mit / von / über / nach (with / from / through / after) – A Recital

Curated by Sonja Lau and Petra Ponte

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is pleased to present two performative evenings that build around two pivotal instances from its history: Prospect (1968–1976) and Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk (1983).

01 prospects
Artist-turned-gallerist Konrad Fischer and art critic (later turned gallerist) Hans Strelow initiated a remarkable exhibition series and alternative art fair for the avant-garde in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. Two months prior to its first opening in 1968, Strelow wrote in DIE ZEIT that they conceived of Prospect as an information show aiming to close the gap between the European and American contemporary art scenes; another goal was to present artists and their galleries as instigators of the avant-garde. The Kunsthalle supported the plans of Fischer and Strelow, and an international committee of art professionals was invited to make the selection. Prospect was to return to the Kunsthalle four more times: in 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1976. It became a key stage for exhibiting and positioning contemporaneous art and a central meeting point for its protagonists. Each edition sketched a new prospect for art (to come), not only by way of an exhibition, but also through written and spoken words. These acts of speculative voicing form the basic ingredients for prospects. a recital. This recital, however, is not a memoir pur sang: single and choral voices hum, drum, whisper, sing, aspirate and lilt from all corners of the Seitenlichtsaal to sound out prospects—then, now, again.

02 Zusammenhang Gesamtkunstwerk
In 1983, Harald Szeemann's outstanding exhibition Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk headed toward its second destination, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. With it, a difficult and historically charged term reappeared on stage, leading to controversies both inside and outside of the institution. Although defined as a "tendency" ("Hang") instead of a call for realization, the re-entry of the Gesamtkunstwerk and its utopian proposal of aesthetic and political fusion also ignited the need to debate the dangerous proximity between the total work of art and the totalitarian state anew.

The 1983 TV broadcast, featuring (amongst others) Joseph Beuys, Harald Szeemann and Bazon Brock during a tour through the exhibition and attending a subsequent debate, provides the point of reference for this 2nd edition of mit / von / über / nach: Zusammenhang Gesamtkunstwerk. Working along the original positions and core arguments of the discussion, different voices sneak in. They suggest re-actualisations of the performed script, and prompt the speakers on stage to choose again, more carefully and in situ, between the past and present tense of their recitals.

01 With contributions by: Roi Alter, Bert Jacobs, Thomas Myrmel, Jonas Rutgeerts, Anat Spiegel, Nicoline Timmer, Daniel Vorthuys

02 With contributions by: Sasha Auerbakh, Stephan Dillemuth, Michael Dreyer, Jürgen Harten, Clemens Krümmel, Adrianna Liedtke, Dierk Schmidt, André Siegers, Thomas Trinkl. Performed by: Heisam Abbas, Konstantin Bühler, Thiemo Schwarz, Lutz Wessel (Ensemble Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus), Eve Kolb