KUB 2013.04 | Press release Barbara Kruger Believe + Doubt › fileadmin › presse_kruger › Press… · Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger’s pictures and words engage issues of power,

Page 1 | 24

KUB 2013.04 | Press release

Barbara Kruger

Believe + Doubt

19|10|2013-

12|01|2014

Curators of the exhibition

Yilmaz Dziewior and Rudolf Sagmeister

Press Conference

Thursday, October 17, 2013, 12 noon

The exhibition is opened for the press at 11 a.m.

Opening

Friday, October 18, 2013, 7 p.m.

Page 2 | 24

Few artists have succeeded in treating the ambivalent ef-

fects of the mass media and their powers of persuasion in

impressive works of art so cogently and variously as Bar-

bara Kruger has done for more than four decades now. So

it is no surprise that she is represented in major museum

collections worldwide and enjoys broad public attention

through exhibitions at renowned institutions. She has had

large-scale solo exhibitions, for example, at the Museum

of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, the Whitney

Museum of American Art in New York, and the Moderna

Museet in Stockholm. In addition, she participated in

documenta 7 (1982) and documenta 8 (1987) in Kassel,

and she received the »Golden Lion« at the 51st Venice

Biennale 2005 for her life’s work. It is all the more surpris-

ing then that the exhibition covering three floors of the

Kunsthaus Bregenz is her first major institutional solo

show in Austria.

Not that Barbara Kruger is a newcomer to Bregenz. In

summer 2011 she participated in the Kunsthaus Bregenz

solidarity action for Ai Weiwei by designing a poster con-

sisting of white lettering on a red ground asking »Why

Weiwei«—and adding, in smaller lettering below, her

familiar formula: »Belief + Doubt = Sanity.« Before this,

in the same year, for the KUB group exhibition That’s the

way we do it, she produced an almost 20 meter long by

4 meter high digital print that addressed the issues around

so called »intellectual property« and the distributional

powers of the internet.

The new solo exhibition especially designed by the artist

for the Kunsthaus gives visitors a chance to explore the

wide range of her artistic practice in different media.

Alongside a host of her celebrated photocollages from the

1980s and a four-channel video work of 2004, she is for

the most part presenting new installations in Bregenz that

have been especially conceived for the unique Kunsthaus

architecture. Through emphasizing different architectural

elements in turn (façade, wall, floor, ceiling) and deliberate

changes of media, she creates a varied trajectory that

sensitizes the viewer to the specific details of Peter

Zumthor’s building no less than to the fundamental im-

portance that Barbara Kruger attaches to art’s presenta-

tional context. What makes her videos, installations, col-

lages, posters, and photographs compelling, among other

things, is how she consciously reflects the art system—its

hierarchies and strategies as well as its presentational and

distributional relations. Again and again, Barbara Kruger

breaks out of this system’s closed circuit by conceiving

projects for magazines, poster walls, or other media and

sites in public space.

Page 3 | 24

These include permanent and temporary projects that refer

specifically to particular buildings, or which emerge at

sites in urban space in the form of designs for buses and

posters.

It is worth noting here that Barbara Kruger was already

using illustrations she found in mass media geared to a

wide audience for her b&w photocollage works at the start

of her career in the 1970s. Her first intensive involvement

with print media occurred shortly after she had finished

studying art and design, when she was employed as a

graphic artist and picture editor by Condé Nast Publica-

tions in New York. Among the magazines she worked on

were Mademoiselle and House and Garden. Her insights

there into the power of images, both to deter and to se-

duce, were an early influence on the artist’s work.

Throughout her career, Barbara Kruger has reflected on or

augmented the formal, thematic, and visual messages of

these specific communication strategies, often unmasking

their problematic ambiguity in the process. Just as the

distribution and presentation sites she has used (e.g. maga-

zines, posters) are characterized by a certain transience

and intensified circulation, so too Kruger often insists on

the ephemeral physical status of her works, since her wall

and large-scale spatial installations are usually destroyed

at the end of an exhibition. That they can be installed

again in the same or in a different form on another occa-

sion is just one of the ways in which the artist comments,

with relish and wit, on the complex commodity character

of art. Ultimately Barbara Kruger’s works are characterized

by a high level of social commitment, advocating women’s

rights, freedom of opinion, a critical awareness of the se-

ductions of consumer culture, and of how power, or the

lack of it, determines the feel of our days and nights.

These—in the best sense of the word—striking works are

captivating for their immediacy, their directness of address

involving the viewer by means of questions or clear-cut

statements. Depending on their message, her text-image

designs provoke the viewer to contradict, endorse, laugh,

or ponder. No one is left cold.

Page 4 | 24

Messages that Barbara Kruger has used in various contexts

are already legendary, for instance: »I shop, therefore I

am,« »Your body is a battleground,« or »We don’t need

another hero.« The images she combines with these and

other sentences have been fished out of the pool of visual

social memory, and for her words and statements she also

normally draws on what is already there. In both cases, she

deliberately shuns any hierarchy of high and low to create

the works that are to an equal extent political, iconic, and

poetic, for which she is widely known.

Text: Yilmaz Dziewior

Page 5 | 24

KUB Billboards

Barbara Kruger

07 | 10 | 2013 – 12 | 01 | 2014

Seestraße Bregenz

Barbara Kruger has selected text works for the six KUB

Billboards along Seestraße between the train station and

Kunsthaus Bregenz. Her iconic text-images directly address

passersby with short poetic-philosophical statements and

inquiries, occasionally also utilizing the German language,

so as to more closely engage the local public.

Page 6 | 24

The Seismographs of Architecture

From Model to Reality

November 8 to November 11, 2013

Kunsthaus Bregenz in cooperation with Peter Ebner—3M

futureLAB at UCLA + futureLAB at HUD

The symposium The Seismographs of Architecture is being

orginised as a platform for a dialogue at the interface be-

tween art, architecture, and society. The principle of per-

meating boundaries will itself become a subject of the

symposium. Internationally renowned experts are being

invited from a wide range of fields, including architects,

construction engineers, urban planners, designers, and

artists, who all share a desire to experiment as well as an

interest in current and new developments.

Friday, November 8

3.45 pm Welcome Yilmaz Dziewior

Director Kunsthaus Bregenz

3.55 pm Welcome Peter Ebner | 3M futureLAB at

UCLA + futureLAB at HUD

4 pm Heatherwick Studio—Ole Smith | Architect,

Designer, Great Britain

5 pm CAt—Kazuhiro Kojima & Kazuko Akamatsu |

Architects, Japan

7 pm Urban-Think Tank—Alfredo Brillembourg &

Hubert Klumpner | Architects, Urban

Planners, Venezuela|Switherland

8 pm Preston Scott Cohen | Architect, USA

Saturday, November 9

3 pm Ron Arad Studio—Asa Bruno | Designer,

Architect, Great Britain

4 pm Jan Knippers | Construction Engineer,

Germany|USA

5 pm Edouard François | Architect, France

7 pm Tomás Saraceno | Artist, Architect,

Germany|Argentina

8 pm MAD architects—Ma Yansong | Architect,

China|USA

Page 7 | 24

Architectural Tour—Vorarlberg’s Art of Construction

Saturday, November 9 – 9 am to 2 pm

This half-day architectural tour, accompanied by an expert

guide, will be visiting some recent examples of contempo-

rary architecture in Vorarlberg, such as the Altach Islamic

Cemetery (Bernardo Bader, 2012), which was nominated

for the Mies van der Rohe Award, and the Werkraumhaus

(Peter Zumthor, 2013). Fee: 40 Euros | 34 Euros (including

travel by coach, guided tours, and free entrance).

Booking: vai, Vorarlberger Architektur Institut,

[email protected], +43-5572-511 69-9542

Entry price for the symposium

9.– EUR | Reductions 6.50 EUR

For symposium enquiries, please contact

Lidiya Anastasova | Ext. -415

[email protected]

Reservations in advance are unfortunately not possible.

Simultaneous translations into German will be available for

talks in English.

Page 8 | 24

KUB Publication

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger’s pictures and words engage issues of

power, pleasure, money, love, and death. Her photographs,

large scale textual installations, and immersive multi-

channel video work address the viewer through a kind of

intensely spatialized visual display.

The œuvre, which has been continuously developed over

several decades, will be examined from differing perspec-

tives in an in-depth conversation between the artist,

Beatriz Colomina (architectural theorist and historian), and

Mark Wigley (architect and architectural theorist). The con-

cept of the exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz, and the new

work which has been especially produced for it, will be

examined in Yilmaz Dziewior’s introductory essay.

The catalog’s comprehensive documentation of the installa-

tion in generous photographic spreads, designed in close

cooperation with the artist, demonstrates the enormous

currency of the statements as well as the powerful forms

of address within Barbara Kruger’s work.

Barbara Kruger

Edited by Yilmaz Dziewior;

With an essay by Yilmaz Dziewior and a conversation

between Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley, and

Barbara Kruger

German|English,

approx. 136 pages, 22 x 30 cm,

Hardcover with dust jacket,

date of publication: December 2013

42.– EUR

KUB Online-Shop

www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at

Page 9 | 24

KUB Artist’s Edition

Barbara Kruger

Exclusive special editions for the Kunsthaus Bregenz are a

result of close collaboration with artists and their produc-

tion processes.

On the occasion of her solo exhibition Barbara Kruger has

produced a limited edition archival pigment print, in which

she contrasts a grainy photograph of a close-up of a human

eye with a slogan that is both humorous as well as socio-

and consumer critical: »Du willst es. Du kaufst es. Du ver-

gisst es.« (»You want it. You buy it. You forget it.«).

Archival pigment print

40 x 60 cm,

limited edition of 8 + 1 A.P., stamped by the artist:

1.800.- EUR

including 10% sales tax;

packaging and shipping charges extra

Please contact

Caroline Schneider

[email protected]

Phone +43-5574-485 94-444

Page 10 | 24

Biography

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger (born 1945) lives and works in Los Angeles

and New York. She was awarded the Golden Lion for her

life work at the Venice Biennale 2005 and currently

teaches at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Important solo exhibitions of her work have been held at

the Institute of Contemporary Art, London (1983),

Kunsthalle Basel (1984), Musée d’art contemporain de

Montréal (1985), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1986), Serpentine

Gallery, London (1994), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los

Angeles (1999), Whitney Museum of American Art, New

York (2000) as well as the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt

(2011), the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2012), and

the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington

D.C. (2012).

Her work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions at

venues including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,

New York (1987), Centre Pompidou, Paris (1988), Tate

Liverpool (2002), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

(2004), Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2006), Museum of Modern

Art, New York (2007), and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

(2012).

Page 11 | 24

Works in the exhibition

First floor

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Suggestions), 2013

UV-print on vinyl, floor, 21 x 23 m

Page 12 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (We won’t be our own best enemy), 1986

Collage, 35.5 x 36 cm

Private Collection, courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Our prices are insane!), 1987

Collage, 35 x 33.5 cm

Private Collection

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Who is born to lose?), 1989

Collage, 43 x 26 cm

Private Collection

Page 13 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Who is bought and sold?), 1989

Collage, 43 x 26 cm

Private Collection

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (We decorate your life), 1985


Private Collection

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Memory is your image of perfection), 1982


Private Collection

Page 14 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Are we having fun yet?), 1987

Collage, 38.5 x 30.5 cm

Private Collection

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Your misery loves company), 1985


Courtesy of Sprüth Magers Berlin London

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (We will no longer be seen and not heard), 1986



Page 15 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Who is free to choose?), 1989

Collage, 43 x 26 cm


Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Who is beyond the law?), 1989

Collage, 43 x 26 cm


Page 16 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (We are ordered to enter the sphere of fixation),

1985

Collage, 24 x 16 cm


Barbara Kruger

Untitled (We are public enemy number one), 1984



Barbara Kruger

Untitled (We don't need another hero), 1988



Page 17 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (You delight in the loss of others), 1982



Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Talk is cheap), 1985



Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Free love), 1988



Page 18 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Who does the crime? Who does the time?), 1988



Barbara Kruger

Untitled (You kill time), 1983



Barbara Kruger

Untitled (You do what you can to get what you want), 1984



Page 19 | 24

Second floor

Barbara Kruger

Twelve, 2004

Video projection with four projections, 15 min loop with

12 sequences with 12 conversations, dimensions variable

Barbara Kruger has filmed twelve conversations in Los

Angeles, with actors and actresses reading their texts from

teleprompters. The heads of the speakers are projected,

larger than life, on two opposing walls in the exhibition

space, so that the discussions are conducted above the

heads of the exhibition visitors. The twelve emotionally

charged discussions revolve around such diverse issues

as family disputes, politics, everyday topics, relationship

problems, and theories of contemporary art.

Below the large-scale images of the speakers, strips of

texts by Barbara Kruger run through the projection that

relate to the spoken texts, commenting on or questioning

them.

This work by the artist physically locates visitors both

spatially and in terms of content in the middle of a culture

that is informed by the televisual and its genres of the

soap opera and reality show, and addresses the ways in

which our language and means of communication are influ-

enced by these.

Page 20 | 24

Third floor

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Reminder), 2013

UV-print on PVC fabric, walls, 78 x 5 m

Facade

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Tears), 2013

Facade

UV-Print on PVCmesh

20 x 20 m

Page 21 | 24

KUB Billboards

Seestraße, Bregenz

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Belief + Doubt = Sanity), 2013

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Ist blinder Idealismus reaktionär?), 2013

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Gibt es ein Leben ohne Schmerz?), 2013

Page 22 | 24

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Can money buy you love?), 2013

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Know nothing, believe anything, forget everything), 2013

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Art is as heavy as sorrow, as light as a breeze,…), 2013

Page 23 | 24

Partner and Sponsors

Kunsthaus Bregenz would like to thank its partners

for their generous financial support and

the cultural commitment that goes along with it.

Page 24 | 24

Venue | Organizer

Kunsthaus Bregenz

Director | Chief curator

Yilmaz Dziewior

Chief Executive

Werner Döring

Curator

Rudolf Sagmeister

Curator of the KUB Arena

Eva Birkenstock

Communications

Birgit Albers | ext. -413

[email protected]

Press photos to download

www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at

Art Education

Kirsten Helfrich | ext.-417

[email protected]

Publications | Editions

Katrin Wiethege | ext.-411

[email protected]

Sales Editions

Caroline Schneider | ext.-444

[email protected]

Hours

Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m.—6 p.m.

Thursday 10 a.m.—9 p.m.

26.10.13, 10 a.m. — 6 p.m. | 01.11.13, 10 a.m. — 6 p.m.

08.12.13, 10 a.m. — 6 p.m. | 24., 25. and 31.12.13 closed

26.12.13, 10 a.m. — 9 p.m. | 01.01.14, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.

06.01.14, 10 a.m. — 6 p.m.

KUB 2013.04 | Press release Barbara Kruger Believe + Doubt › fileadmin › presse_kruger › Press… · Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger’s pictures and words engage issues of power,

Documents