Artist: Ghislaine Leung
Exhibition title: PORTRAITS
Curated by: Susanne Titz, Haris Giannouras
Venue: Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Date: June 3 – October 24, 2021
Photography: Achim Kukulies / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and MAXWELL GRAHAM / ESSEX STREET, New
York
INSTITUTIONAL CRITIQUE: THE MUSEUM AS A SITE OF PERMANENT CONFERENCE (J.B.)
As part of »beuys 2021« – a program of exhibitions and events at more than twenty institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia marking the 100th anniversary of Joseph Beuys’s birth – Museum Abteiberg presents two exhibitions that place the Beuys era and the present day in a comparative context. A new showroom features the first presentation to draw on the recently-acquired ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE and conveys the tremendous significance of archival work for the art of the 1960s and ‘70s.
A parallel presentation features a site-specific project that continues the great Mönchengladbach tradition begun with Beuys’s first museum exhibition in 1967: Artist Ghislaine Leung (b. 1980) was invited to shed new, critical light on the museum as institution in 2021.
Linking the two exhibitions are loans from the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (NL): four drawings Joseph Beuys produced in the course of an interview with Frans Haks in December 1975, in which the artist talks about the museum as an “intermedium” between artist and audience. Beuys’s thoughts were a point of departure and return for the curatorial teams behind both exhibitions, though the two approached the institution of the museum in very different ways. FIU Verlag, a German publishing house, printed and released the conversation between Beuys and Haks in the 1993 volume Das Museum. Ein Gespräch über seine Aufgaben, Möglichkeiten, Dimensionen… (The Museum: A Conversation about its Tasks, Possibilities, Dimensions….). The book is available for purchase in the museum store.
GHISLAINE LEUNG. PORTRAITS
A solo exhibition by Ghislaine Leung displayed at Museum Abteiberg from June 3 to October 24, 2021. The exhibition will comprise of works commissioned by Museum Abteiberg and produced over the duration of a year from 2020-21. This exhibition is curated by Susanne Titz and Haris Giannouras. This information is provided as per the required 600-800 characters and has been edited by Haris Giannouras, Ghislaine Leung and Susanne Titz. Details are correct as of February 2021 and are subject to change dependent on requirements and resources available.
Exhibition Pamphlet
WORKSHOP REPORT ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE (BEUYS)
Museum Abteiberg acquired the ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE – one of the world’s most extensive collections of Fluxus work and related material – in 2017; ever since, museum staff have been taking inventory of this wide-ranging new acquisition and preparing for its long-term presentation and storage. This exhibition offers a snapshot of the tasks at hand while also pointing to a number of questions: How should the collection, archive, and library be preserved, exhibited, mediated, and made accessible to researchers over the long term? Drawing on the archive’s collection of Joseph Beuys (one of over 50 artists represented), the workshop report tests the Schaumagazin, or display storage, as a new format for Museum Abteiberg. The exhibition is curated by Felicia Rappe and Denise Wegener. Research advisor ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE: Susanne Rennert.
