News:
New documentary on Peter Mitchell
Peter Mitchell, born in 1943, has been quietly building a career for 40 years. Living and working in Leeds for much of his life, Mitchell treats his surrounding with a unique sense of care that is evident in his work. An essential part of the colour documentary scene in the 1970s and ‘80s, Mitchell’s landmark show 'A New Refutation of the Space Viking 4 Mission' at Impressions Gallery in 1979 has had an immeasurable impact on contemporary photography in the UK.
The filmmaker Ralph Goertz, head of IKS, was allowed to accompany the photographer at his studio and during a walk through his neighorhood in Leeds, where he was taking pictures over 40 years - and still does!
Watch it on vimeo on demand
Peter Mitchell, Leeds 1979 © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
Documentary on Tony Cragg on vimeo
Tony Cragg counts as the most significant British sculptor since the 1970s. The documentary by Ralph Goertz accompanies the artist in his studio, where he introduced his different working progresses, and ends at his first retrospective exhibit at the Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal.
Now on vimeo on demand!
News:
Facing Britains opens at Kunsthalle Darmstadt
4 September 2021 - 9 January 2022
Facing Britain, the first exhibition by the new photo department of the IKS, was opened at the Kunsthalle Darmstadt and presents with 48 participating photographers and 290 works the largest survey show on the development of british documentary photography since the 1960s. This internattional touring exhibition was curated by Ralph Goertz, head of the IKS.
"No fewer than 47 of these photographers are now represented with individual works or series in the show “Facing Britain” curated by Ralph Goertz in the Kunsthalle Darmstadt, which adds up to an impressive retrospective of British documentary photography from the early 1960s to 2020." Christian Riethmüller, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"An exhibition of impressive breadth [..] And just as Daniel Meadows' intense portraits add up to a picture of society, the synopsis of "Facing Britain" produces the finely differentiated, very sensually graspable picture of a country." Johannes Breckner, Echo Kultur Darmstadt
News:
Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation commissioned IKS with a film on Eugen Gomringer
The Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation in Osnabrück commissioned Ralph Goertz, director of the IKS, together with honorary professor Stefan Lüddemann, to produce a film on Eugen Gomringer - one of the founder of "concrete poetry". Gomringer and Vordemberge-Gildewart met in the 1950s at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm.
Foto: Ralph Goertz © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
IKS documenting Martine Syms
Fridericianum Kassel commissioned IKS
Martine Syms. APHRODITE’S BEASTS
July 3, 2021 – January 9, 2022
Born in 1988 in Los Angeles, Martine Syms has emerged in recent years as one of the central and defining figures in the younger, international discourse on art and culture. In her multidisciplinary practice, which spans film, photography, installation, performance, and writing, the artist explores manifold, compelling questions in order to map new perspectives on life and society. Thus, through precise observations and in-depth research, Syms addresses the representation and reception of African American identities and cultures, the theories and realities of feminism, the conditions of interpersonal communication, and the impact of digital media on everyday life. Characterized by both conceptual and pop approaches, her work displays a marked sense of humor without ever losing its seriousness and urgency.
Developed especially for Kassel and entitled Aphrodite´s Beasts, the exhibition presents the artist’s work to a broader audience in Germany for the first time by means of large-format film installations, new photographs, site specific interventions, and objects.
The IKS has been commissioned to document and produce several trailer formats. Many thanks!
News:
Vika Kirchenbauer at Kunstverein Düsseldorf
FEELINGS THAT MOVE NOWHERE
29.05. - 5. Sept. 2021
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf presents FEELINGS THAT MOVE NOWHERE, the first institutional solo exhibition by Vika Kirchenbauer. In her videos, video installations, performances, and films, the Berlin-based artist negotiates regimes of gaze, power, and visibility as well as the norms and patterns of representation inscribed in them based on her own biography. The exhibition shows selected works of the last ten years along with three new productions.
Curated by Eva Birkenstock.
We met the artist for an interview. Many thanks.
photo: Ralph Goertz © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
A Journey Trough A Body
Kunsthalle Duesseldorf
29 May - 1 Aug 2021
The exhibition Journey Through A Body explores perceptions and understandings of the body in the context of gender identities and self-identification. In the works of six young artists, who examine the human body and its issues of identity from diverse, international perspectives, fascinating questions about gender and concepts of identity are discussed in very different ways and in a variety of media.
We met the curators Gregor Jansen and Alicia Holthausen for an interview. Many thanks!
99 Seconds of:
News:
Mühlheimer Theatertage commission IKS
12 film portraits about nominated authors
For this year's Mühlheimer Theatertage (May 8 - 29, 2021), the IKS and Ralph Goertz have been commissioned to produce 12 film portraits about the playwrights nominated for the Drama Prize. The portraits provide a rare and in-depth insight into the working methods and attitudes of the authors. Together with Christine Wahl and Thomas Irmer, Ralph Goertz approached the nominees in intensive interviews. The result is a film series that for the first time puts the text in the foreground. Thank you very much!
News:
Ralph Goertz at Photoszene Cologne
The director of the IKS, Ralph Goertz, was invited by Photoszene Festival Cologne as a portfolio reviewer (14/15 May 2021). Together with photo curators from Germany, Israel, Danmark and India the jury will review on two days the work of photo artists photographers. Many thanks!
Foto: Leslie Barabasch
News:
New documentary on Timm Rautert
Public premiere on vimeo
19 April, 7pm
Timm Rautert (*1941) studied photography with Otto Steinert at the Folkwangschule in Essen and is considered as one of the most significant contemporary German photographers. Over the decades, he has succeeded in helping to shape the most important currents in photography. Rautert was a studio photographer for galleries, a photojournalist, a chronicler of the changing world of work, and a university lecturer at the HGB Leipzig, where he trained subsequent generations.
His freelance artistic projects took him to the USA and Japan, for ZEITmagazin he produced social documentary reportages, e.g. on migrant workers, the homeless, or previously inaccessible groups such as The Hutterites (1978) and The Amish (1974). In the 1980s, Rautert turned to documenting working environments in the auto and computer industries. A recurring focus of Rautert's work is the portrait of artists such as Josef Sudek, Pina Bausch, André Heller, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter or Eric Rohmer.
Over a period of three years filmmaker and photo curator Ralph Goertz was allowed to accompany Timm Rautert in his studio in Essen and provides deep insights into the various groups of works, but also into the consideration of the medium of photography.
The premiere takes place in cooperation with the Museum Folkwang and Thomas Seelig (head of the photographic collection).
Watch it on vimeo on demand!
News:
Timm Ulrichs at Philara
Vorspiel - Nachspiel
12 March - 16 Mai 2021
Timm Ulrichs is an autodidact, a language fetishist, a reader and a humorous provocateur. In his genre-crossing conceptual realizations, he repeatedly makes himself and his human constitution available as material and postulates the compatibility of art and life. Language is often his fundamental creative tool; his works play with verbal concepts, tautologies, paradoxes and diverse implications.
The Philara Collection presents an impressive exhibition on Timm Ulrichs works, which are centered around the process of disappearance.
We met the artist for an interview for our "99 Seconds of:" Many thanks!
Foto: Isabel Hernandez © IKS
News:
IKS producing trailer on
Evelyn Taocheng Wang
Reflection Paper
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen
12 Januar till 14 March 2021
Reflection Paper is a circle garden, inviting you for diagnosis on topics such as ‘living in the moment of now’ or ‘beauty is only in our mind’ as you count your breath, walking through the icy white lacquer. Since my artworks are failures, I left their aesthetics and compositions in the soil of meditation, and shall we say together: ‘Today is a fragment.’. –Evelyn Taocheng Wang
Ralph Goertz met the artist for an interview. Many thanks!
photo: Ralph Goertz © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
IKS creates digital "night foyer"
Stefan Marx at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
Stefan Marx (*1979 in Schwalmstadt) draws and illustrates. He studied typography, communication theory and cultural philosophy at the HAW Hamburg. His excellent observational skills for his everyday environment can be seen in his intelligent and often witty drawings and designs on skateboards, T-shirts, but also on canvases, porcelain and building facades. In his textual works he engages the viewer with concise and humorous quotations or sayings in a strong visual language and unusual writing style. At Kunsthalle Düsseldorf Marx shows a textual work especially designed for the foyer wall.
This is the second time the IKS created a digital format to present the work of an artist and the book release together with Stefan Marx and the publisher Nicola von Velsen (Hatje Cantz).
photo: Ralph Goertz © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
IKS is producing Ballet film A simple piece
During several weeks of rehearsals, the director and chief choreographer of the Ballett am Rhein Demis Volpi and the filmmaker Ralph Goertz (director of the IKS) joined forces with ballet master Brent Parolin and sixteen dancers of the Ballett am Rhein to develop an independent version of A simple piece. In it, the filmmaker moves permanently between the dancers along meticulously worked-out paths, sometimes focusing on solos, sometimes on group structures. With his camera, he magically penetrates the stage space subtly lit by Volker Weinhart and makes the deserted auditorium of the Düsseldorf Opera House aesthetically tangible.
"Gliding along with the camera develops an almost meditative pull; you keep crossing the stage as if you were part of the group."
Marion Meyer, Rheinische Post
As a special cinematographic feature, A simple piece is shot with only one camera as a so-called "one take". This means that the audience experiences the choreography through the lens of the camera in one go, without cuts or interruptions. This creates an intense film experience that suggests being live on stage.
WATCH THE FREE STREAMING!
The film will be screened from 5th March on as a free streaming on OperaVision.
Trailer
photos: Daniel Senzek © Deutsche Oper am Rhein
News:
Erika Hock - Female Fame
IKS creates media strategy and trailer formats
With the exhibition Female Fame, Erika Hock shows works by female artists from the collection of the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, which were created by the Post-war sculpture to contemporary art.
The framework for the sculptures and films is provided by Hock's own work, the string curtains and bases, which she describes as “hosting structures”. With her selection, Hock takes a critical look at the collection and the structural imbalance in the presentation of male and female artists. Female Fame enables the examination of the works of various female artists who have long been neglected. At the same time, the presentation uses the transparent architecture of the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten in the town hall Marl so that during the corona-related closure a (limited) experience of the exhibition is possible from the outside.
Ralph Goertz met the artist for an interview and did produce different media formats.
photo: Ralph Goertz © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
Kunstsammlung NRW presents Thomas Ruff documentary
In collaboration with filmmaker and photo curator Ralph Goertz and on the occasion of the digital KPMG Art Evening, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen exclusively presents the director's cut of the documentary film "Thomas Ruff. Photographs 1979-2020" with new, previously unreleased material.
Over a period of 10 years, filmmaker Ralph Goertz was allowed to accompany artist Thomas Ruff in his studio, while taking photographs, editing images and setting up his exhibitions. The film thus traces the artist's path from the large-format portraits with which the Becher student became known in the late 1980s, to series such as jpegs, nudes, m.a.r.s., to the tableaux chinois, and shows how Thomas Ruff repeatedly questions the medium of photography anew. The film provides insights into the thinking and working methods of an artist who is internationally one of the most important of his generation.
The film was shown at film festivals in Toronto, Calgary, Krakow, Dublin, Florence and the Ballarat Foto Biennale.
News:
Thomas Struth Director's Cut now available online
Since the 1990s, the Düsseldorf-based photo artist Thomas Struth has been one of the most internationally renowned German artists, and his work has made a significant contribution to establishing photography as a contemporary art form. With analytical precision and clarity, Struth designs in his often large-format works visual landscapes that are reminiscent of perfectly organized stagings.
This retrospective film accompanies the artist since 2000 and was invited to several film festivals in Toronto, Calgary and to the 7th Biennale Lanzarote. Also on view at Museum Folkwang, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, High Museum of Art Atlanta, Saint Louis Art Museum and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
The Director's Cut by Ralph Goertz contains unplublished and recent footage.
Watch it on vimeo!
News:
Kunstsammlung NRW presents Thomas Ruff documentary
In collaboration with filmmaker and photo curator Ralph Goertz and on the occasion of the digital KPMG Art Evening, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen exclusively presents the director's cut of the documentary film "Thomas Ruff. Photographs 1979-2020" with new, previously unreleased material.
Over a period of 10 years, filmmaker Ralph Goertz was allowed to accompany artist Thomas Ruff in his studio, while taking photographs, editing images and setting up his exhibitions. The film thus traces the artist's path from the large-format portraits with which the Becher student became known in the late 1980s, to series such as jpegs, nudes, m.a.r.s., to the tableaux chinois, and shows how Thomas Ruff repeatedly questions the medium of photography anew. The film provides insights into the thinking and working methods of an artist who is internationally one of the most important of his generation.
The film was shown at film festivals in Toronto, Calgary, Krakow, Dublin, Florence and the Ballarat Foto Biennale.
News:
SUBJECT and OBJECT named as "Best exhibition 2020"
The exhibition "Subject and Object. Foto Rhein Ruhr" was named "Best Exhibition" in the NRW Museum Survey 2020 by Welt am Sonntag. The exhibition has been curated by Ralph Goertz, director of the IKS, with Gregor Jansen and Dana Bergmann.
"Best exhibition: "Subject + Object", Kunsthalle Düsseldorf: finally the great overview of the rich photo scene on the Rhine and Ruhr, obsessed with detail, insightful, overwhelming!" Carl Friedrich Schröer
MANY THANKS!
News:
IKS comissioned for digital tour at Museum Folkwang
In order of the Museum Folkwang in Essen and the exhibition KEITH HARING, which was affected by the Covid-19 closure, we were comissioned to produce a digital spotlight tour in six parts through the exhibition - for all those who could not see the exhibition anymore and all those who would like to experience it again! Thanks a lot!
Insight Keit Haring III
News:
New film on the Duesseldorf Art Academy
Graduates presentation 2020
On the occasion of this year's final presentation of the graduates at the Duesseldorf Art Academy, the IKS was commissioned to produce a 45-minutes film. Due to Covid-19, the tour could not be made accessible to the general public as usual. Now the website of the Duesseldorf Academy of Art, all visitors have the opportunity to gain an exclusive insight into the classes and first-hand informations about the artistic approaches of the graduates. Many thanks!
Watch the film
photo: Rebekka Benzenberg, class Prof. Hörnschemeyer, room 010 © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
Fridericianum Kassel comissioned IKS
Das Fridericianum in Kassel comissioned the IKS and Ralph Goertz with several film documentations on their exhibitions. Next to "Tarek Atoui. Waters' Witness" and "Forrest Bess" they also asked for a film documentation of the spectacular video projection "Hope" by Trisha Baga. Many thanks!
Forrest Bess exhibition
Interviewfilm Tarek Atoui
hpoto: Tarek Atoui performs at his "The Tables of Contents" © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
Ralph Goertz curates FACING BRITAIN
Museum Goch
27 September - 8. November 2020
more venues in Germany and the EU are following
Facing Britain was conceived as a touring exhibition and is the first survey exhibition on the development of British documentary photography since the 1960s. With a total of 230 photographic works and 28 artists, Facing Britain brings together almost all important representatives of British documentary photography and shows stars like David Hurn and Martin Parr alongside rediscovered and new positions.
The exhibition thus offers a unique insight into the developments in the field of photography in the United Kingdom, which are interwoven with continental Europe and North America, but also independent of them. The documentary aspect proves to be one of the great strengths of British photography, which is capable of depicting a part of Europe in transition in a multifaceted, surprising and artistically original way. Facing Britain was therefore deliberately chosen as a temporal bracket for the period of Britain's membership of the European Union and its forerunner between1963 till 2020. Particularly in view of the current Corona pandemic, the exhibition proves to be a break in the artistic development of an entire nation.
Facing Britain has been curated by Ralph Goertz in co-operation with Museum Goch and will be on tour in different museums and galleries in Germany and the European Union.
News:
Ralph Goertz guest curator at Kunsthalle Darmstadt
Living Together
Joachim Brohm – Ute Mahler – John Myers
13 Sept 20 - 03 Jan 21, Kunsthalle Darmstadt
As part of the 11th Darmstadt Photography Days themed ‹Bizarre Escapes: Humour in Photography› the Kunsthalle Darmstadt realises the exhibition "Zusammenleben" ["Living Together"], curated by Ralph Goertz, unites photographs by Joachim Brohm, Ute Mahler and John Myers from the 1970s and 1980s. As different as the artistic points of view may seem at first sight, they complement each other in their individual view of social, as well as private structures and habits.
Ute Mahler, from the series "Zusammenleben", 1973, Aue © Ute Mahler
News:
Josef Strau at Kunstverein Duesseldorf
Spirits and Objects
3 Sept - 22 Nov 2020
The Austrian artist Josef Strau presents various works from the last 30 years at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf. The focus is always on the relationship between text and object.
For the three newly designed video funnels he was able to win over Keren Cytter, Bernadette Van-Huy and Enzo Shalom, who produced video works based on his texts.
The IKS was allowed to produce the official trailer for the exhibition and met the artist for an interview. Many thanks.
Trailer
photo: Ralph Goertz © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
Leunora Salihu at Collection Philara
IKS is producing a trailer
Shifting Entities
Leunora Salihu
31 Aug - 25 Oct 2020
Leunora Salihu develops her sculptural works on the basis of elementary themes of sculpture, such as the relationship between space and surrounding, movement in the static form as well as sculpture and pedestal. As such, serially handcrafted elements are combined to modular systems and sculptural bodies.
Leunora Salihu works in an inquiring manner, always in pursuit of possibilities to evolve forms and materials, which she sets in dialogue with real and imaginary spaces and its regularities.
"99 Seconds of:"
photo: Isabel Hernandez © IKS-Medienarchiv
News:
Keith Haring at Museum Folkwang
21 August – 29 November 2020
IKS producing official Trailer
Keith Haring’s graphic figures and iconographic visual motifs, such as little dancing figures, barking dogs or flying saucers, became well known right around the world. He was at the centre of the legendary New York art scene of the 1980s. His unmistakable, seemingly spontaneous style was a product of the energy of an age shaped by underground club culture, space travel, robotics and video games. Haring collaborated with artists such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as with Madonna, Grace Jones, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.
Museum Folkwang is presenting an extensive exhibition on the US artist Keith Haring. About 200 works, including large-format paintings and drawings, posters, photographs and videos will convey a broad cross-section of his oeuvre.
Trailer
News:
IKS produce documentary on Kaiserring
The Kaiserring of Goslar is one of the most important awards in contemporary art. Since 1975 the city of Goslar has been awarding the Kaiserring to internationally renowned contemporary artists. The price is now one of the most regarded art prizes worldwide and is known by connoisseurs as the Nobel Prize for Fine Arts. The list of award winners reads like a "who's who" of contemporary art. The Mönchehaus Museum was opened in 1978 to offer the Kaiserring carriers a representative exhibition forum.
The head of the IKS, Ralph Goertz, was commissioned to produce a documentary on the 45th anniversary of the ImKaiserring and met former award winners such as Andreas Gursky, Jimmie Durham, Christo or Robert Longo for an interview.
Ralph Goertz in front of the "Hall of Fame" of former award winner at the Mönchehaus Museum
News:
Documentary on Rankin online
Rankin counts internationally as one of the most significant portrait and fashion photographer. His picture style became famous thru dynamic and intimate portraiture with a keen sense for the character and spirit of his subjects. He made portraits of Kate Moss, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bundchen, The Rolling Stones, Claudia Schiffer, Keira Knightley, Vivienne Westwood, Bjork, Madonna, Cate Blanchett, Beth Ditto, Damien Hirst, David Bowie next to others.
Many of his images became iconic! In Germany he became famous as part of "Germany's Next Topmodel" by Heidi Klum.
Ralph Goertz, director of the IKS, was allowed to film him in Duesseldorf and London. "Rankin - show off" - an intimate portrait of a photographer!
Now online available on vimeo on demand!
News:
Robert Mapplethorpe - Shapes
Award winning movie by Ralph Goertz online
No other photographer was dicusses more controvers at his time then cult figure Robert Mapplethorpe. With his classical photographs he strives for formal perfection, no matter if it's a penis, flower or vases.
The docuemntary follows his footsteps in New York and Malibu, but also in München and Düsseldorf. With exclusive interviews of his former models like Lydia Cheng, Ken Moody, Isabella Rossellini and "Lady" Lisa Lyon.
Watch it on vimeo on demand!
