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Facing Britain opens at Mönchehaus
Mönchehaus Museum Goslar
20 Feb - 1 May 2022
"Facing Britain. British Documentary Photography since the 1960s", conceived and curated by Ralph Goertz, continues the successful tour and opens on February 20 at Mönchehaus Museum Goslar.
This exhibition, described as a "landmark exhibition," presents for the first time nearly 50 British photographers* with over 280 works and provides a representative overview of the development of British photography since the 1960s. "Facing Britain" combines all contemporary and socially relevant themes such as gender identity, migration, protest, two-class society and racism, but also refers to the consequences of Brexit. For the first time a wider selection of Photographers of Color are also considered in a large overview exhibition and stand on an equal level with world stars such as David Hurn, Martin Parr or Tony-Ray Jones.
From 2023 on this exhibition will be available for new venues.
Foto: Black Copper, London, 1985 © Dave Sinclair
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IKS commissioned to produce image film on Museum Folkwang
The Museum Folkwang celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2022. The anniversary year kicks off with the exhibition "Renoir, Monet, Gauguin - Pictures of a Flowing World", which will be on show from 6 February on. The IKS and Ralph Goertz were commissioned to produce an image film for the ceremony in the Essen Philarmonie - under the patronage of the Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Many thanks!
© Museum Folkwang, Giorgio Pastore
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Ralph Goertz is appointed as a member of the DGPh
The director of the IKS, Ralph Goertz, has appointed as a new member of the German Society for Photography, DGPh, for his curatorial work and his support of the medium of photography. Many thanks!!
Electro. From Kraftwerk to Techno
Kunstpalast Düsseldorf
9 Dec 21 - 15 May 22
In over 500 exhibits, some of which interactive, the music genres subsumed as “electronic” music will be illuminated from a variety of perspectives. The exhibition encompasses musical instruments, self-made sound generators, photographs, audio clips, videos and graphic design. Its spectrum ranges from the first pioneering electronic musical instruments dating from the early 20th century to the use of artificial intelligence in contemporary electronic sound production. New musical genres emerging in the 1980s, such as Detroit techno, Chicago house and hip hop, as well as the rave culture of the 1990s will be presented both acoustically and visually through art photography. A particular highlight of the show is the spectacular staging of the oeuvre of the multimedia project Kraftwerk founded by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in Düsseldorf in 1970. "Electro.
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Mischa Kuball at Museum Morsbroich
ReferenceRooms
December 5, 2021 - April 24, 2022
It is primarily strong interventions in public spaces that have made Mischa Kuball internationally best known.
Primarily by means of light of various wave ranges, Mischa Kuball explores architectural spaces and their social and political discourses with installations, performances, photography and projections. In doing so, he reflects - in a double sense - the different dimensions of cultural and historical structures. He sees himself as a conceptual artist working in different media and spaces.
Ralph Goertz met Mischa Kuball for an interview at his retrospective exhibition ReferenceRooms. Thank you very much!
Trailer!
© IKS-Medienarchiv
Productive Image Interference:
Sigmar Polke and Artistic Perspectives Today
13 Nov 2021 – 6 Feb 2022
Kunsthalle Duesseldorf
To mark the 80th anniversary of Sigmar Polke’s birth, the Anna Polke Foundation and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf are realizing an exhibition project that juxtaposes works by Sigmar Polke with current artistic positions under the title Productive Image Interference.
When Sigmar Polke was a student at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the early 1960s, his interest quickly turned to images of his time that were widely disseminated in the mass media. The transmission, interference, the transformation, and recoding of these images, including their resulting or revealed errors, became a motif and early trademark in his raster dot paintings.
Nelly Gawellek, Kathrin Barutzki (curators) und Anna Polke
photo: Ralph Goertz © IKS-Medienarchiv
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ATTEMPTS TO BE MANY at Philara Collection
30 Oct 21 - 23 Jan 22
Nara Bak, Jana Buch, Donja Nasseri, Arisa Purkpong, Anys Reimann, Theresa Weber
Six female artists are dealing in their collages with questions on cultural identity and the way we perceive ourselves,
The works shown in 'Attempts to be Many' address the plurality of identities, revise historical assumptions and thereby enable the retelling of body tales (Körpererzählungen) and learned narratives. Subversive additions to, as well as reformulations and recontextualizations of images, symbols and narratives representative of a hierarchical society (Dominanzgesellschaft) emerge in the process. The works exhibited in the Philara Collection navigate a series of complex questions concerning identity and community.
We met the artists for our "99 Seconds of:".
photo: Isabel Hernandez © IKS-Medienarchiv
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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
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Captivate! Fashion Photography from the '90s.
Curated by Claudia Schiffer
15 Sep 21 - 9 Jan 22
Kunstpalast Düsseldorf
Supermodel and global fashion icon, Claudia Schiffer, takes Kunstpalast visitors on a personal journey through the fashion industry of the 1990s. In her first curated exhibition, Schiffer brings together legendary fashion photographers, designers, editors and supermodels, whose energy and vision, like her own, captivated and shaped the decade.
The exhibition provides insights into a diverse world of images: the extravaganza of Arthur Elgort’s oeuvre is shown next to Corinne Day’s intimate and immediate style. Ellen von Unwerth’s sense of humour and exuberant play with sexiness, meet the sculptural and perfectly composed works by Herb Ritts.
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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!
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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
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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
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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!
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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
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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:
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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!
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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
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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!
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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
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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
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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