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BONNER KUNSTVEREIN

GREGOR SCHNEIDER: TOTALSCHADEN ( “TOTAL” DAMAGE)

March 11th – April 23rd 2006
Opening: Friday, Mach 10, 7 p.m.

With works of: SHAMSUDIN ACHMADOW, SONJA ALHÄUSER; ANNA AMADIO, MONIKA BARTOLOMÉ, THOMAS BAUMANN, RALF BERGER, MATTI BRAUN, RITA MC BRIDE, WALTER DAHN, MARK DION, THEA DJORDJADZE, ULRICH ERBEN, CARSTEN FOCK, FRANCESCO GENNARI, GEORG HILDEBRANDT, ELLEN KATTERBACH, KIRON KHOSLA, EDWARD KRASINSKI, MISCHA KUBALL, JIM LAMBIE, EUGENE LEROY, ALEXANDER LIECK, MARCEL ODENBACH, BLINKY PALERMO, WERNER REITERER, THOMAS RENTMEISTER, PIPILOTTI RIST, DIETER ROTH, GREGOR SCHNEIDER, THOMAS RUFF, FRANCES SCHOLZ, URSULA SCHULZ-DORNBURG, THOMAS SCHÜTTE, NORBERT SCHWONTKOWSKI, DIRK SKREBER, ANDREAS SLOMINSKI, MICHAEL STAAB, JAN STIEDING, MIRKO TSCHAUNER, TIMM ULRICHS, GÜNTER UMBERG, REBECCA WARREN, CORINNE WASMUHT, JOHANNES WOHNSEIFER, THOMAS ZITZWITZ, CHRISTOF ZWIENER, WEIHEALTAR FÜR DIE MATRONEN 3. Jhdt.n.Ch., RELIEF MIT DEN KLUGEN und TÖRICHTEN JUNGFRAUEN, 16 Jhdt., ZWEI ÄBTISSINEN, 1739, KLEINER ALTAR MIT BAROCKKREUZ, PORTRÄT DES GRAFEN NEUBURG-PFALZ, zeitg. Kopie nach Van Dyck, 17. Jhdt.

After 20 years of being in existence and with great visible continuity, the Peter Mertes grant has successfully developed to a well established configuration for the promotion of contemporary art in the Rheinland area. It focuses explicitly on the promotion and development of young artists in the region, supporting even the youngest of talents directly out of art academies or universities. The award consists of a donated monthly sum over the period of one year culminating in an exhibition with subsequent catalogue at the Kunstverein in Bonn. The funding for this grant derivesfrom the Peter Mertes Vine Cellar, patronized by Michael and Renate Willkomm, on the one hand and the Bonner Kunstverein being the second pillar. Awards that support artists effectively in times of crisis and uncertainty are seldom, since the security of achieving “success” in the future is not given.

Gregor Schneider, a former scholarship winner of the Peter Mertes grant (1996), whose works often reflect “situations of crisis”, has been invited for an intervention and participation in this anniversary celebration. The Peter Mertes grant helps artists in their beginning artistic careers in times of crisis. Presently the Bonner Kunstverein is also faced with a critical situation. After twenty years of holding successful exhibitions, the halls urgently are in need of renovation. With the help of a recent benefit auction, where over sixty internationally acclaimed artists donated their works, the Bonner Kunstverein laid the financial foundation stone for the realisation of this renovation. In contrast, the previously committed financial support from the city of Bonn is at this moment uncertain.

The word “crisis” means in ancient Greek “opinion, judgement or decision associated with a difficult turning point situation.” The project TOTALSCHADEN not only construes to this impending situation for the urgent realisation of the renovation of the Bonner Kunstverein, but also questions the value of damaged individual works of art.

By initiative of Gregor Schneider no longer intact artworks are shown in the no more intact spaces of the Bonner Kunstverein. TOTALSCHADEN puts into question the future credibility of the Kunstverein and its cultural-political perspective and at the same time is a project by artists that stand in for intact artworks in intact spaces.

The collected art works raise questions on the surrounding exhibition halls as well as on the value of the statements of the respective individual works. When is an original artwork truly destroyed? Does the so called “aura” of a piece further constitute its value inspite of being damaged? Artists, art dealers, collectors, insurance assessment agents and art historians handle damaged art works in a different manner. Who determines the lack of value and validity of a damaged work? How does a damage, respectively the meaning or a value manifest itself? Is it possibly that a damage brings worth a new perspective in an artistic work?

The exhibition TOTALSCHADEN enables a view which is normally hidden for the general public: that what can happen to art works while exhibited in museums, behind closed doors of storage rooms, damaged art and damaged space becomes visible. This enables us to behold the object of crisis, art works and space in their turning point and reflect upon their universal value.

Tel. +49 228 693936, Fax +49 228 695589 • kontakt@bonner-kunstverein.de, www.bonner-kunstverein.de • Hochstadenring 22, D-53119 Bonn

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