Pictures at an Exhibition
Tableaux d'une exposition
Bilder einer Ausstellung
CR 42. Year 1973
- EN
- DE
- FR
Do not look at me
Do not name me
Do not come near me
Framed by the exhibition space, the Pictures at an Exhibition demonstrate precisely how exhibitions cannot work, as the pictures are moved to an indecipherable distance. The viewer succeeding nevertheless to read the titles, faces an almost biblical taboo. Depiction is deception, art remains cosa mentale.
Günter Metken 1977. Translated by e_CR editors
In den Galerierahmen eingepasst, demonstrieren die Bilder einer Ausstellung gerade das Nicht-Funktionieren von Ausstellungen, da die Titel unlesbar weit weggerückt sind. Wer sie dennoch entziffert, sieht sich einem fast biblischen Tabu gegenüber. Abbildung ist Täuschung, Kunst bleibt cosa mentale.
Günter Metken 1977.
What is essential can neither be said nor shown. It can only be retained through its negation…. Art creates manifestations. But all forms of depiction, of manifestation, of utterance conceal something. They mask more than they show and they show something that was not intended.
Thomas Wagner 1994. Translated by e_CR editors
Das Wesentliche läßt sich weder sagen noch zeigen. Einzig in der Negation läßt es sich bewahren…. Die Kunst schafft Formen des Sichzeigens. Doch alle Formen des Zeigens, des Offenbarens, des Aussprechens verbergen etwas. Sie verbergen mehr, als sie zeigen: und sie zeigen etwas, das nicht gemeint war.
Thomas Wagner 1994.
Nous pourrions voir dans son approche de l’oeuvre d’art et du texte, une volonté de multiplier les réponses contradictoires qu’il apporterait lui-même à ses différentes interrogations à la fois intellectuelles et plastiques. Mais ne pourrait-on déceler cependant (…) une disposition tout à fait équivoque de sa part, une attitude d’opposition à nos - ses propres - découvertes, que nous pourrions rapprocher "du concept de résistance” - au sens psychanalytique du terme cette fois - et dont l’expression la plus manifeste se retrouve dans l’oeuvre intitulée Tableaux d’une exposition (1973).
Emmanuel Abela 1994
Categories
Keywords
Installation
1st version: picture (photographic opaque on paper), 55.5 x 73.5 cm, cordon, music stand, musical score, opera glasses, cassette recorder, cassette
2nd version: 10 pictures (photographic opaque on cardboard), each 55.5 x 73.5 cm, 10 lamps, balustrade, music stand, musical score, opera glasses, cassette recorder, cassette
3rd version: 10 pictures (photographic opaque on paper, screen print), each 55.5 x 73.5 cm, 20 panes of glass, each 71.5 x 89.5 cm, cassette recorder, cassette
10 pictures with imprinted texts lean against the walls of the exhibition room. A tape recorder on the floor plays Mussorgsky’s piano concerto Pictures at an Exhibition. In earlier versions, the exhibition room is darkened and divided into one accessible and one non-accessible section.
The English version of the text is used in the Mixed Media Photograph PICT.ME (392). Editions have been published in English and French (791, 807).
In addition two works in public space under the same title were realised (96, 889) in 1989 and 2006.
Exhibitions
Paris 1973. Saint-Etienne 1975. Sydney 1979. Frankfurt 1980. Paris 1980. Vancouver 1985. Calais 1986. Strasbourg 1994. Wiesbaden 1997
Bibliography
I: Karlsruhe 1975a, pp. 12, 63, 134-135. Malmö 1975, pp. 36-38. Paris 1975a, pp. 12, 62. Sydney 1979, p. 53. Frankfurt 1980, pp. 13, 21. Paris 1980b, pp. 76-77. Essen 1991, pp. 6-7. Strasbourg 1994, pp. 44-49. Nürnberg 1996, pp. 195-196. Wiesbaden 1997, pp. 10, 38-45
II: Metken 1975, pp. 140, 148. Beaucamp 1980. Haase 1, 1980, p. 2. Krämer-Badoni 1980. Nicol 1980, p. 7. Pohlen 1980. Schuchmann 1-3, 1980. Syring 1, 1981, p. 76. Red. 12, 1984, p. 23. Huhn 1986, p. 289. Nottin 1986, p. 40. Abela 2, 1994, pp. 44-49. Koch 1994. Marchand-Kiss 1994. Schumann-Bacia 1994. Asmuth 1+2, 1997. Dering 1997. Grus 1997. Haase 2, 1997. Henke 1+2, 1997. Kuni 1997. Melten 3, 1997. Rudel 1, 1997. Schneebeli 1997. Schwarze 1997. Wagner 1+2, 1997.
III: Pohlen 1978, p. 15. Durand 1990, p. 122
V: Metken 1977, p. 127, p. 132. Lehmann 1994, pp. 98-99