Gregor Schneider
Ernst Franz Vogelmann Prize for Sculpture 2023
Edited by: Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber
Text: Marc Gundel, Norman Rosenthal, Rita E. Täuber, Susanne Titz
Publisher: Snoeck
Pages: 144
Dimensions (L/W): 23 x 18,5 cm
Languages: Deutsch, Englisch
ISBN: 978-3-86442-421-2
Dream on Baby: Wie viel Kindheit steckt in Kunst?
Edited: Gesine Borcherdt
Publisher: Institut für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, Nürnberg (16th October 2023)
Page: 258 - 263
ISBN: 978-3922895572
Current:
The Uncanny House, Casa di Goethe Museum, Rome, Italy, Curator: Iaria Marotta, Andrea Baccin
27.03.2024 - 01.09.2024
Désordres, Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon, France, Curator: Antoine de Galbert (Cat)
08.03.2024 - 07.07.2024
Tod und Teufel, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany, Curator: Westrey Page, Oliver Sandrock
01.03.2024 - 02.06.2024
Emotion, Dart Chiostro del Bramante, Roma, Italy, Curator: Danilo Eccher
29.11.2023 - 31.07.2024
Home is where you're happy, Haus Mödrath, Kerpen, Germany, Curator: Gesine Borcherdt (Cat)
08.10.2023 - 25.08.2024
Unendliche Ausstellung, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany, Curator: Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath, Alice Koegel
16.06.2023 -
Past:
A Group Show, Sies + Höke Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
08.03.2024 - 05.04.2024
Tod und Teufel, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany, Curator: Westrey Page
14.09.2023 - 21.01.2024
GEGENWARTSGESELLSCHAFT – 50 Jahre / 50 years Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Curator: Mario Kramer
08.09.2023 - 22.12.2023
GEGENWARTSGESELLSCHAFT – 50 Jahre / 50 years Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Curator: Mario Kramer
08.09.2023 - 22.12.2023
Gregor Schneider Homeless, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, Germany (Solo)
The collection, Fahrbereitschaft, Berlin, Germany, Curator: Krist Gruijthuijsen
23.04.2023 - 29.10.2023
bildwiderstand. garzweiler in film und fotografie, Kunsthaus NRW, Aachen, Germany, Curator: Dr. Marcel Schumacher
14.05.2023 - 22.10.2023
Bernd und Hilla Becher, Laurenz Berges, Bernd Boor, Susanne Fasbender, Claudia Fährenkemper, Gábor Fekete, Matthias Jung, Gregor Schneider
The artist Gregor Schneider, who lives in Mönchengladbach-Rheydt, has been engaged with the mining activities in his hometown region for many years. The material for his internationally renowned long-term project, "Haus u r," in Rheydt largely comes from the dying, evacuated villages. Over the years, photographs and films were created. Gregor Schneider, as part of his artistic interests, established connections with activist initiatives, such as Fridays for Future and the "Lützerath lebt!" initiative, in the context of the documenta fifteen exhibition project "another world is possible."
In the Kunsthaus NRW, he presents for the first time as a video installation his two new films, "Sonniger Untergang" and "Kunstlandschaft" (2022). They were filmed at the edge of the demolition site with its strangely touristy-looking observation platforms. The video installation can be seen in the old brewery of the monastery complex. Additionally, we exhibit photographs from his series "Neu-Garzweiler" in the main building. These were taken in the planned settlement, built as compensation for the relocated residents, funded by compensation money.
How I forgot about the skin of the places 2, Inselstraße 7, Berlin, Germany, Curator: Stephanie Kloss, Peter Welz
10.02.2023 - 30.04.2023
Stillstand, Art Museum Craiova, Craiova, Romania, Curator: Anca Mureșan, Erwin Kessler
09.03.2023 - 09.04.2023
25 Jahre Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, Germany, Curator: Susane Figner, Harald Kunde, Valentina Vlašic (Cat)
23.07.2022 – 29.01.2023
Der Bau. Hommage an Kafka, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden–Rot, Germany, Curator: Thomas Schmäschke
12.06.2022 - 25.09.2022
erste hilfe - first aid, Hugenottenhaus, Kassel, Germany, Curator: Silvia & Lutz Frey
18.06.2022 - 24.09.2022
Paradys, Oranjewoud, Netherlands, Curator: Hans den Hartog Jager (Cat)
07.05.2022 - 14.08.2022
Macht! Licht!, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, Curator: Andreas Beitin and Holger Broeker (Cat)
12.03.2022 – 10.07.2022
Exhibited works:
Room:
HIGH SECURITY AND ISOLATION CELL No. 4,
Rheydt 2005, room within a room, blockboards on a wooden construction, 1 lamp, 1 stainless steel toilet, 1 door, 1 mattress, grey PVC floor, walls and ceiling high glossy white, detached (338 x 220 x 230 cm (L x W x H), S 11 - 25 cm))
Gemeinsam mit internationalen Künstler*innen eröffnen Fridays for Future und die Initiative 'Lützerath Lebt!' zum Auftakt der documenta fifteen am 18.06. die Ausstellung 'Another World Is Possible'. Im Glaspavillon des k.format Kollektivs in Kassel zeigen sie zwei Wochen lang Kunst mit Fokus auf das unmittelbar vom Tagebau bedrohte Dorf Lützerath - bevor dieses im Herbst den Abrissarbeiten des Kohlekonzerns RWEs ausgesetzt ist. Darüber hinaus veranstalten die Aktivist*innen im Juli vier Vorträge im ruruhaus, dem zentralen Begegnungsort der documenta.
Auch der Künstler Gregor Schneider beteiligt sich mit seinen Arbeiten an der Ausstellung. Aufgewachsen am Rande des Braunkohletagebaus in Mönchengladbach-Rheydt, beschäftigt er sich bereits jahrzehntelang künstlerisch mit dem Rheinischen Braunkohlerevier.
Seine Ausflüge in die sterbenden Dörfern dokumentierte er fotografisch und filmisch. Er besuchte einquartierte Flüchtlinge in den sterbenden Dörfern, die nicht mehr auf aktuellen Straßenkarten verzeichnet waren. Er hielt die Umbettung von einem Friedhof fest, fotografierte Reste archäologischer Funde und hielt die Zerstörung der Natur fest. Es entstanden später Video-Kamerafahrten durch die unbewohnten „Geister-Dörfer“. Er begann Materialen aus einzelnen Häusern auszubauen um diese in sein sogenanntes Haus u r (1985-heute) einzubauen. Die ausgebauten Türen, Fenster und Böden wurden wieder zu ganzen Räumen. Schneider sagt: Ohne das Material aus den sterbenden Dörfern hätte ich das sogenannte Haus u r vermutlich nie bauen können. An der Arbeitsweise Räume zu erhalten und zu recyceln halte ich bis heute fest.
Dabei wurde das Haus u r für Gregor Schneider ein Ort des Rückzuges, dem privaten Entzuges, der Isolation und dem Verlust des Vertrautem.
1990 solidarisierte er sich künstlerisch mit dem Ort Garzweiler. Er realisierte die Unbekannte Arbeit im verschwundenen Dorf Garzweiler [https://www.gregor-schneider.de/places/1990garzweiler/pages/1990-91-garzweiler-01.htm]. Eine Arbeit die mit dem Dorf Garzweiler verschwunden ist.
In 2007 fand er ein Kinderzimmer in einem verlassenen Haus, welches ihn zu dem Raum KINDERZIMMER 2008 [https://www.gregor-schneider.de/places/2011madrid/pages/20111028-centro-de-arte-madrid-16.htm] inspirierte. Ein pink gestrichenes Zimmer mit einer pinken Matratze auf dem Boden. Später durchstößt Schneider diesen Raum mit einem übergroßen Wasserrohr. Schneider sagt: Solche großen Rohre liegen hier in der Nachbarschaft um das Grundwasser abzupumpen.
Der temporäre Erweiterungsbau END 2008 [https://www.gregor-schneider.de/places/2008mgladbach/pages/20081108-museum-abteiberg-mgladbach-001.htm] (Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach) war für Schneider auch ein Kommentar zum verdrängten Braunkohleloch vor der Haustüre Mönchengladbachs. Gregor Schneider konfrontiert die Mönchengladbacher in der Innenstadt mit einen schwarzen Loch. In diesem schwarzen Abgrund stießen die Besucher auch auf ausgebaute Räume aus den sterbenden Dörfern.
Seid 2022 filmt Schneider Sonnenuntergänge (Sonniger Untergang, Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier 2022 [Sonniger Untergang & Kunstlandschaft]) vor der despotischen Kulisse des Rheinischen Braunkohlereviers.
Die Aktionsgruppe zur Ausstellung ist eine Gruppierung aus Fridays for Future, Lützerath Lebt!, Studierenden der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Gregor Schneider, und weiteren internationalen Künstler*innen und Kollektiven, die sich zum Ziel gesetzt hat, die Kunst als Verbündete im Kampf gegen die Klimakrise zu gewinnen.
A Century of the Artist’s Studio 1920 – 2020, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Great Britain, Curator: Iwona Blazwick, Dawn Ades, Inês Costa, Richard Dyer, Hammad Nasar, Candy Stobbs (Cat)
24.02.2022 – 5.06.2022
Exhibited works:
Video:
Haus u r, Rheydt 1985 – today
The one video includes the following chapters:
- Habe vergessen, worauf ich warte, 1995
- u r 1, u 14, Schlafen, 1988
- u r 10, Vorhang 1, 1993
- u r 19 A, Liebeslaube, 1995
- Nacht-video, 1996
Christian Mosar, director of Konschthal Esch, invites to a book presentation of Gregor Schneider with Gregor Schneider and Raimund Stecker on April 8, 4 pm in Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
Moderatorin: Sabine Maria Schmidt.
Pages: 112
Size: 205 x 135 mm.
Edited: Raimund Stecker, Esch 2021
Text: Raimund Stecker
ISBN: 978-3-95679-635-7
Tote Räume / Dead Spaces, West Den Haag (former American Embassy), Den Haag, Netherlands, Curator: Marie-José Sondeijker, Text: Ory Dessau
29.08.2020 - 11.04.2021
Welcome, West is open to the public. Please note that due to current regulations related to the coronavirus, all visitors are required to reserve a time slot for their visit.
West Den Haag is thrilled to announce Tote Räume, Gregor Schneider‘s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands. Acknowledged as a groundbreaking artistic proposition, Schneider’s work can be regarded also as prophetic in a time of mandatory social distancing since it is based on mechanisms of physical isolation. Unfolding a sequence of rooms, sculptures, human figures, photos and videos spanning four decades of radical art making, the exhibition is arranged in response to, and exchange with, the original function of its building as the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands from 1959 until 2018.
A clear example to this exchange is the ‘Interrogation Room’ – a pristine room replicating one of the prison cell modules in Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, the U.S. detention facility located on Cuba’s southeastern coast. When incorporated into the setting of West Den Haag ‘Interrogation Room’ exceeds the boundaries of the aesthetic field and acquires the status of a real authoritarian space, outlining the exercise of power over the visitors and the potential violation of their bodily sovereignty.
Also included in the current sequence is ‘Cold Storage Cell’, which joins ‘Interrogation Room’ to politically contextualize Schneider’s continuous experiments in sensory deprivation and practices of stealth interrogation and clean torture, intermittently conducted throughout his entire oeuvre.
With the display of ‘Cryo-Tank Phoenix 3’ Schneider’s conception of sealed-off spaces extends beyond the political-jurisdictional framework provided by West Den Haag and obtains a metaphysical sense, turning every site in which it emerges into an intermediary zone situated between life and death, between this world and the world to come. A separate section in the exhibition is dedicated to ‘Geburtshaus Goebbels’, which involves the actual building in Mönchengladbach-Rheydt where Joseph Goebbels—the Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany—was born. In ‘Geburtshaus Goebbels’ Schneider traces the roots of Nazi history almost literally, uncovering the physical foundations of Goebbels’ birthplace—the origins of his origins. Within Schneider’s universe ‘Geburtshaus Goebbels’ is also a follower of ‘Haus u r’, the artist’s own site of origin, standing a short distance away from it. ‘Haus u r’ is the name Schneider gave to the abandoned residential building, which he occupies since 1985, all the while ceaselessly reconstructing its inner structure as an idiosyncratic typology of visceral rooms built inside the house’s preexisting rooms (with windows in front of windows, walls in front of walls, etc.). Being realized through a process of self-consuming duplication—whereby each room is also the concealed room into which it was inserted, and the space—the difference—between them—makes ‘Haus u r’ an enduring experience of cognitive dissonance in relation to which presence and absence, construction and elimination, are no longer distinguishable from one another.
In the context of the exhibition a series of performances will be staged specifically for the occasion. Additionally to the project ‘Tote Räume’ West will organise an international symposium in November of this year. With the working title: ‘Gregor Schneider: Kunst im Kopf’.
Gregor Schneider (Germany, 1969) is cosidered one of the most influential artists of the last three decades. Since the end of the 1990s Schneider has been presenting solo exhibitions in leading museums around the world, including, among many others, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Museun of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Museo d’Arte Contemporena Roma. In 2001 Schneider won the Golden Lion award in the Venice Biennale of Art, and from then on his work is the subject of worldwide discussions and controversies. Schneider’s practice is an intersection between architecture, sculpture, and performance, intervening in the fabric of material, social and historical reality.
This project is supported by the Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs and Science, the city of The Hague, Mondriaan Foundation and the Goethe-Institut.
Kreuzweg (Way of the Cross) is a dark black passageway in the shape of a cross. The cross-shaped structure has four openings, one in each of its ends, through which the viewer can enter and exit. The shape of the cross is fully obtainable only from an aerial, God-like point of view. Upon entering the passageway, the viewer loses the formal contour of the structure, as the contour of his/her own body becomes blurred, melting into the indefinite blackness surrounding it, in which the distinction between one’s own outer/physical and inner/psychological space is no longer clear.
Obviously, Kreuzweg bears a direct reference to the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Rather than merely formal or iconographic, the reference to the Crucifixion is also experiential. Kreuzweg stages a theatrical rite of passage, a liminal scenography that strips viewing subjects walking through the passageway of their identities and everyday concepts of time and place, after which they are born again, reemerging into a world of a higher order juxtaposing terminality with resurrection.
Kreuzweg is the current culmination of the redemptive theological thread that runs through Schneider’s oeuvre. It is the explicit conclusion of many earlier works. One example of which is CUBE (2005-07). Schneider’s CUBE is a gigantic cubic outdoor structure covered in black cloth, seemingly replicating Islam’s holy edifice of the Kaaba. Formally, a flattened cube results in a cross. In this sense, Kreuzweg is the spatialization of CUBE after it was flattened. The geometrical link between the two works enables Schneider to incorporate CUBE’s scenario of circumambulating a black void into the immersive walked-through black void of Kreuzweg.
… In 2008 CUBE became END: a sixty-six-meter-long dark passageway which Schneider constructed outside Abteiberg Museum in Mönchengladbach. To enter the dark passageway, the viewer had to climb a small ladder and pass through a black square opening. At the end of the passageway, along which one’s own orientation and bodily integrity were being shaken, was a shaft leading the viewer to an underground dark space. The sole way out of the dark underground space was an elevator which carried the viewer to the museum’s illuminated collection galleries on the second floor, as if launching him or her from the domain of black death into the white territory of life after death.
Schneider’s interest in the hereafter can also be traced in his Cryo-Tank Phoenix (2006). A sealed cylindrical tank made of electro-polished stainless steel Cryo-Tank Phoenix was first presented on 02.11.06–the Christian Day of the Dead–at St Peter’s Church, Cologne. Its initial religious backdrop established a fundamental connection between the cryonic vision of preserving dead bodies in low temperature until wishful revivification, the story of Christ’s resurrection, and the anticipated event of his Second Coming. It marked the appearance of Cryo-Tank Phoenix in affinity to the apocalyptic-eschatological circumstances of the hereafter, turning every site in which it emerges into an intermediary zone situated between life and death, between this world and the world to come.
An excerpt from “Gregor Schneider and the Architecture of the Afterlife,” a text by Ory Dessau.
Kralapp, Carolin, Auf einmal ist es still. Das Staatstheater Darmstadt zeigt Gregor Schneiders Sterberaum im Livestream, Gallerytalk.net (online), 30th January 2021
Hierholzer, Michael, Der maximale Abstand, Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung, 30th January 2021, Page 50