Pain (exhibition)

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Promotion for the exhibition

Pain was the name of an art exhibition in Berlin that was shown from April 5 to August 5, 2007 in the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart and in the Medical History Museum of the Charité in Berlin . Works by Marina Abramović , Francis Bacon , Joseph Beuys , Louise Bourgeois , Nathalie Djurberg , Bruce Nauman , Mathilde ter Heijne , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , Bill Viola , Sam Taylor-Wood and others were exhibited.

The special feature of this exhibition, which had pain as its theme, was the combination of artistic works and medical or religious objects.

Exhibition intention

According to its own description, the exhibition dealt with the representations and expressions of pain: “She focuses on the community-creating function of pain as well as the attempts to observe, analyze, search for or get rid of it. She tries to show that pain can always be both: subjective and objective, creative and destructive. "

The curators of the exhibition were Annemarie Hürlimann and Daniel Tyradellis from Praxis for Exhibitions and Theory , Eugen Blume from the Museum für Gegenwart and Thomas Schnalke from the Museum of Medical History . The exhibition was funded by the Deutsche Klassenlotterie Foundation and the Capital Cultural Fund.

In preparation for the exhibition, a project seminar for the preparation of an exhibition was offered at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences in the 2006 summer semester for the cultural work course, in which the participants were included in the conception phase of the exhibition “Pain”. The aim of the seminar was "to deal with the possibilities of the exhibition medium using the phenomenon of 'pain' in a joint 'work in progress'" . The seminar was led by Nicola Lepp, who is a partner in the exhibition office Practice for Exhibitions and Theory . In close cooperation with the two curators Annemarie Hürlimann and Daniel Tyradellis, the students developed "important impulses on the topic and thus contributed to the success of the exhibition" .

In the foreword to the book accompanying the exhibition , Peter-Klaus Schuster , Director General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Director of the National Gallery, and Detlev Ganten , Chairman of the Board of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, emphasized the interdisciplinary collaboration between collections and research institutions and set the exhibition in the tradition of melancholy Exhibition that was on view in the Neue Nationalgalerie in summer 2006 .

The attempted balancing act between science and art also manifested itself in the two exhibition locations, the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart and the Medical History Museum of the Charité: Artistic works were juxtaposed with medical, folkloric, religious and everyday objects.

Structure of the exhibition

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo : The Martyrdom of Saint Agathe (around 1755)

The exhibition was divided into four thematic groups: Views of Pain , Stimulus of Pain , The Time of Pain and Expression of Pain . Before that, the visitor encountered an intro with generously arranged installations in the main hall .

The intro and the first two thematic complexes were presented in the Hamburger Bahnhof, the other two themed complexes in the Medical History Museum. Both rooms were connected to one another by poster installations on the sidewalks, which offered a rough overview of the range of works shown in the exhibition.

The exhibition was provided with bilingual accompanying texts in German and English. The book accompanying the exhibition was only available in German.

Intro

The introduction to the exhibition, positioned in the central area of ​​the Hamburger Bahnhof, showed, among other things, a “bite stick for use in operations without anesthesia” , some video installations and “pain sketches from patients” in which they marked the painful parts of the body in a simplified representation.

Views of pain

In Views of Pain , according to the initiators of the exhibition, the focus was on the pain of the other and how to deal with him.

Christian scenes determined the beginning of the exhibition: The Salzburg- based depiction of the crucified Savior "The Holy Trinity in the Mercy Seat" from 1470 and other works dealing with Jesus Christ's crucifixion . The presentation of the laboratory cross by Dr. Fredrick T. Zugibe , who experimentally dealt with the crucifixion of Christ, is one of the first exhibits that are not of artistic but medical origin.

Other works in the first thematic complex included “Observance” , a 10:15 minute video installation by Bill Viola from 2002, an installation on the subject of anesthesia , votive offerings , pathological preparations , Nathalie Djurberg's video installation “Just because you are suffering doesn't make you Jesus ” , Berlinde De Bruyckere's “ Speechless Gray Horse ” , eleven woodcuts from Albrecht Dürer's “ Great Passion ” , a double sheet of the musical manuscript of the “ St. Matthew Passion ” by Johann Sebastian Bach , Francis Bacon's “ Crucifixion ” and placebos . The complex of topics was rounded off by “Herr Daff is in pain” , an eight and a half minute animated film by Klaus Georgi , which was made in 1982 on behalf of DEFA .

Stimulus of pain

Georg Petel : "Saint Sebastian" , 17th century

The second topic was the stimulus of pain and presented one's own body as an instance of experience and an instrument of knowledge.

A noisy room installation by Micol Assaël “Untitled” and a game installation for two players by Tilman Reiff and Volker Morawe with the title “Pain Station 2.5” , in which the loser is punished with impulses from the palm of the hand, opened up this complex of topics. Medical instruments and other exhibits objectified the subject. With an iron maiden , an alleged instrument of torture (which in fact was not used for torture at all), the motif of torture was thematized. Apart from the crucifixion scenes in the first part, there was no further evidence of this pain-based behavior in the entire exhibition. Sadism and masochism were thematized by means of forensic photographs (glass negatives) from brothels, in which deaths occurred during sexual practices; In addition, the connection between sexuality and pain was the subject of some interviews that filmmaker Valeska Grisebach conducted for the exhibition and included in her installation “Scars”.

Other works in the second thematic complex included Georg Petel's “Saint Sebastian” , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's painting “The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha” (around 1755), as well as two red chalk drawings “Studies on the Head of Saint Agatha” by the same artist, a video installation with excerpts from sports movies, another, 10-minute video installation by Sam Taylor-Wood , entitled "Brontosaurus" in which to relax in ecstasy dancing , naked man is seen.

Break

Since the exhibition made the cooperation between the two different collections and research institutions - the Museum für Gegenwart in Hamburger Bahnhof and the Medical History Museum of the Charité - also clear through the spatial distance, the visitor was led past poster installations from one museum to the other. The distance between the two museums is approx. 800 meters.

The posters showed black symbols on a white background, which stand for objects with which one can cause pain to oneself or others; Colored motifs from exhibits represented in the exhibition were shown on the respective back.

The time of pain

"Juillard's anesthetic mask"

The third thematic complex, The Time of Pain , showed “how our conception of pain has changed over the centuries, but also how much pain rhythmizes life and becomes a carrier of meaning” .

This complex was determined by pain in medicine : A Juillard's anesthetic mask , the illuminated reproduction of the motifs of the “Votive Shrine of the Knight of Ettling” from the 16th century, Rineke Dijeestra's photo series from 1994, the naked, standing women with their newborns in the Arm shows and a collection of pills called “One for the Road” by the Pharmacopeia artist group were some of the works on display .

An installation on the pain of separation and love loosened up the strongly medical third part of the exhibition, which came to an end with a “computer-aided representation of headaches” and the installation “Cell VII” by Louise Bourgeois .

Expression of pain

Expression of Pain , the final thematic complex of the exhibition, showed the mental and physical expression of pain in words, sculptures, music and pathological preparations.

The beginning of this thematic complex was determined by a number of bronzes : the “Laocoon Group” from Jacopo Sansonino's circle , the “Mask of a dying warrior” by Andreas Schlüter and the “Masque de Montserrat criant” by Julio Conzáles . Manuscripts, for example by Friedrich Nietzsche , supplemented these. A model of the oral cavity by Otto Seifert from 1929 was represented as a medical exhibit . This exhibition area was flanked by Mladen Stilinović's “Dictionary Pain” , a work of art consisting of 523 individual sheets in which the explanations of an English-language dictionary were whitewashed and replaced by handwritten words “PAIN” .

The final part of the exhibition, which ended the fourth thematic complex, consisted mainly of pathological specimens. To get in the mood, pathologists from the Berlin Charité were briefly introduced: Louis-Heinz Kettler (1910–1976), Otto Lubarsch (1860–1933), Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), Robert Friedrich Froriep (1804–1861), Manfred Dietel (b. 1948), Heinz David (born 1931), Hans Anders (1886–1953), Johannes Orth (1847–1923), Heinrich Meckel von Hemsbach (1821–1856), Philipp Phoebus (1804–1880), Heinz Simon (1922– 1993), Robert Rössle (1876–1956) and Benno Reinhardt (1819–1852).

Dissection instruments formed the transition to the pathological specimens, which were mainly diseased organs and malformed fetuses . The end of the exhibition was loosened up by some works of art such as a sculpture, a chair with the inscription “show your wound” by Joseph Beuys from 1975 and a 51:20 minute radio feature from 1970 “8:15 am OP III hip plasty” . The program on hip surgery, which was produced under the direction of Peter Leonhard Braun for the SFB , BR and WDR , was the first radio program to consist exclusively of original sounds from an operation , interview parts and excerpts from some operation reports. Most of the interview parts were comments from the patient about why she had decided to undergo this procedure. After the first broadcast, the number of hip operations at the Charité increased tenfold within a short time.

Exhibition catalog

"Reproduction of the votive shrine of the Knight of Ettling"

The exhibition catalog published by the curators of the exhibition (also accompanying the exhibition ) with the title “Pain. Art + Science ” presents on 312 pages, 88 of which are images, works of art, medical devices and everyday objects. The “provocative border crossing between medicine, art and religion” is accompanied by essays and literary sources. According to an advertising statement by the publisher, the book is the “first interdisciplinary presentation of the subject of pain” .

In addition to a foreword, an introduction and many picture panels, the catalog offers 22 essays that approach the topic from philosophical, medical or artistic points of view. “Pain and Pain Therapy” contrasts with “The Imagery of Pain in Ancient Art” , “Pain and Christianity” , “Music and Pain” or an essay on “Aesthetics and Anesthetics in Contemporary Art” . “Technical media and medical imaging” are presented, Albrecht Dürer's works are analyzed and Joseph Beuys ' works are placed in a new context.

criticism

The reviews were rather benevolent and ranged from “[…] a border crossing between art and science” ( 3sat ) to “A consistent interplay between art and science” ( Kölnische Rundschau ) to zitty hymn of praise : “An impressive exhibition.” .

A journalist from Spiegel Online expressed herself somewhat more critically , because in the exhibition […] the overwhelming topic of pain is presented in easily digestible bites. Guaranteed youth-free and aseptic , the viewer can approach the ailment from a safe distance. In a way, it feels like a throwback to earlier centuries. Affect repression was the motto at the time. The goal: to remain sublime and beautiful despite suffering. That is a shame, because a few more side effects would have been accepted in this case.

Occasionally, the exclusion of torture methods and cruelty to animals and the fixation on Christian perception were noted, but the praise for the exhibition prevailed, as in the FAZ : The exhibition is particularly outstanding when the objects are related to each other.

More reviews

  • Stuttgarter Zeitung : "The exhibition shows that the boundaries between the disciplines of art and science are more permeable than it often seems."
  • SWR2 : “A tour d´Horizon through pain and suffering. This exhibition is not easy on the visitor. It makes the pain almost physically tangible. The clever collaboration between the two museums shows the many facets of art and science. "
  • Der Tagesspiegel : "It is the strength of this dark journey that exhibits correspond beyond their placement in the visitor's head."
  • TAZ : On Maundy Thursday, the exhibition "Pain" opened in Berlin. After all, the pain she deals with is of a Christian-Western nature. How other cultures deal with pain and their philosophical, religious and artistic ideas do not play a role [...] Yes, there is no pain in "pain". Last but not least, the pain the animals suffer in the research laboratories is missing so that we can be spared it. Since "pain" only unpacks the medical instruments of torture, the purpose of which is understandable, the uterine knife, the head saw or the urethral stretcher, she does not have to speak of pain and suffering that medicine itself has caused in its long history - even in her search for it Relief from pain.
  • Süddeutsche Zeitung : The extensive catalog presents itself as a clever encyclopedia of everything that can be said about human pain today. But there is one thing he has avoided, like the exhibition as a whole (as long as he does not play the topic over the gang by means of the Passion of Christ and his martyrs, so to speak): from pain as something that people systematically, with the sensitivity of evil watchmakers, do to each other. Animals hate and kill, but they do not torture one another. Torture is to be thought of as the most intense event not only human but also possible in the cosmos. A supernova, a black hole may be bigger; but they do not experience themselves. Should the Berlin exhibition be praised or criticized for its aversion to torture? The doubt that remains honors them.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g the official website of the exhibition ( memento of June 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) - accessed in July 2007.
  2. ↑ Extract from the course catalog of the FH Potsdam; Summer semester 2006 ( Memento from July 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 140 kB) - accessed in July 2007.
  3. ↑ forge.fh-potsdam.de/~Kultur/ - accessed in July 2007.
  4. ↑ → Literature
  5. ↑ not to be confused with the environment “ show your wound ” by Joseph Beuys from the same period
  6. ↑ This information can be found in the information sheet next to the installation.
  7. ↑ a b website of the DuMont literature and art publishing house - accessed in July 2007.
  8. ↑ Jenny Hoch: It's nice when the pain subsides. Infernal torments, men of pain and sharp tools - a major Berlin exhibition approaches pain, one of the most intense human sensations, artistically and scientifically. But it doesn't really hurt anyone. In: Spiegel online, April 5, 2007 .
  9. ↑ a b Burkhard Müller: Pain let up! The Hamburger Bahnhof and the Museum of Medical History of the Charité show what cannot be endured and yet must be endured: They show - scientifically proven - what really hurts people. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 80, April 5, 2007, Munich 2007. - see: online version .
  10. ^ A b Brigitte Werneburg: There is a lack of pain. The large joint exhibition "Pain" of the Berlin Museum of Medical History and the Hamburger Bahnhof combines science and art. The focus is on dealing with other people's pain and perception. In: www.taz.de, April 10, 2007 .
  11. ↑ What it means to become flesh. Types of pain: The Hamburger Bahnhof and the Medical History Museum of the Charité in Berlin exhibit suffering. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 7, 2007 , Frankfurt am Main 2007.

literature

Web links

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 19, 2007 .