Society for Contemporary Art
The GAK Society for Contemporary Art is an art association founded in Bremen in 1980 . The GAK presents international contemporary art in changing exhibitions . The GAK Society for Contemporary Art is a member of the German Art Association .
history
The GAK was founded on July 30, 1980 in the legal form of a registered association to strengthen contemporary art in Bremen on the initiative of Jürgen Waller , artist and university professor. The ten founding members included the antiquarian Udo Seinsoth, the artists Bernd Altenstein , Günther Roeder , Jürgen Schmiedekampf, Margret Storck , Otto Völker and Rolf Wienbeck, as well as the architect Luc Lepère (1943–1997). The GAK has so far been headed by Knut Nievers, Dorothée Bauerle, Barbara Claassen-Schmal, Eva Schmidt (1993–2003), Gabriele Mackert (2004–2007) and Janneke de Vries (2008–2018); the current artistic director is Regina Barunke.
Since 1981, more than 200 solo and group exhibitions by various artists have followed. Edward Kienholz ' Roxys (January to March 1982) and Wolf Vostell's Garden of Earthly Delights (May 1982) were among the first objects shown by the GAK . Both exhibitions caused a sensation and initiated ongoing discussions about the establishment of a collector's museum, which finally brought about the New Museum Weserburg Bremen in 1988 .
Location
Since its inaugural exhibition in February 1981 with the Spanish artist group Equipo Chrónica , the Society for Current Art has been located on the Teerhof in a building that bears the name Weserburg and in which a coffee roastery was originally operated. The exhibition rooms cover 450 m². In the period from summer 1989 to summer 1991, the entire building was converted for the New Museum Weserburg. Both institutions have a common building front on the Weser , which faces northeast. The artist Lawrence Weiner put the following sentence on the quay wall:
- HAVING BEEN BUILT ON SAND
- WITH ANOTER BASE (BASIS) IN FACT
- BUILT ON SAND
- ACTUALLY (OFF) ON ANOTHER REASON
In the entrance area of the Weserburg - from the Bürgermeister-Smidt-Brücke - there are two objects by the artist Ulrich Rückriem .
In 2012 and 2013 there was a plan to build the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art in Überseestadt . This planned relocation put the future of the entire Teerhof art location up for grabs. The GAK worked together with the research association Artist Publications of the Weserburg and numerous Bremen citizens to preserve the location. Therefore, between January and July 2013, the art association initiated the four-part discussion series How art develops a city . In the discussions u. a. Curators, artists and urban planners participated.
The investor in the new museum building finally withdrew his project due to the changed atmosphere in public opinion. A possible renovation of the Weserburg building and the associated relocation of the museum to the ramparts is currently being examined. The future of the research association for artist publications and the GAK remain uncertain.
Program
The changing exhibitions of international contemporary art are accompanied by events such as lectures, film programs, guided tours, readings or concerts. They serve to deepen the respective exhibitions.
The GAK defines itself as the link between academy and museum. In changing group and solo exhibitions, the Society for Current Art presents international artistic positions at a point in time that can be well before they are established in the art world. The GAK is thus a laboratory for current tendencies and currents in contemporary art - it offers a discussion forum for this. As a space for experiments, the GAK ventures into fields of the still unknown, unsecured and new. From such a tendency towards the avant-garde , a large number of the works of art arise in a direct examination of the local situation of the GAK.
Awards
- 2001: Adam Elsheimer Prize of the art fair art Frankfurt - Award as the best art association in German-speaking countries
- 2012: Special recognition by the jury of the “Prize for Art Associations” from ADKV and Art Cologne
- 2012: "The Walters Prize 2012" for Kate Newby's exhibition "Crawl Out Your Window"
- 2013: Renewed nomination for the “Prize for Art Associations” by ADKV and Art Cologne.
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1982: Edward Kienholz , Roxy’s and other works from the Onnasch collection.
- 1983: residence nowhere . A documentary exhibition about the non-sedentary .
- 1985: Christina Kubisch , sound installations.
- 1986: Norbert Prangenberg .
- 1887: Urs Lüthi , Fata Morgana .
- 1988: Terry Fox , Ultima Multis .
- 1991: group exhibition, art, Europe: Hungary .
- 1992: Peter Greenaway , Prospero's Books .
- 1993: Rémy Zaugg , outside .
- 1994: Piotr Nathan , excerpts - cuttings .
- 1995: Öyvind Fahlström , Variable Structures .
- 1997: Peter Kogler .
- 1998: Tracey Emin , I Need Art Like I Need God.
- 2000: Tal R and Daniel Richter , Forever .
- 2002: Yuri Leiderman , The Armpits of the Duck Wings .
- 2004: Dierk Schmidt , hostages.
- 2005: Alice Creischer , apparatus for the osmotic pressure equalization of wealth when considering poverty .
- 2007: Ulf Aminde , street is street and not conceptual art .
- 2011: Cathy Wilkes .
- 2012: Vlassis Caniaris .
- 2014: Peles Empire , Ever Build
- 2014: Nina Hofmann , I don't need much reality.
- 2017: Sibylle Springer , Gift.
- 2019: Straub / Huillet / Cézanne. One Doesn't Paint Souls
literature
- G AK (Hrsg.): Society for Current Art e. V., Bremen 1980-1995 . Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-926865-11-3
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Regina Barunke is the new director of the Society for Contemporary Art in Bremen . monopol-magazin.de. July 19, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
- ↑ Documentation of the series of talks.
- ↑ Boris Groys : About the New. Attempt of a cultural economy. Hanser, Munich Vienna 1992.