Artists: Eric Baudelaire, Pauline Boudry, Renate Lorenz, Forensic Architecture, Geumhyung Jeong, Hanne Lippard, Basim Magdy, Frida Orupabo, Wong Ping, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Charles Atlas, Francis Bacon, John Baldessari, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Simone Forti, Terry Fox, Lucian Freud, Bernhard Fuchs, Rupprecht Geiger, Dan Graham, Katharina Grosse, Hans Haacke, Hans Hartung, Lena Henke, Candida Höfer, Nancy Holt, Joan Jonas, Isaac Julien, Aglaia Konrad, Maria Lassnig, Jochen Lempert, Sol LeWitt, Gordon Matta-Clark, Giorgio Morandi, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Otto Piene, Sigmar Polke, Charlotte Posenenske, Yvonne Rainer, Bridget Riley, Andrea Robbins, Max Becher, Emil Schumacher, Antoni Tàpies, Diana Thater, Niele Toroni, Cy Twombly, Stephen Willats, Fritz Winter
Exhibition title: Our Present
Venue: Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Siegen, Germany
Date: February 14 – August 16, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen
The exhibition “Our Present” in the MGKSiegen marks the beginning of our 2020 programme under the artistic direction of Thomas Thiel, while simultaneously including a fresh presentation of the collections in the sense of revisualizing the past.
For many, the present seems incomprehensible and inexplicable. Although we are confronted daily with new diagnoses of the present–condensed into buzzwords such as digital change, post-factual age, migration society or climate crisis–we are losing our experience of the moment and of contemporaneity. Yesterday, today and tomorrow fall into one. The future is already happening in the present, which has not yet come to terms with the past. It seems that the present is either endless or disappearing altogether.
Against this background, the exhibition “Our Present” shows how artists relate to the present, and the forms that they give to it. The works exhibited address topics such as physicality, identity, politics and technology. By including different cultural contexts, in awareness of a common media sphere and its linkage of the past and the future, the exhibition opens up a multiple perspective to its viewers on differing ideas of the present today.
The issue of the present marks the beginning of our 2020 programme under the artistic direction of Thomas Thiel, while simultaneously including a fresh presentation of the collections in the sense of revisualizing the past.
With contributions by Eric Baudelaire, Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz, Forensic Architecture, Geumhyung Jeong, Hanne Lippard, Basim Magdy, Frida Orupabo, Wong Ping, and Clemens von Wedemeyer, as well as works from the collections of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst by Charles Atlas, Francis Bacon, John Baldessari, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Simone Forti, Terry Fox, Lucian Freud, Bernhard Fuchs, Rupprecht Geiger, Dan Graham, Katharina Grosse, Hans Haacke, Hans Hartung, Lena Henke, Candida Höfer, Nancy Holt, Joan Jonas, Isaac Julien, Aglaia Konrad, Maria Lassnig, Jochen Lempert, Sol LeWitt, Gordon Matta-Clark, Giorgio Morandi, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Otto Piene, Sigmar Polke, Charlotte Posenenske, Yvonne Rainer, Bridget Riley, Andrea Robbins/Max Becher, Emil Schumacher, Antoni Tàpies, Diana Thater, Niele Toroni, Cy Twombly, Stephen Willats and Fritz Winter.
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Transformation Scenario, 2018, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Geumhyung Jeong, Spa & Beauty, 2017, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Geumhyung Jeong, Spa & Beauty, 2017, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Geumhyung Jeong, Spa & Beauty, 2017, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Works by Frida Orupabo, Untitled, 2019, Courtesy die Künstlerin, Work by Antoni Tàpies, Cos, 1987, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Work by Forensic Oceanography/Forensic Architecture, The Crime of Rescue – The Iuventa Case 2018, Courtesy the artists, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Frida Orupabo, Untitled, 2019, Courtesy the artist and Nordenhake Gallery Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Frida Orupabo, Untitled, 2019, Courtesy the artist and Nordenhake Gallery Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Frida Orupabo, Untitled, 2019, Courtesy the artist and Nordenhake Gallery Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Antoni Tàpies, Cos, 1987, The Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection. MGKSiegen, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Forensic Oceanography/Forensic Architecture, Mare Clausum – The Sea Watch vs Libyan Coast Guard Case 2018, Courtesy the artists, Work by Antoni Tàpies, Cos, 1987, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Forensic Oceanography/Forensic Architecture, The Crime of Rescue – The Iuventa Case 2018, Courtesy the artists, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, Silent, 2016, © Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, Silent, 2016, Performance: Aérea Negrot, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Nam June Paik, A Tribute to John Cage, 1976, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Eric Baudelaire, Where are you going?, since 2018, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Eric Baudelaire, Where are you going?, since 2018, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Eric Baudelaire, Where are you going?, since 2018, Courtesy the artist and Barbara Wien, Berlin, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Eric Baudelaire, Where are you going?, since 2018, Courtesy the artist and Barbara Wien, Berlin, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Basim Magdy, New Acid, 2019, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Basim Magdy, New Acid, 2019, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Hanne Lippard, Frames, 2017, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Nancy Holt, Over the Hill, 1968-2012, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Work by Hanne Lippard, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Wong Ping, Wong Ping’s Fables 1, 2018, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Wong Ping, Wong Ping’s Fables 2, 2018, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait, 1962, © The Estate of Francis Bacon/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Work by Joan Jonas, Vertical Roll, 1972, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Lena Henke, My Trust, 2019, Courtesy the artist, Work by Maria Lassnig, Die Falknerin, 1979, © Maria Lassnig Foundation, Vienna 2020, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Lena Henke, My Trust, 2019, Courtesy the artist, Work by Simone Forti, Solo No. 1, 1974, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Works by Andrea Robbins/Max Becher, Black Cowboys, 2009-2015, Courtesy the artists, Works by Jochen Lempert, Vogel in der Hand, 1998, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Work by Bridget Riley, Quiver, 2014, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Isaac Julien, Encore, 2003, Courtesy der Künstler, Work by Dan Graham, Rock my Religion, 1983-85, Courtesy der Künstler, Work by Stephen Willats, Fifteen Feet by Eight Feet and there are Two of us Here, 1980, Courtesy der Künstler, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Watertowers, 1988, Contemporary Collection, MGKSiegen, © Estate Bernd und Hilla Becher, represented by Max Becher, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Works by Aglaia Konrad, Shaping Stones (Mexico City), 2008-2009, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Work by Gordon Matta-Clark, Program Six: Splitting, 1974, © Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark/ARS, N.Y., Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Bruce Nauman, Slow Angle Walk, 1968, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Works by Bridget Riley, Studies, Tracings, 1980-2009, Courtesy the artist, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Our Present, Exhibition view, MGKSiegen, Work by Candida Höfer, Antica Tessiture Luigi Bevilacqua Venezia II, 2003, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Work by Hans Hartung, T1956–8, 1956, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Work by Katharina Grosse, Ohne Titel, 2019, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer