Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg

Extended

Works from the collection in dialogue with murals by Roland Schappert

To commemorate the anniversary of the establishment of the City of Wolfsburg’s museum of contemporary art more than forty years ago, the Städtische Galerie is presenting a selection of works from the permanent collection holdings in an alternating dialogue with temporary murals by the artist Roland Schappert.

At the centre of the museum work of the Städtische Galerie and before the backdrop of the impossibility of collecting activities that are complete from a global, art-historical perspective is the goal of tracing individual, substantive, contemporary positions in order to thus cultivate a distinctive and independent collection profile.

Since the nineteen-fifties, collecting activities have focused in particular on painting and sculpture from the German-speaking world since 1945. Works in the field of new media, video, film and photography as well as of print/graphic art are collected on an international level in order to broaden already existing focuses of the collection, present new developments and make the interplay beyond national and medial borders visible.

With outstanding works of important artistic positions, the collection is today able to situate the most significant trends, especially in German art history, within a social and historical context, to make reference to particular aesthetic traditions and simultaneously to establish links to current artistic currents and developments. In doing so, the Städtische Galerie therefore not only makes an important scholarly contribution, but also contributes substantially to the development of cultural identity in the region. What has also contributed to this for a long time are the many artistic works in the collection that were developed in connection with the space and context of the museum, enrich the collection profile with their in-situ character and invite the public to see actively, enter into the dialogue and participate. With the new presentation of the collection under the title ‘FÜRS ALL GENUG’, the museum not only takes up this important line of tradition, but also now develops this further for the first time in direct dialogue with an artist on the level of the presentation of the collection.

Roland Schappert, born in Cologne in 1965, works at the interface between text, painting, graphics, video, poetry and essay. What interests him is thinking about the image in an undogmatic and free manner and continuously gauging and questioning the potential impacts of artistic genres as well as their limits anew. Hence, the artist makes use of extremely diverse image and text fragments, from which he then develops his murals in a process of overlaying, overwriting, scratching and blotting out. In the new permanent exhibition, these murals are placed in a dynamic dialogue with the works of the collection to thus open up new points of view on well-known artworks from the holdings as well as works presented here for the first time for visitors to the Städtische Galerie. At the same time, the conceptual and creative interplay aims to distinguish and illuminate the museum as a very special place of both history and present, of the old and the new. Since, in particular since 1945, the most recent history up to our present time has shown that the question of what art today actually is involves on-going renegotiation and that every generation has to continually develop its own art and history anew.

Roland Schappert explores these questions, difficulties and contradictions affecting the act of collecting, the museum, art, the artist and the viewer artistically in his ‘Schriftbildmalerei’ (text-image painting). Commenting critically, analysing creatively and satirising humorously not only lead to the establishing of new relationships between the artworks. It also imparts still unknown levels of reference to the public, thus facilitating new insights into the collection.

In conjunction with the exhibition opening on 21 October is also the premiere of the film ‘FÜRS ALL GENUG’, which was filmed in connection with the anniversary of the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg by the team of the production company/firm Filmburg from Wolfsburg and accompanied by Axel Bosse as author. It will also be possible to listen to live music by the composer and pianist Paul Liksza.

Dates

• 17. October 2014 11.00 cet
  Pressetermin
• 21. October 2014 19.00 cet
  Ausstellungseröffnung im Gartensaal

  Programm zum 40-jährigen Jubiläum der Städtischen Galerie Wolfsburg am 21. Oktober 2014 im Schloss Wolfsburg

  Eröffnung der Ausstellungen

  FÜRS ALL GENUG – 40 Jahre Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg
  und
  CASTLE DIS-PLAY – Gruppenausstellung

  Es sprechen
  Klaus Mohrs, Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Wolfsburg und
  Susanne Pfleger, Direktorin der Städtischen Galerie Wolfsburg

  Musik von Paul Liksza

  An diesem Abend wird die Premiere des Filmes „FÜRS ALL GENUG“ sein, der zum Jubiläum der Städtischen Galerie Wolfsburg vom Team der Filmburg aus Wolfsburg produziert und von Axel Bosse als Autor begleitet wurde.

  Ab 20 Uhr Rundgang mit den Künstlern und Kuratoren durch die Ausstellungen im Süd- und Westflügel

  Im Anschluss daran laden wir in den Jagdsaal ein!