Inge Mahn and Nora Schultz at Kunstverein Braunschweig

Artists: Inge Mahn and Nora Schultz

Curated by: Christina Lehnert

Idea and Concept by: Jule Hillgärtner

Curatorial Assistant: Nele Kaczmarek

Venue: Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

Date: September 9 – November 12, 2017

Photography: Stefan Stark, images copyright and courtesy of the artists, Kunstverein Braunschweig and Kadel Willborn

The exhibition format 1:1 presents two artistic positions in the Villa Salve Hospes. Whereas Klara Liden and Karl Holmqvist collaborated for the first edition of 1:1 in 2016, the current presentation of the works of Inge Mahn and Nora Schultz sees the building horizontally divided into two parts. The exhibition of Inge Mahn and Nora Schultz not only juxtaposes two distinct sculptural positions, but also two different generations of artists.

Inge Mahn’s works are characterized by a clear formal language inspired by everyday objects like architectural details. She captures the essences of functional implements by abstracting, scaling, and often recasting them in plaster. Recurring motifs are geometric figures: spheres, rectangles, and pillars are combined with stools and sacks, fluctuating between form and function, familiarity and alienation. In her intensive engagement with the Villa Salve Hospes as the exhibition space, Inge Mahn has developed large-scale temporal and spatial interventions, in which she reacts to architectural features. The sculptural formations thus present themselves, at times, as disconcerting obstacles to visitors, while harmoniously integrating themselves into the spatial structure elsewhere.

In contrast to Inge Mahn, Nora Schultz addresses the dematerialization and activation of sculptures: filmed with drones and moved by hidden performers, the haptic quality of the sculptures recedes into the background in service of the overall cinematic impression. In concert with the various objects, the video projections culminate in an extensive installation, which brings together various allusions to the oral cavity under the title Centre Dental: grey concrete sculptures bore into the ceiling like oversized teeth, while white and yellowing shutters cite the hygiene economy of doctors’ offices. Her sculptures turn the most unseen components of the oral cavity outward, in exactly the same way that the perception of the sculptures are transformed by the rapid tracking shots and camera movement. The presentation at the Kunstverein Braunschweig is the conclusion of an exhibition series whose previous installments include CENT DENT (Berlin, 2017), Centre Dental 2, city of teeth (Paris, 2016) and Centre Dental (Brussels, 2016).

Inge Mahn (*1943) lives and works in Berlin and Groß Fredenwalde. She studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she completed a master’s degree under Joseph Beuys in 1970. After teaching as a visiting professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig and the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, she taught at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee until 2009. In addition to her participation in documenta 5 (1972), recent solo exhibitions dedicated to her work have been held in the artist’s room at the K21, Düsseldorf (2017); Cahiers d’art, Paris (2015); and the Akademie Galerie — Die Neue Sammlung, Düsseldorf (2014/15).

Nora Schultz (*1975) lives and works in Boston. She studied from 1998 to 2005 at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. Alongside her recent participation in the Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2017, her works have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2016); the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2014); and Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2012). Nora Schultz is an assistant professor of visual and environmental studies at Harvard University in Cambridge.

Guest Room: Manuel Raeder
As a commentary on the current main exhibition, artists and curators are invited to stage interventions in the room of the Villa Salve Hospes that was originally used as a guest room. As part of the presentation of Nora Schultz’ work, designer Manuel Raeder, the founder of Studio Manuel Raeder in Berlin, will design the guest room to display a publication conceived in collaboration with Nora Schultz.