Auto-perforation artistry

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Auto-perforation artistry is a specific form of action art that emerged in the GDR . Between 1982 and 1991 her name was used primarily for subversive performances with changing cast, but also for photographs, installations, films, objects, texts, drawings and paintings. It developed as a demarcation from the prevailing dogmatic state culture and the socialist realism- oriented art production of the GDR. The central protagonists were Micha Brendel , Else Gabriel, Rainer Görß and Via Lewandowsky .

Origin and methodology

Görß, Brendel and Lewandowsky at the performance "panem et circensis" at the HfBK Dresden, 1988

The term "auto-perforation artistry" (from the Greek auto - for "self-" and perforation from the Latin perforare for "pierce", "holes") was first used in 1987 in connection with the performance "Herz Horn Haut Schrein" the diploma defense of Brendel, Gabriel and Lewandowsky at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts . However, the methodology of the artistic movement as well as the first joint work emerged as early as 1982, when Brendel, Gabriel and Lewandowsky studied together in Günther Hornig's stage design class at the Dresden University of Fine Arts. Görß studied there in the same subject from 1984.

Recurring elements of their appearances and actions were the tendency towards animalism, the handling of organic materials such as blood or bones, and the use of medical or sado-masochistic disguises (bandages, masks, muzzles or tubes). Shock and disgust effects were produced in a radical way, which often culminated in self-harm of the actors, for example when Gabriel dipped her head in a bucket of cattle blood or Lewandowsky shoved a chicken foot into his anus. Addressing violence and exploring one's own physical limits were often the focus. Activities were often carried out in self-organized rooms, but also in galleries, on stages, on the occasion of exhibition openings and other art events.

The auto-perforation artists have never been a fixed group, which is clear from the changing crews of the performances. In addition to Brendel, Gabriel, Görß and Lewandowsky, the poets Durs Grünbein and Tohm di Roes, the writer Johannes Jansen , the dancer Hanne Wandtke and the artist Ulf Wrede were also involved in performances.

The auto-perforation artists hardly ever gave their own statements about their work and when they did, the descriptions of the individual artists often differed astonishingly. The unwillingness to put their work into words and the increased search for an expression beyond linguistic understanding and definitions was due to the political system of control and surveillance at the time. The aim was to avoid the omnipresent threat of state reprisals as much as possible. With their actions they found themselves in violent contradiction to what was officially desired and recognized in the GDR in terms of art forms. Exhibition bans and the experience of being struck from the list of participants for working symposia were known events for the artists and were understood as warning signals.

reception

With their artistic forms of expression, the auto-perforation artists still led a niche existence in the GDR in the mid-1980s, since at that time only painting and sculpture were officially recognized and valued. In the course of the social and political changes of 1989, her experimental work moved into the focus of a new discussion about art production. In 1989 and 1990 numerous articles appeared in specialist journals and in self-publishers in which the auto-perforation artists were mentioned.

The audience was mostly open to the performances of the auto-perforation artists, but overall the criticism was often stunned. Her performances were often perceived as extremely subjective, almost narcissistic. In relation to her performances, André Meyer spoke of "clearing out one's ego", the curator Christoph Tannert of "unparalleled exhibitionistic lust".

Numerous statements confirm that the group's appearances revealed a certain generality and left a lasting impression on the audience. An eyewitness describes the effect of the "panem et circenses" campaign in 1988 at the Dresden University of Fine Arts as follows: "The intensity with which trauma was constantly torn open also seized the audience towards morning, and nobody could turn their thumbs up when the gladiators sank exhausted into the straw ". And further: "An exorcistic ritual that seems absurd and yet collectively staged a speechlessness whose everydayness remains undisputed and unchallenged."

resolution

Even if the group performances mostly conveyed the impression of homogeneity, the individual works by the members, which have been created parallel to the performances since the beginning, repeatedly showed how different the artistic approaches were. At the end of the 1980s, Brendel's statement about the "effort to keep turning the spiral" indicated that the auto-perforation artists had reached their limits due to group dynamic processes.

There was never an official dissolution, but the last joint appearance took place in 1991 in the "Moltkerei" in Cologne.

literature

  • University of Fine Arts Dresden (ed.): Order through disturbance - auto-perforation artistry. Catalog on the occasion of the exhibition in the Oktogon. Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 2006, ISBN 978-3938821473
  • Christoph Tannert (Ed.): Autoperforationsartistik. In connection with the exhibition "Notice the Difference" in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg. Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 1991, ISBN 978-3928342018
  • Kunsthalle Nürnberg (Ed.): Notice the difference. Micha Brendel, Peter Dittmer, Else Gabriel, Rainer Görß, Jörg Herold, Via Lewandowsky, Durs Grünbein. Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 1991, ISBN 978-3928342001
  • Eugen Blume ; Bernd Lindner : Auto-Perforation Artistry: Else Gabriel, Micha Brendel, Rainer Görß, Via Lewandowsky. In the S. (Ed.): Knock signs: Art and culture of the 80s in Germany. Book accompanying the double exhibition Jumps in the Wall and Mad Room. Faber & Faber , Leipzig 2002, ISBN 978-3932545474 , pp. 188-192
  • Durs Grünbein : Protestant rituals. To the work of the auto-perforation artists. In: Eckhart Gillen ; Rainer Haarmann (Ed.): Art in the GDR. Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne 1990, ISBN 978-3462020687 , pp. 309-318
  • Käthe Wenzel: Artistic body experiments in the GDR. In: Käthe Wenzel (Hrsg.): Meat as a material: Objects at the interface of art and medicine. Weißensee-Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89998-056-5 , pp. 12-40

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ André Meyer in "Sonntag" of July 9, 1989, quoted from Peter Michel: It is not too late. In: Fine arts. 11/1989, pp. 7-8
  2. ↑ Christoph Tannert: That's how I see it. For a continuation of art with other means. In: Fine arts. 1/1990, pp. 48-50
  3. ^ AH Meier: "Nachtmär", in: Bildende Kunst 1/1989, p. 11
  4. ↑ Barbara Barsch: Is that still art? In: Fine arts. 9/1989, pp. 31-34