Events/Openings

Richard Wright
Year-long exhibition 15.02.2014 – 14.02.2015
"Nine Chains To The Moon" (Chapter 3)
Opening: Friday, 17.01.2015, 6–9 pm

"Everything you see in this room (...) was left here by the previous tenants. So you won’t find much that pertains to me, yet I prefer these random appurtenances. Their diversity keeps me from being limited to a single mode of reflection; and in this laboratory (...), my imagination is less inclined to measure its steps." Robert Lebel (1904–86)

With the third chapter of his year-long exhibition, Richard Wright confronts the visitor with an art-historical cabinet of curiosities that have been influential for his own oeuvre. On an expanded shelf designed by himself, the artist presents books and periodicals that were produced, designed and published by artists. Irrespective of their date of origin or their involvement with a certain movement in art, such publications served as a strategic medium, providing a forum to an artist that is neither dependent on an exhibition space nor submit to institutional or editorial censorship. The exhibits retrace the development of a
graphic language that has been coined by artists since the 1950s.

Next to a selection of Fluxus periodicals, we present Gorgona, a group of artists and art-historians involved in the Zagreb art scene from 1959 to 1966. Without referring to a manifesto or to explicitly postulated aims, Gorgona did not only organise exhibitions but first appeared with their "anti-magazine". Nine issues were published between 1961 and 1966, each of them created as an artwork by the members of the group as well as by Victor Vasarely, Harold Pinter and Dieter Roth.

Wallace Berman’s (1926–76) "Semina" which appeared in nine editions from 1955 to 1964, are characterised by collective creative work. They were produced at small-scale format with a hand press, and gathered texts by Antonin Artaud, Jean Cocteau, Hermann Hesse, Allen Ginsberg as well as contemporary writers. By assemblage technique, they were combined with excerpts from the Kabbalah, Berman’s most important inspiration. Reproductions of found or self-made photographs served as illustrations, underlining the mystic aspect by means of over-exposure. The production of "Semina" in co-operation with
Berman’s circle of friends corresponds to both the assemblage technique and the mystic collective knowledge "Semina" postulated symbolically.

Robert Heinecken’s (1931–2006) works are based on the manipulating appropriation of already existing materials. Based in Los Angeles and describing himself as a "para-photographer", he drew from the abundant pool of the 1960s film industry and contemporary popular culture. He combined images from magazines, cinema, television and pornography by means of collage,
assemblage and overlapping. With this recontextualisation, their messages attack themselves, questioning the concept of authorship as well as society’s bigoted attitude towards the body, sexuality, gender and outsiders.

Besides contributions by KRIWET (*1940), Pierre Leguillon (*1969), Jonathan Monk (*1969), Olaf Nicolai (*1962), Bojan Sarcevic (*1974), David Shrigley (*1968) and Andro Wekua (*1977) represent contemporary bibliophilic or artists editions.

By invitation of Richard Wright, Tim Berresheim (*1975) presents his collection of rare records; Jochen Lempert (*1958) historical exhibition posters; and Dr. Wolfgang Strobel parts of his artists books collection. Curator Daniel Baumann has arranged a presentation of books on books.

Next to selected publications, Richard Wright presents "Film Exercise No. 4" by the brothers John and James Whitney (1917–95/1921–82). Being pioneers in the field of cinematic art, their musical compositions that accompany their films foreshadow the crossing-over of genres, which is a crucial feature not only of Fluxus and the medium of the artists book but also of Richard Wright’s oeuvre.