger
SIMON WACHSMUTH
Monuments. Documents.
The 21er Haus has seized its acquisition of the installation Where we were
then, where we are now (2007), which Simon Wachsmuth conceived for the
Documenta 12, as an opportunity to host a solo exhibition of work by the artist
that centers around monuments and documents and the associated discourse.
It takes us into the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis in the pre-Christian
era and to contemporary Iran, to Korean dolmens from the Neolithic Age and
to present-day paddy fields and archeological museums, into the experimental
visual memory of the art historian Aby Warburg, and into modern Hellas
iconology—in short: to real and imagined places where the self searches for
reassurance, identity is created, and history is brushed with and above all
against the grain.
“Entirely in line with the objectives of the 21er Haus, this concentrated monographic
show by Simon Wachsmuth illustrates the interconnection between collecting and
exhibiting. I am delighted that this central installation by the artist—now part of our
collection—can be shown here in the context of other works for the first time,” says
Agnes Husslein-Arco, Director of the Belvedere and the 21er Haus, of the exhibition. “It
makes it possible to understand Simon Wachsmuth’s artistic approach, which traces the
cultural negotiation and appropriation of historical remains over time and connects
them to contemporary images.”
The title of the exhibition, Monuments. Documents., refers to material, conservational
carriers, which serve to bring the past—the in fact irretrievably lost—into the present.
At least a promise to this effect is inscribed on them. As such, they become integral
components of individual and collective memory. After all, memory subsists on the way
we visualize the past, on the rituals that we develop around it, and on the places where
it seemingly materializes. Memorials are one such place, as are sites of archaeological
excavations and—not least—museums. “Simon Wachsmuth is interested in these
materializations of memory: he is concerned with cultural (re-)constructions of history
and questions the relationship between material traces, representations in museums,
and forms of their use in the present,” explains Curator Luisa Ziaja.
The multipart installation Where we were then, where we are now (2007) has its point
of departure in Persepolis, the former royal city of the Archaemenid Empire in modernday Iran, which was destroyed by the forces of Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. Around
his interpretation of the Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii, which takes the form of a
mosaic of magnets, Wachsmuth concocts a multilayered system of reference for past
and present projections of Iran, the relationship between East and West, and processes
of interpreting, appropriating, and abstracting history. On five fabric-covered panels,
the artist presents arrangements of archive materials, photographs, newspaper
clippings, reproductions, and hand-painted pages on Goethe’s color theory, which
evocatively establish new and ever different connections between past and present,
image and context, but which always resist a conclusive reading. Instead, they are an
expression of the complexity and polyphony of historiography and furthermore—in the
style of Aby Warburg’s influential Mnemosyne Atlas—make it possible to comprehend
the continued existence of antique forms and signs into the present day. The famous
Apadana reliefs in Persepolis are the subject of a film that records the material relics in
slow tracking shots, while a second film shows a group of men at the zurkhaneh, a
traditional Iranian physical exercise that originated in clandestine military combat
training, but which has been enhanced with spiritual rituals over the centuries. Depicted
in several images—and prominent in the central mosaic—lances appear in the space in
the form of abstract, black and white poles and here, too, illustrate the interpretation
and transformation of objects, images, and cultural practices.
Conceived for the Busan Biennale in 2012, the video installation As Matter Stands is
dedicated in contrast to material witnesses to a time before historiography: dolmens
from the Neolithic in modern-day South Korea. Wachsmuth documents his approach to
these impressive, erratic stone constellations—which presumably mark out burial sites—
through slow, observational images and expands on them with recordings of depictions
in museums of archaeology and cultural history. The ideas and images ethnologists,
archaeologists, and museum curators have reached and are reaching about ways to
embed these sites in the everyday can be gleaned from dioramas, for example, that
Wachsmuth combines with various dolmens—sites developed as tourist attraction as
well as others lying unnoticed in paddy fields or woods.
Finally, the installation Skepsis [Skepticism] marks the beginning of a new piece of
work by the artist, which addresses the historical and contemporary iconology of
Hellenism on the basis of the considerable picture library of the Art History department
at the Freie Universität Berlin. Conceived for the close-up view, the arrangement
comprises partly annotated photographs from diverse periods, reproductions of images,
and isolated current headlines, and challenges us to doubt and to look closely at the
work—in accordance with the Greek-derived term of the title. According to the artist in
this day and age, when there is an explosion of simplifying and polarizing images of a
crisis-ridden Greece, skepticism seems to be more than appropriate.
A pdf of the exhibition brochure is available
www.belvedere.at/presse (Password: pr2015)
for
download
under
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Simon Wachsmuth
Simon Wachsmuth, born in Hamburg in 1964, lives and works in Berlin and Vienna.
He studied painting under Carl Unger and visual media design under Peter Weibel at the
University of Applied Arts Vienna. In 1989 he won the Prix Ars Electronica award in the
Computer Animation category; in 2003 he was awarded the Otto Mauer Prize. His works
have been on show in numerous group and solo exhibitions, most recently at the Musée
de Valence and Salzburg Museum (2014), at the Busan Biennale (2012), Museo Reina
Sofía, Madrid, and ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2012), Galerie im
Taxispalais Innsbruck (2010, 11), as well as at the Istanbul Biennale (2009), and the
Documenta 12 in Kassel (2007), among others. After visiting professorships at the
University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU),
Wachsmuth currently teaches at the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar.
Exhibitions (Selection)
2015
Analogon, Musee de Valence and art3, Valence Trading Places, L40, Berlin
2014
Archäologie?! Spurensuche in der Zeitgenössischen Kunst, Salzburg Museum
2013
Signatures, Galerie Cora Hölzl, Düsseldorf
Einszehn, Zweizehn, Dreizehn, Kunstverein Friedrichshafen und Zeppelin
Museum, Friedrichshafen
2012
Lieber Aby Warburg, was tun mit Bildern?, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen
Garden of Learning, Busan-Biennale, South Korea
Economy: Picasso, Musee Picasso, Barcelona
2011 Atlas, Or how to carry the World on One´s Shoulders?, Museu Reina Sophia,
Madrid, ZKM, Karlsruhe und Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg
2010
To the Arts, Citizens!, Museo Serralves, Porto
Seven little Mistakes, Museo Marino Marini, Florenz
Squatting, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin
Tanzimat, Augarten Contemporary, Wien
2009
What Keeps Mankind Alive, 11. Istanbul-Biennale, Istanbul
Die Ruhe ist ein spezieller Fall der Bewegung, Kunstmuseum Vaduz,
Liechtenstein
Reduction & Suspense, Magazin 4, Bregenz
2008
Mnemosyne, Steinle Contemporary, München
Eight minutes, Galerie Hohenlohe, Wien
Demonstration IV, Galerie Cora Hölzl, Düsseldorf
Brno Art Open, Öffentlicher Raum, Haus der Kunst, Brno
Diskurs im Grünen, Kunstverein Springhornhof, Neuenkirchen
2007 a way of considering two things together, Physicsroom, Christchurch,
Neuseeland
Documenta 12, Fridericianum, Kassel
2006
Soleil Noir, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg
the things that I once saw I now can see no more, Kunstraum Dornbirn,
Dornbirn
Gegenstände / Handlungsformen, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
Interpretationsresistenz, Projektraum/Kunstraum Innsbruck
Liminal Spaces, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig
Ein gemeinsamer Ort, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz
Jutta Strohmaier, Simon Wachsmuth, Galerie Hohenlohe, Wien
Die Postmediale Kondition, Neue Galerie Graz, Graz
2005
Demonstration, Galerie Stadtpark, Krems
Kritische Gesellschaften (Critical Societies), Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
The Government, Be what you want but stay where you are, Witte de With,
Rotterdam
Of Dots & Ducks, Galerie Cora Hölzl, Düsseldorf
Be what you want but stay where you are, Witte de With, Rotterdam
Videós Viennoises, Betonsalon, Paris
2004
Die Regierung: How do we want to be governed, Miami Art Central, Miami
Handlungen, die Handlungen setzen, Kunstraum der Universität Lüneburg
Of Copying, Gallery Hohenlohe und Kalb, Wien
2003 Formen der Organisation, Galerie der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst,
Leipzig, Kunstraum der Universität Lüneburg
Earl Grey, Galerie Cora Hölzl, Düsseldorf
Awards
2003
1989
Otto-Mauer-Award
Prix Ars-Electronica, Award for computer animation
GENERAL INFORMATION
Title
Simon Wachsmuth
Monuments. Documents.
Duration
26 September 2015 to 17 Jänner 2016
Venue
21er Haus
Arist
Simon Wachsmuth
Curator
Luisa Ziaja
Contact
21er Haus, Schweizergarten
Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Vienna
T +43 (01) 795 57-0
Opening hours
Wednesday and Thursday from 11 am t 9 pm
Friday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm
Open on public holidays
Regular entry
€ 7,- (21er Haus)
€ 21,- (21er Haus annual ticket)
Press
21er Haus Press
Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Vienna
T +43 1 795 57-185
[email protected]
Images are available for download for press purposes
under the following link: www.21erhaus.at/presse
(Password: pr2015).