links: www.deutscher-pavillon.org MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main
Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer Artist: Christoph Schlingensief
txt: the German Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011
Dr. Susanne Gaensheimer, Commissioner of the German Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011 and Director of MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt/Main, has announced that the work of Christoph Schlingensief will be presented in Venice despite his untimely death. [...] In early May 2010, Christoph Schlingensief himself commented on his invitation to the Venice Biennial in the following words: “I have worked in many different fields, as a director in film, theater and opera, producer, solo entertainer, human being, also as a sick human being and Christian, and equally so as a politician and performer, and I have always taken an interest in those artists who felt almost compelled to practice their art, and in so doing did not necessarily separate their compulsion from that of having or wanting to live. A kind of schizophrenia has always been typical of my work and my life. If I limited myself to one thing only I would simply get bored, my mind would be starved of inspiration. Between music and image, people and language, the healthy and the infirm, the funny and the sad I always need to be given the chance to state the opposite too. To my mind, everything in the world is ambiguous. The task of using the German Pavilion, which very much looks like a representative building, not for the purpose of representation but for art, simply fits the bill – a heavy burden, yet art makes light what would otherwise be heavy. And yet perhaps it is precisely what makes it so positive. I, for my part, love those cracks and opposites, and over the coming months I intend to seek out the most productive opposites for Venice, the German Pavilion, and Burkina Faso.”
video: Wa(h)re Kunst: Die Museumsdirektorin Susanne Gaensheimer | euromaxx on youtube.com
