shows
LAWRENCE WEINER

Ruins of Rome

In order that meaning can occur tangibly and as phenomenon be anchored within the collective memory, its readability must be dissolved from the immateriality of the pure idea, and a form of representational reality be created. We fuse two works together, so that both artistic positions can mutually enrich one another. Through this curatorial act, we are able to even physically visualize the overlaps  of both of the works. In the wall upon which we incorporated Weiner‘s mural, prior to the Second World War, there used to be an opening through which one could see almost from the middle of the academy into the Kolosssaal. Following the reconstruction after the war, this enfilade was closed off. Weiner‘s mural, which originally was part of Haus der Kunst, becomes a spoil, and connects to the architecture of the academy. Within this act of co-writing history, we ‚historify‘ what remains gallery and juxtapose a well-known artist, who is already part of the artistic canon, with the unknown Spanish artist Sofia Montenegro. At the same time the work is a large performance. For a few hours we created a‚ state of art‘, which afterwards, once more, dissolved. The mural was sealed. The dust, from which the writing is formed, allowed only for its temporal visualization.

The point of intersection of the works of Weiner and Montenegro is the changeability of language as an artistic medium. Weiner denies the role of metaphor in his language sculptures, not only because metaphors as tautologies have little cognitive value, but also because they clearly limit the reception of his work in relation to his Declaration of Intent. Metaphor would distance the reality (material) and his tool (language) from one another. For this reason, Weiner concentrates his assertion on the layer of real space and on the content of a message. His artistic punctuality is devoid of all demands for intellectuality, through which the recipient is empowered to either perceive of a construction of reality individually, or to embrace the vision of reality as forwarded by Weiner. Language serves to communicate an idea, is used for this purpose, and then, in the blink of an eye, letters and words disappear once more. We attempt to visualize this moment. Sofia Montenegro‘s work is based on the selection and precise listing of terms and their definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary; words which, after the events of 9/11 in New York, experienced a change of meaning, or expanded the English vocabulary as neologisms. She calls the work THE CONVERSATIONS OF THE LAST DECADE. We displayed the title as a  representative form for this historical event.
Through an electro-static charge, we fixed the dust created on the surface of Weiner mural during our relocation of the work. This allowed us to utilize it to influence the form and locality in time of Montenegro‘s concept.

Artist Talk
August 28, 5 pm

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WHAT REMAINS GALLERY would like to thank the following artists for their participation
AI WEI WEI . AKRAM ZATAARI . ALBERT HIEN . ANDREI MOLODKIN . ANDREW BLACKLEY . ARTHUR PAUL . BILL DRUMMOND . CATHY WILKES . CHRISTIAN PHILIPP MÜLLER . DANH VO . DANIEL BUREN . DAVID BLITZ . DUNCAN CAMPBELL . DUSTIN YELLIN . FRANZ LANDSPERSKY . FRIEDRICH KIESLER . FERNANDO SANCHEZ CASTILLO . GENERAL IDEA . IAN KIAER . KERSTIN BRÄTSCH . LAURE PROUVOST . LAWRENCE WEINER . LIAM GILLICK . LUTZ BACHER . MARKUS BENESCH . RICHARD JACKSON . ROY LICHTENSTEIN . SCOTT KING . SOFIA MONTENEGRO . TOBIAS MADISON . TOBIAS REHBERGER . WALID RAAD .