Ausstellung: 12. Februar – 2. April 2022
Eröffnung: Samstag, 12. Februar, 11–16 Uhr
Der Künstler und Autor Jimmie Durham ist am 17. November 2021 in Berlin gestorben. Der Schock, den diese Nachricht in der Kunstwelt ausgelöst hat, ist enorm, denn Durham war einer der wichtigsten international agierenden zeitgenössischen Künstler und ist ein Vorbild für viele, die sich für politische, wissenschaftliche und ästhetische Fragen gleichermaßen interessieren. Durham hat viele andere Künstler inspiriert und früh komplexe Kommentare zu Themen geliefert, die heute in aller Munde sind, u.a. zum eurozentrischen Blick und dessen Folgen. Als politischer Aktivist hat er sich sein Leben lang für die Rechte indigener Bevölkerungen eingesetzt. In den 1970er Jahren gründete Durham den International Indian Treaty Council und war dessen Vertreter bei den Vereinten Nationen, wo seine Tätigkeit u.a. zur Erklärung der Rechte indigener Völker führte.
Durham war auf vielen Kunstbiennalen präsent, er beteiligte sich mehrfach an der Documenta in Kassel und auch 2022 wird ein Werk von Durham auf der documenta fifteen zu sehen sein. Er erhielt 2016 den Kunstpreis Goslarer Kaiserring, 2019 verlieh die Biennale in Venedig ihm den Goldenen Löwen für sein Lebenswerk. Der Direktor der Londoner Hayward Gallery Ralph Rugoff schrieb dazu: „I have nominated Jimmie Durham for the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 58th International Art Exhibition based on his remarkable accomplishments as an artist over the past six decades, and in particular for making art that is at once critical, humorous and profoundly humanistic. Artist, performer, essayist and poet, Durham had his first solo exhibition in 1965 (we should probably be giving him two lifetime awards by this point in time). His generously expansive artistic practice spans many media, including drawing, collage, photography and video, but he is best known for his sculptural constructions, often made from natural materials as well as inexpensive common objects that evoke particular histories.
These sculptures are often accompanied by texts that drolly but incisively comment on Eurocentric views and prejudices. Insistently invoking the limits of Western rationalism and the futility of violence, his work has also frequently made reference to the oppression and misunderstanding of different ethnic populations around the world by colonial powers. Durham typically treats this material without the slightest trace of ponderous gravitas; instead, he forges razor-sharp critiques that are infused with shrewd insight and wit, and that pleasurably demolish reductive ideas of authenticity.”
Rugoff betont zurecht wie wichtig die Texte von Durham sind, um seine künstlerischen Konzepte zu verstehen. Sie enthalten, wie Rugoff sagt, scharfsinnige Kritiken am Zustand der Welt und sind gleichzeitig große Literatur. Darauf hinzuweisen ist das Ziel unseres Ausstellungsprojektes Jimmie Durham. texts and recordings.
Ein weiterer Grund, warum wir uns dem Schreiben in Durhams Werk widmen, ist auch in der Geschichte begründet, die die Galerie Barbara Wien mit Durham verbindet. Seit dem Jahr 2000 richteten wir nicht nur vier Einzelausstellung mit ihm aus, wir veröffentlichten auch Durhams Gedichtbände Poems That Do Not Go Together (2012), Particle/Word Theory (2020) und den Vortrag The Usual Song & Dance Routine with a Few Minor Interruptions, den er 2010 in Glasgow hielt, in dem Heft how to write 2 (2013).
In der Ausstellung werden zwei Filme zu sehen sein: eine Lesung aus dem Buch Particle/Word Theory (2020) und ein Mitschnitt des Vortrags, den Durham 2010 in der Glasgow School of Arts hielt. Der Vortrag zeigt wie Durham nicht nur seinen Text vorträgt, sondern wie er das Publikum aktiviert, die im Titel The Usual Song & Dance Routine with a Few Minor Interruptions erwähnten Unterbrechungen einbaut und seine Gedanken spielerisch – eben ohne schwergewichtige Bedeutsamkeit – vermittelt.
Als dritten Beitrag präsentieren wir Ausschnitte der bis kürzlich unveröffentlichten Lesung Poems: Written, Drawn, Selected and Read by Jimmie Durham. Die Aufnahme fand im April 2021 auf Einladung von Sergio Edelsztein (Ediciones Inauditas) in Berlin statt. Durham las aus seinen Büchern Columbus Day (1983), Poems That Do Not Go Together und Particle/Word Theory und unveröffentlichte Gedichte. Die Aufnahme erscheint im Februar 2022 als Langspielplatte in einer von Marius Babias und Sergio Edelsztein im Neuen Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) gegründeten LP-Reihe als Record #1. Einen Text, der Durhams Dichtung in der amerikanischen Literatur verortet, wird der Dichter Ammiel Alcalay im Begleitheft der Schallplatten-Edition veröffentlichen.
Im Nordraum der Galerie zeigen wir Pissing in Germany (2012), eine Installation mit Texten zu Reisen, die Durham 2012 machte, um eine Retrospektive in Antwerpen, eine Installation bei der dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel und eine Skulptur auf der Messe in Basel aufzubauen. Die Anstrengungen, die mit den langatmigen Zugreisen durch langweilige Landschaften verbunden sind, schildert Durham anschaulich und er integriert auch eine Absurdität der Deutschen Bahn, einen 50 Cent-Coupon, den man nach der Benutzung der Toiletten erhält. Am Ende von Pissing in Germany erfährt man, dass die Reise für Durham nach einem Schlaganfall im Krankenhaus endete. Wir rekonstruieren diesen Textraum, den Durham für unsere Galerie 2012 entwickelt hat.
Außerdem zeigen wir die Grafikmappe Mäßige Materialfehler, eine Edition, die wir mit Durham im Jahr 2000 herausgebracht haben. Sie enthält neun Radierungen, die er statt mit den üblichen Radierwerkzeugen mit spitzen Steinen und Glassplittern anfertigte. Das Textblatt der Edition trägt den Titel A Meditation on Work and Language. Hier geht es, wie oft bei Durham, um die Zusammenhänge von Sprache, Schrift und Bewusstsein:
„Scratching words backwards into a hard surface is an odd experience. It makes clear that written language is drawing – and that, like stone tools, it comes from work and play.
I think that language does not begin with the desire to name things, but with the need to describe action: ‘Search!, ‘Help!, ‘Run‘, ‘Come‘, ‘Dance‘, ‘Work‘.”
Die Ausstellung soll während der Laufzeit durch verschiedene Beiträge erweitert werden, wofür wir Wegbegleiter von Durham angefragt haben, wie Anne Ellegood (Kuratorin von Durhams Retrospektive At the Center of the World im Hammer Museum, Los Angeles 2017; heute ist Ellegood am Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles als Good Works Executive Director), Bart de Baere (Direktor am M HKA, Antwerpen) und Ammiel Alcalay (Dichter, Wissenschaftler, Kritiker, Übersetzer, lebt in New York).
In unserer Kunstbuchhandlung bieten wir die neue Schallplatten-Edition Poems: Written, Drawn, Selected and Read by Jimmie Durham an (n.b.k. Record #1, kuratiert von Sergio Edelsztein, herausgegeben von Marius Babias. Courtesy Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) und Ediciones Inauditas, 2022. 45 Eur).
Barbara Wien und das Team der Galerie bedanken sich für die Unterstützung des Ausstellungsprojektes Jimmie Durham. texts and recordings bei Maria Thereza Alves, Ammiel Alcalay, Nick Ash, Marius Babias, Bart de Baere, Rosa Barba, Anne Ellegood, Sergio Edelsztein, Sophie Moiroux, Michael Rakowitz, Kai-Morten Vollmer und Jan Werner.
Exhibition: February 12 – April 2, 2022
Opening: Saturday, February 12, 11 am – 4 pm
On the 17th of November 2021, the artist and author Jimmie Durham passed away. The shock of this news among the artworld was, and still is, enormous; Durham was one of the most important internationally active contemporary artists and remains a role model for many who are similarly interested in political, scientific, and aesthetic issues. Durham inspired many other artists, and early on, offered complex commentary on subjects which today are widely-discussed – for example on the Eurocentric gaze and its consequences. As a political activist, he spent his life advocating for the rights of Indigenous populations. In the 1970s, Durham founded the International Indian Treaty Council and became their representative at the United Nations. His activities led to the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among other things.
Durham exhibited at numerous art biennales; he took part several times at documenta in Kassel, and his participation will continue in 2022 with a work of his on view at documenta fifteen. In 2016, he was awarded the Goslarer Kaiserring art prize, and in 2019 he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.
As the director of the Hayward Gallery in London, Ralph Rugoff, said, “I have nominated Jimmie Durham for the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 58th International Art Exhibition based on his remarkable accomplishments as an artist over the past six decades, and in particular for making art that is at once critical, humorous and profoundly humanistic. Artist, performer, essayist and poet, Durham had his first solo exhibition in 1965 (we should probably be giving him two lifetime awards by this point in time). His generously expansive artistic practice spans many media, including drawing, collage, photography and video, but he is best known for his sculptural constructions, often made from natural materials as well as inexpensive common objects that evoke particular histories.
These sculptures are often accompanied by texts that drolly but incisively comment on Eurocentric views and prejudices. Insistently invoking the limits of Western rationalism and the futility of violence, his work has also frequently made reference to the oppression and misunderstanding of different ethnic populations around the world by colonial powers. Durham typically treats this material without the slightest trace of ponderous gravitas; instead, he forges razor-sharp critiques that are infused with shrewd insight and wit, and that pleasurably demolish reductive ideas of authenticity.”
Rugoff rightly underlines how important Durham’s texts are in understanding his artistic concepts. They are incredible works of literature and simultaneously contain, as Rugoff says, razor-sharp critiques of the world’s status. Highlighting this is the goal of our exhibition Jimmie Durham. texts and recordings.
Another reason, for why we devote attention to Durham’s writings within his work, is rooted in the history of Durham’s connection to Galerie Barbara Wien. Since 2000, we have not only realised four solo exhibitions with him, but we have also published Durham’s poetry collections – Poems That Do Not Go Together (2012), Particle/Word Theory (2020) – and The Usual Song & Dance Routine with a Few Minor Interruptions lecture he gave in Glasgow in 2010 which appears in the booklet how to write 2 (2013).
The exhibition features two films: one involves a reading from the book Particle/Word Theory (2020), and the other is a recording from the aforementioned lecture Durham gave at the Glasgow School of Art in 2010. The lecture shows how Durham not only recites his text, but also how he activates the audience, incorporates the interruptions mentioned in the title (The Usual Song & Dance Routine with a Few Minor Interruptions), and imparts his thoughts in a playful manner, free from any weighty significance.
Our third contribution takes the form of extracts from the until recently unpublished reading Poems: Written, Drawn, Selected and Read by Jimmie Durham. The recording took place in Berlin in April 2021 following an invitation from Sergio Edelsztein (Ediciones Inauditas). Durham reads from his books Columbus Day (1983), Poems That Do Not Go Together and Particle/Word Theory, and other unpublished poems. In February 2022, the recording has been released on vinyl as Record #1 of an LP series founded by Marius Babias and Sergio Edelsztein, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.). A text by the poet Ammiel Alcalay, situating Durham’s poetry within American literature, will be published in the accompanying booklet.
In the gallery’s north room, we present Pissing in Germany (2012), an installation comprising texts about journeys Durham made in 2012 to install various shows: a retrospective in Antwerp, an installation at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, and a sculpture at the fair in Basel. Durham vividly depicts the effort involved in tedious train journeys through boring landscapes, integrating also an absurdity of Deutsche Bahn: a 50 cent coupon given after using the toilets. At the end of Pissing in Germany, we learn that Durham’s trip ended in his admission to hospital following a stroke. We reconstruct this installation that Durham devised for our gallery in 2012.
In addition, on view is a portfolio of prints titled Mäßige Materialfehler, an edition we released with Durham in 2000. It consists of nine etchings which he made with sharp rocks and glass splinters instead of the usual etching tools. The accompanying text is titled A Meditation on Work and Language. As is often the case with Durham, it is about the connections between language, writing, and consciousness:
“Scratching words backwards into a hard surface is an odd experience. It makes clear that written language is drawing – and that, like stone tools, it comes from work and play.
I think that language does not begin with the desire to name things, but with the need to describe action: ‘Search!, ‘Help!, ‘Run‘, ‘Come‘, ‘Dance‘, ‘Work‘.”
Various contributions will add to the exhibition throughout its duration, for which we have asked some of Durham’s companions such as Anne Ellegood (senior curator of Durham’s retrospective At the Center of the World, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles 2017; today, Ellegood is the Good Works Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles); Bart de Baere (director of M HKA, Antwerp); and Ammiel Alcalay (poet, scholar, critic, and translator who lives in New York).
At our bookshop we offer the new vinyl edition Poems: Written, Drawn, Selected and Read by Jimmie Durham (n.b.k. Record #1, curated by Sergio Edelsztein, published by Marius Babias. Courtesy of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k) and Ediciones Inauditas, 2022. 45 Eur).
Barbara Wien and the gallery team would like to thank the following for their support in realising the exhibition Jimmie Durham. texts and recordings: Maria Thereza Alves, Ammiel Alcalay, Nick Ash, Marius Babias, Bart de Baere, Rosa Barba, Anne Ellegood, Sergio Edelsztein, Sophie Moiroux, Michael Rakowitz, Kai-Morten Vollmer and Jan Werner.