DEINE KUNST (3) “The Conditions of being Art (oder der Amateur)”

On the occasion of its 45. anniversary, Michael Müller was invited to curate a new experimental presentation of the Institution’s Collection. From October 19 2019 to February 23 2020, ‘Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg’ is showing the third version of this unusual exhibition cycle Deine Kunst. Titled as The Conditions of Being Art, it takes a selection of works from the in-house Collection as the pretext to experiment with the conditions and possibilities of composing an exhibition, isolating, investigating and inflecting its individual parameters.

How are artworks presented? How do both the room and their surrounding environment influence them? Is there a “law of good vicinity” (Warburg) or are all works “the mortal enemy” of others close by (Adorno)? ‘The Conditions of Being Art’—like this whole exhibition cycle—poses these questions through intricate, intriguing connections between artworks, investigating the relationship between Artwork and Artist, Artist and Curator, Curator and Audience, which meet through a variety of forms within the exhibition space.
The Artists use, inter alia, the signature and the self-portraiture as tools of authentication, which could hardly be more different or varying. This focus on rarely noticed forms of delimitation: the frame that surrounds the works and limits authorship. Where does the artwork end? Where does the frame begin? What happens if the frame becomes an artwork? The greater significance of neighborhood and proximity in the effect of each individual piece (their co-existence, side by side or against one another, in the wall or in the room),—is the last major focus of this exhibition, investigating how artworks can influence and even dilute one another.

Each of the works now in the show was presented in the previous exhibition of this cycle through an audio guide—only heard and never seen. They are (even as so much is given away) not to be curated free from disruptions. It is these disruptions that will shine a light on what else is at work. The exception reveals the rule.