Munich Haus der Kunst: Capsule 05: João Maria Gusmão &Pedro Paiva; Capsule 06: Sara MacKillop
by Venetia Kapernekas
Haus der Kunst 2 years ago inaugurated a new program of focused one gallery exhibitions that explore recent developments amongst a generation emerging international artists. The goal of the Capsule Exhibition series is to engage audiences in the production of new work by artists at critical points of artistic breakthrough in their careers.
I have been one of the biggest fans of those great exhibitions …. sadly to see Capsule 05 and Capsule 06 departing today. The curators Anna Schneider (Capsule 05) and Julienne Lorz (Capsule 06) in spite of their respective diverse different media of their artists have done amazingly a powerful presentation; you may leave the dark realm of Capsule 05 but yet poetic ambience that the duo João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva have created, you enter into the light of the “Window Display” by Sara Mackillop at Capsule 06.
João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva
Installationsansicht / Installation view Haus der Kunst, 2016
Photo: Maximilian Geuter
Sara MacKillop
Installationsansicht / Installation view Haus der Kunst, 2016
Photo: Maximilian Geuter
The focus of their presentation in Haus der Kunst, “Peacock/Pfau”, is their latest cinematic work complex, which was developed in Japan. The 16mm films are silent and shown in a loop. The only sound in the room is that of the projectors, which further emphasizes the materiality of the film. The first film, “Mating Dance”, introduces the theme: the construction of a self-image. Using his striking plumage, which he can fan out into a semi- circle, the peacock tries to woo the peahen.
Three other films, unified by the element of water, run on a second projector. They combine key aspects of the artists’ practice: the construction of a theory for their own work and the examination of this through visually-poetic experiments. The film “Ventriloquism” from 2009, for example, explores the origins of ventriloquism as a religious practice, in which it was used to communicate with spirits and the dead. The film contains a water clock, whose time interval equals the length of the film. (curator, Anna Schneider)
Mating season, 2016
© João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva
Courtesy of the artists and Galeria Fortes Vilaça,
São Paulo; Galeria Graça Brandão, Lisboa; Sies + Höke,
Düsseldorf; ZERO …, Milano
Gusmão & Paiva’s artistic approach draws on diverse literary sources, including René Daumal (“The Defining Memory”); pataphysics, the study of what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics; and abyssology, the doctrine of the abyss. The core belief of all these philosophies is the constant mutability of all that exists. It turns away from classical reasoning, combines putative analysis with humor and focuses on the imperceptible. The world of things thus reveals itself as a wealth of wonders. Man retains his susceptibility to the supernatural and divine manifestations. (curator, Anna Schneider)
João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva
The horse of the prophet (detail), 2011. Produced by Frac Île-de-France/Le Plateau, Paris in collaboration with Lamu Palm Oil Factory, Kenya. Courtesy of the artists and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo; Galeria Graça Brandão, Lisbon; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; ZERO …, Milan. © João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva
In “Wave” from 2011, a black rock is slowly swallowed by an ocean wave – an archetype for cyclical creation. The film uses the stylistic device of extremely drawn-out slow-motion recording, thus lending the movements a special importance. The artists shot the film using a high-speed camera capable of capturing as many as 500 frames per second; they then run the footage in slow-motion, displaying fewer than the usual 24 frames per second. (curator, Anna Schneider)
Wave, 2011
© João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva
Courtesy of the artists and Galeria Fortes Vilaça,
São Paulo; Galeria Graça Brandão, Lisboa; Sies + Höke,
Düsseldorf; ZERO …, Milano
Sara MacKillop (born 1973 in Bromley, UK) created the works on view especially for the Capsule exhibition. Her works belong to the tradition of conceptual art and minimalism. The new work “Window Display”are minimalistic, airy and individual assemblages. Similar in design to earlier works, such as “Pens” (2006), in which the artist combined the same type of pens to form a kind of post, these assemblages are rooted in the everyday. They initially appear to consist of ordinary office materials, such as envelopes. However, the selected motifs – pens, cartridges and paper – are gradually disappearing from general use as they become outdated. (curator, Julienne Lorz)
Sara MacKillop
Installationsansicht / Installation view Haus der Kunst, 2016
Photo: Maximilian Geuter
Sara MacKillop
Installationsansicht /Installation view Haus der Kunst, 2016
Photo: Maximilian Geuter
Sarah MacKillop organizes the objects into three islands that are linked through repeated motifs and objects. There is an informal quality: The wrapping paper is unrolled and can potentially be re- rolled, and the book covers hang from the space’s architecture or from other objects – many of the objects also overlap physically. The arrangements do not have a final form, but with their flexible, short-term, or temporary quality link to a window display.
Sara MacKillop
Installationsansicht / Installation view Haus der Kunst, 2016
Photo: Maximilian Geuter
Sara MacKillop (b. 1973 in Bromley, UK) lives and works in London. She studied painting at the Royal College of Art, London. She has exhibited extensively: group shows include “Books and Prints”, Serralves Museum, Porto; “Concrete Poetry”, Hayward Gallery, London; “Kultur und Freizeit”, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster; solo shows include Kunsthalle Charlottenburg, Copenhagen; Spike Island, Bristol; White Columns, New York; Whitechapel Project Space, London.
The Portuguese artist duo João Maria Gusmão (born 1979) and Pedro Paiva (born 1977) has developed a magical and mysterious oeuvre over the past 15 years, which includes films, photographs, sculptures, and camera-obscura-installations.
Anna Schneider since 2012 is assistant curator at Haus der Kunst in Munich. In 2009 she received her M.A. in Exhibition and Museum Studies as a Fulbright Fellow from the San Francisco Art Institute. In 2007, she received a degree in Cultural Work from the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam. Her research interests are in interdisciplinary relationships of contemporary art and in cultural phenomena with regards to historical, economic and political contexts.
Julienne Lorz -curator at the Haus der kunst in Munich. Having started out as a dancer and choreographer in the early 90s, Julienne completed her MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London in 2004. Since 2010 she is a curator at the Haus der Kunst, where she co-curated a number of exhibitions including thematic shows such as ‘Golden Times'(2010), ‘Sculptural Acts'(2011), as well as “Image-Counter-Image'(2012), Her latest exhibitions ‘Louise Burgeois. Structures Existence: The Cells’ opened in Haus der Kunst in february 2015.
Okwui Enwezor – director of Kaus der Kunst-extends his contract as director of Haus der Kunst” ; I am looking forward to continuing with my colleagues in Haus der Kunst the successful programmatic orientation of the institution”, annotates Okwui Enwezor the decision…
The Kunstrevein München (k.m) presents ( 13 September 2016 until 8 January 2017) “Unfinished Mandarin” — a rotating exhibition of drawings by Gonçalo Pena in the Schaufenster am Hofgarten, co-organized with João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva.
The Gusmão and Paiva will display a sporadically changing procession of presentations of Pena’s pictures every two weeks over the course of the fall. Along with many others, these drawings will also be published in a book of the same name, a follow up to their 2014 book Monkey Trip (published by Mousse), ) — accompanied by written contributions from Gusmão, Paiva, Post Brothers, and Kunstverein Director Chris Fitzpatrick. While the publications present a linear, almost cinematic, sequence of Pena’s drawings, the Schaufenster exhibition conversely displays the images in a procession of variable layouts and groupings that allows for more complex and multiple associations to be made from their juxtaposition.
VK 