Performing Relationships

⭆Performing Relationships⬲
opening 28.06. 19h
29.06. - 13.08.17

Johannes Bendzulla, Jennifer Bennett, Miklós Erhardt, Adelita Husni-Bey, Mutter/Genth, Alexander Rischer, titre provisoire, Anna Lena von Helldorff, YES! Association/Föreningen JA!, Heimo Zobernig

Curated by Krisztina Hunya, Daniel Niggemann
VISIT ⥄ kunstverein-leipzig.de

The exhibition Performing Relationships is concerned with the conditions of and possibilities for collaborative processes within and beyond the artistic field. The exhibited artistic positions approach collective structures in a variety of ways ranging from scrutiny and experiment to testing and proof. The diverse strategies on display extend from the performative and pedagogical to the photographic-speculative and archival.

Since the 1960s, group interactions have increasingly been at the core of artistic engagements. Collective creativity is not only regarded as a means of resisting the capitalist process of specialisation and eschewing the individual artist persona propagated by the dominant art (market) system; such interactions are also geared towards providing a performative critique of social institutions and experimental structures, revealing society’s capacity for self-organisation.

"What comes to mind when I hear the word Kunstverein,“ ponders the artist Heimo Zobernig in a poem written in 1992, referring to the collaborative model of art sponsorship through the traditionally bourgeois initiative of the German art association. The exhibition Performing Relationships debates questions about artistic and institutional collaboration; thus KV – Leipzig serves as both exhibition space and research inquiry. Which roles, alliances and differences emerge through these working approaches and how can they be maintained and kept fluid at the same time? Can a non-hierarchical model for collective decision-making be established in a way that is sustainable? Where do the interests of active members and the public meet within an art association whose work straddles professional projects, ambitious leisure activities and growing responsibilities?

The project Performing Relationships understands collaboration to be a continuous learning and thinking process that is reflected in the artistic commissions exhibited, in the polyphonic voices of the KV members themselves and in ongoing research endeavours.

As part of the exhibition, two round table discussions will take place at the beginning of August, with Mutter/Genth, titre provisoire, Jennifer Bennett and guests.

The project is supported by KdFS (Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen) and Kulturamt der Stadt Leipzig
The installation by YES! Association/Föreningen JA! was made possible by Carl Jäger – Tonindustriebedarf GmbH in cooperation with Burg University of Art and Design Halle Three-dimensional Design Material Form Object