Die Ausstellung

Four works were exhibited as part of the group exhibition DIE AUSSTELLUNG: Rest/less; That moment when information brushes up against information; How about we take a minute to question where this truly resides?; and (re)Source(d) Material.

The exhibition was primarily a staging of exhibiting. It dealt with the structures, practices and conventions of the presentation of art. Over a period of four weeks, the exhibition space was transformed into a site for production, that constantly transformed. Artistic works were created, set and documented in scene. The visitors observed each of the show moments in a process - individual elements were combined to form an overall structure during the course of the exhibition. The exhibition also explored the possibility and reception of aesthetic practice, the relationship of parts to the whole, of real time experience and mediated communication.

For the final opening on 20 September, the catalog for the exhibition was published by Walther König. The catalog does not take on the same format as the exhibition. The catalog shares a version of the exhibition. It is the simulation of the exhibition.

The exhibition was a work of the two artists Alexander Basile and Alwin Lay. Initiated by Gertrud Peters and Mischa Kuball in cooperation with the -1 / MinusEins experimental laboratory.

The exhibition featured the work of 19 international practitioners:
BASTIAN HOFFMANN (Köln), PETER HERMANS (Leipzig), BALZ ISLER (Berlin), JAMES NIZAM (Toronto), JAN HOEFT (Köln), STÉPHANIE SOLINAS (Paris), VERENA SEIBT & CLEA STRACKE (München), MIA BOYSEN (Köln), TAIYO ONORATO & NICO KREBS (Berlin/ Zürich), IAN DE RUITER (Amsterdam), PAUL BAILEY (London/Ireland), PETER MILLER (Paris), DANIEL NIGGEMANN (Hamburg), RHEIN VERLAG (Düsseldorf), ARNE SCHMITT (Leipzig), JOHANNES POST (Köln), MARK VON SCHLEGELL (Köln/Los Angeles), FLEUR VAN DODEWAARD (Rotterdam), BERNHARD CELLA (Wien)

Die Ausstellung — Press Release

For one thing DIE AUSSTELLUNG is a group show. Different types of works, which share an interest in the process of creating reality and reproduction, starting out from photography, are gathered in DIE AUSSTELLUNG. However, the medium will not be reduced to its final, pictorial result, but rather attention will be paid to its inherent techniques, processes and its materiality and therefore the medium’s significance will be modified in order to look for meaning beyond mere representationality. By doing this the medium constitutes an open form. DIE AUSSTELLUNG might or might not include photography, film and sculpture. During the exhibition this approach is applied to the structure of exhibiting in general. The curators of DIE AUSSTELLUNG are Alexander Basile and Alwin Lay. However rather than being curated DIE AUSSTELLUNG is staged. The main focus lies on intervening in the structure of exhibiting itself and less on connecting the works meaningfully with each other with regards to a certain content. Therefore DIE AUSSTELLUNG is a second-order exhibition.

A part of the exhibition DIE AUSSTELLUNG will take place throughout four weeks at KIT in Dusseldorf. During this period the space will be transformed continuously. Works will be set up, taken down and documented. Access to the exhibition will be granted during this period. It will be accessible, however, the presentation will be a work in progress. The exhibition aims at a final result - the catalogue - in which the exhibition is presented and reproduced. The catalogue will be showcased on the last day of DIE AUSSTELLUNG at KIT. It will be called DIE AUSSTELLUNG. All stages of the exhibition DIE AUSSTELLUNG are multipliers, which in the end assembled together form the exhibition. This includes the pre-production and the on-site production, the advertising via posters, texts and mass media up to the works, which are temporarily installed.

This text could be part of DIE AUSSTELLUNG as well. They don’t necessarily take place simultaneously and in the end will be brought together and will only be available by the catalogue. Ultimately the catalogue shows a version of the exhibition DIE AUSSTELLUNG which did not take place like this and never could have. It is a simulation of an exhibition – the perfect communicated and staged version of its possibilities. The catalogue is not just a medium, which documents the exhibition, but it creates the exhibition. DIE AUSSTELLUNG is a fiction, a manipulation of reality.

By doing this, DIE AUSSTELLUNG addresses in a reflexive way the structure of exhibiting, but also questions regarding the reception of art in general. In opposition to a concept of first hand experience, often regarded as authentic or superior, DIE AUSSTELLUNG plays with the effects of visibility and effectivity of medial and mediated imagery, undermining principles of perception beyond its reproduction. In the face of the commonplace observation of our media and information society in which everything is image and representation and in which reality itself is not tangible, DIE AUSSTELLUNG chooses as its form of presentation the illusion of reality.

If a tree falls during DIE AUSSTELLUNG and no one is around to document it, is it still standing? If an exhibition only takes place in a catalogue and nobody buys it, did DIE AUSSTELLUNG actually take place?

Text: Baptist Ohrtmann

• http://www.dieausstellung.net/
• http://www.kunst-im-tunnel.de/die-ausste...
• http://www.art-agenda.com/shows/kit-%E2%...
• http://www.misterpaulbailey.com/