A Large Show

Exhibition: 28.09 to 23.11.2008
Opening: 28.09.2008, 11.00 am
(Erfurt Art Museum in the House at Roten Ochsen)

collages of David Mannstein

The Congress of Erfurt as an early summit of the great powers in the world can apply as a paradigm for all later summits, especially in the age of media: negotiations do (also) take place, but representation is of primary importance. Summits act as shows and exhibitions of economic and political significance. The stage metaphors fit the situation in Erfurt in 1808 and fit the situation today as well. The exhibition “A Large Show” approaches the historical event and the subject of summits–both artistic-associatively and quoting historical sources–with the transformation of rooms into room installations that make reference to memory content, mental pictures and what’s been remembered. David Mannstein was invited as artist curator to bring about this transformation, develop ideas for it, collect material and interpret in images, which also means including other artists and their projects. The material basis consists of historical and contemporary portraits, pictures, texts, acoustic documents and film excerpts from the world of representation for political summits between 1808 (Congress of Erfurt) and 2007 (G8 Summit in Heiligendamm) as well as the media’s portrayal of the event’s significance. The political actors shown here are contrasted to the other social groups such as they have been represented by e.g. Nadar, August Sander, Stefan Moses, Barbara Klemm, etc. Implicitly the exhibition will also pose the current question about the form, effect and purpose of representation: How does a person portray an event to contemporaries and later generations? How is it translated in clear, catchy illustrative and textual formats that as memory content determine what we call historical consciousness?

All the portraits and other pictorial documents, including film, will be shown with the aid of electronic media in darkened and specially arranged rooms. They will be combined with readable and audible text fragments to create associative collages. In the different rooms of the Erfurt Art Museum, you will experience various scenographic room installations which on the one hand unfold a suggestive aesthetic effect and on the other facilitate various glimpses into both the psychology of the daily media and history with regard to the historical and artistic material.

Exhibition:
September 28 to November 23
Kunsthalle Erfurt im Haus zum Roten Ochsen
(Erfurt Art Museum in the House at Roten Ochsen)
Open:
Tu – Su 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, Th 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Information:
Phone: +49 (0)361 6 55 56 60
kunsthalle@erfurt.de
www.kunsthalle-erfurt.de

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