Wolf Kahlen

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Wolf Kahlen (born January 7, 1940 in Aachen ) is a German video pioneer as well as performance , object and media artist . He also works as an exhibition curator and is a professor emeritus at the Technical University of Berlin . In the last few years he worked as an expedition leader and Tibet researcher. Kahlen is a Buddhist. He lives and works in Berlin and Bernau near Berlin .

Career

Wolf Kahlen began studying at the Werkkunstschule Braunschweig in 1960 . From 1961 to 1964 he studied art education at the Hochschule der Künste (HDK) in Berlin, which he passed in 1964 with the state examination as an art teacher, as well as American studies and Finnish at the Free University of Berlin . In between, in 1962, he was a visiting student at the Ateneum in Helsinki in the graphics department with Aukusti Tuhka (August Tuhkanen). His first solo exhibition also took place at this time.

From 1965 to 1966 he was a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the United States and studied at Columbia University New York and at the renowned Pratt Institute . During this time he made the acquaintance of Rudolf Arnheim , Allan Kaprow , Marcel Breuer and Richard Tuttle , developed plastic base structures for space segments and the Goethe House Gallery New York was in 1966 realize the exhibition UMBILDER-rotaries.

In 1966 he also postulated for his personal work:

“Every level of human experience can be expanded as an art level, ie it is essential. I am interested in these levels, not the media building materials of a work of art. "

- Wolf Kahlen :

In 1966 there was a three-month stay in Mexico studying archeology and pre-Columbian cultures, plus film and photo work, title: Projected Architectures "Environmental Sculptures for Mexico" (completed in 1967). In 1969 he was awarded the Villa Romana Prize with an annual stay in Florence, at the end of 1969 for the Villa Massimo in Rome. During this time he got to know artists like Mario Merz , Jannis Kounellis and Robert Smithson .

Building on his New York experience with the new medium of video, he began his first video work in 1969, but immediately linked to European and German concepts, contrary to American video art practice. Wulf Herzogenrath writes about this in his work “Video Art in Germany 1963–1982” (1982): “The fact that German artists in particular treat the television box aggressively and want to change it as an object is evidenced by other artist names: Wolf Kahlen mirrored the picture tube and thus the room made the viewer the content of the television - an elegant variant of the early Fluxus gesture, to activate the viewer himself and to make him the object of his meditation and contemplation - or a stone pasted in front of the screen, so that the stumbling block before the television program always remains visible to the viewer. “ Process-like, reversible, time, dealing with perishable matter such as sound, light or later dust remain essential components of his video films, installations and sculptures.

In 1977 he participated in documenta 6 in the areas of video and metamorphoses of the book. He often describes himself as an “intermedia artist” or “media sculptor” and is now one of the most important German video pioneers.

Start-up initiatives

1970–71 there was an initiative to found the video forum for artist videos in Germany at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein . In 1973, Kahlen was a co-founder of the ADA actions of the avant-garde , on the occasion of the Berliner Festwochen together with Wolf Vostell and the heads of the Berlinische Galerie , Jörn Merkert and Ursula Prinz .

Ruin of the arts

In 1985, Kahlen founded the ruins of the arts in a former villa in Dahlem with the help of his son, the media and sound artist Timo Kahlen . In addition to multimedia exhibits by Kahlen, this exhibition location has so far shown more than 400 video installations and sound sculptures by other artists, e. B. from Wojciech Bruszewski .

In 1988, among other things, there was an eleven-hour production of Zeitansagen in the specially founded transmitter Ruine der Künste , which could be received via the transmitter Freies Berlin .

Wolf Kahlen Museum

In 2005, Kahlen founded the Wolf Kahlen Museum, dedicated to his life's work, as an intermedia arts museum in Bernau near Berlin . It primarily serves to present one's own works of art and is, in a similar sense, an artistic self-staging like the Museo Vostell Malpartida by the artist Wolf Vostell or the institutes and archives founded by artists in the Fluxus and Mailart sectors , which conceptually go beyond a pure artist's museum.

Tibet Archive Berlin

The Buddhist Kahlen had already started studying Sinology in 1973 , in 1985 he increasingly took up Chinese and Tibetan studies, which were then also used for his work through video documentation of his travels in the Himalayas (Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, India, Mongolia, Tibet) typical artistic design received.

In 1988 he led an international Bhutan / Tibet expedition, including to Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh . It led to the discovery of pagodas and medieval iron chain bridges, and of rituals of what Kahlen calls Leonardo Tibet's Thangtong Gyelpo , also: Thangtong Gyalpo, ( Tib . : thang-stong rgyal-po)

The Tibet Archive Berlin was incorporated into the Wolf Kahlen Museum . The scientific evaluation of the expeditions and trips is still largely pending.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Kahlen organized numerous video and photo performances. Solo and group exhibitions in Western and Eastern Europe, USA, Central and South America and Asia, among others:

  • 1962: Drawings and graphics. Torni Gallery, Helsinki
  • 1966: IMPLANTER ROTARIES. Goethe House Gallery, New York
  • 1967: Hommage a McLuhan, space segments and remodeling. Großgörschen Gallery , Berlin
  • 1969: Space segments 1964–1969. House on Lützowplatz , Berlin
  • 1971: Concepts and Reversible Processes in Three Stages. Hamburger Kunsthalle
  • 1971: Space segments 1965–1971 . House at the Waldsee , Berlin
  • 1971: Reversible processes. Pinar Gallery, Tokyo
  • 1975: 25 video works, cycle adjustments. House on Lützowplatz, Berlin
  • 1977: Back to Sender - Return to Sender - Retour al Mittente. Galerie Richter, Berlin
  • 1982: Working with chance that doesn't exist. New Berlin Art Association and New Gallery Aachen
  • 1986: Video sculptures 1969–1986. Galerie am Körnerpark, Berlin
  • 1988: Light year 1988. Ruin of the arts, Berlin. Contribution to: Berlin - European City of Culture
  • 1992: Ephemeral Pieces. Museum of Foreign Art , Riga; Mánes Gallery, Prague; New Aachen Art Association
  • 1996: Nothing But Dust. Video, photo, sound and dust installations. Beijing Art Museum in Wanshou Temple ( Beijing yishu bowuguan, Wanshou si ); 1997: Ruin der Künste, Berlin; 1998: Shanghai Art Museum ; Turn Table Hong Kong; Goethe Institute Hong Kong; IT Park Gallery Taipei; German Cultural Center Taipei
  • 1998: 365 time announcements. Radio station Free Berlin
  • 1999: Inhaling Time - Exhaling Space. Video, photo, sound and dust installations. IT Park Gallery Taipei; Huang Rui Studio Osaka
  • 2010: VideoTapes 1969-2010. ZKM, Medienmuseum, Karlsruhe (retrospective for the 70th birthday; traveling exhibition: ZKM, Folkwang Museum Essen, WRO Art Center, Wrocław / Poland)

Participation in exhibitions (selection)

Individual performances, video works, net art

  • 1975: SHEEP
  • 2000: 1969 Selbst-los - Self-less 2000 Wolf Kahlen. - Berlin, 2000.
    • A three-part online work of art, signed, given as a gift to the caller. Every call contributes to the destruction and resurrection of the work. Each time a call is made, it is unique. The collector can enter himself in a list and thereby contribute to a new, virtual whole of the pieces that is stored in a virtual museum.

Publications, exhibition catalogs

  • Space-segments, fold-space-segments, body-space-segments, tree-space-segments, air-space-segments, time-space-segments, water-space-segments, landscape-space-segments. (August 27 - September 19, 1971 for the Berliner Festwochen, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin). Haus am Waldsee, Berlin 1971. Foreword: Klaus Honnef .
  • ADA: Actions of the Avant-garde, Berlin 1973. September 9 - October 3, 1973, Academy of the Arts and City Area Berlin; Robert Filliou , Wolf Kahlen, Mario Merz , Taka Iimura , Allan Kaprow , Wolf Vostell . New Berliner Kunstverein e. V. in cooperation with the DAAD and the Berliner Festspiele. (Catalog ed .: Jörn Merkert; Ursula Prinz). New Berlin Art Association, Berlin 1973.
  • 25 video works. Cycle alignments. (Exhibition in the Haus am Lützowplatz Berlin ... from October 25 to November 23, 1975). Support group for cultural center, Berlin 1975.
  • 5 Berlin artists in New York. Eberhard Blum , Josef Erben, Wolfram Erber, Jasper Halfmann, Wolf Kahlen. (DAAD Gallery and America House September 26 - November 8, 1981). Berlin artist program of the DAAD 1981.
  • Wolf-Kahlen exhibition of light drawings and video sculptures. In the Amerika-Haus Berlin from September 26th to November 8th 1981. DAAD, Amerika-Haus Berlin 1981.
  • Working with chance that doesn't exist. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, October 29 - November 27, 1982, Neue Galerie, Ludwig Collection, Aachen, March 19 - April 18, 1983. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein 1982. ( Berlin contemporary artists. 54). (Exhibition and catalog).
  • Video sculptures 1969–1986. (Gallery in the Körnerpark Berlin, on the occasion of the exhibition from April 10th to 27th, 1986). Galerie am Körnerpark, Berlin 1986.
  • (Over time) light year 19 hundred and double infinity. Ruin der Künste, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-927786-01-2
  • Nothing but dust. (Photos: Timo Kahlen and others. Exhibition by the Goethe-Institut Beijing. Beijing Art Museum October 6th - 17th, 1996.) Beijing 1996.
  • Pedres i píxels. Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra" de Formentera del 28 d'abril al 27 de May 2006 u. a. Fundació Sa Nostra. Catalèg textos: Walter Aue . October print , Berlin 2006, ISBN 84-96031-73-X .
  • The sound of time. Pixel, dust and sound. (February 21 to April 12, 2007, gallery in the Schwartz Villa). District Office Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Department of Culture, Berlin 2007.
  • VideoTapes 1969-2010. Edition Ruine der Künste, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-927786-00-4 . Contains documentation on 158 videotapes. With an essay by Tilo Götz Regenbogen on the artist's oeuvre.

Tibet Studies

  • Wolf Kahlen: The "Renaissance" of Tibetan architecture in the 15th century by Thang-stong rGyal-po. In: Archív orientálni. ISSN  0044-8699 , 62, 1994, pp. 300-314.

literature

  • Gerd Winkler (signed as gw): Art in the shadow: video performance. In: The world. March 9, 1977 (exhibition review on: Zurück zum Sender - Return to Sender, 1977)
  • Rededicated. Wienand Cologne 1976, ISBN 3-9805352-1-5 , p. 76.
  • Wulf Herzogenrath (Ed.): Video art in Germany, 1963–1982. Hatje, Stuttgart (1982), ISBN 3-7757-0172-9 , pp. 29, 196-198, 298-299.
  • Hermann Pfütze: Wolf Kahlen: Naga cycle 1988–1990. Until December 15, 1990, exhibition discussion. In: Kunstforum international. Vol. 111, 1991, p. 344.
  • Axel Klappoth: Hidden Places in Berlin. Yuba-Ed. Klapphoth, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-942033-00-8 , pp. 126-127.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c 25 video works. House on Lützowplatz, Berlin 1975
  2. ^ Documenta 6, Kassel 1977, vol. 2, p. 345
  3. ↑ documenta 6, Kassel 1977, vol. 3, p. 318
  4. ↑ a b ZKM, exhibitions 07/2010
  5. ↑ kbe: A ruin as a river bed of time. In: Berliner Morgenpost. June 23, 2010
  6. ↑ Klappoth: Hidden places in Berlin, Berlin 2009
  7. ↑ www.medienkunstnetz.de Rudolf Frieling, Dieter Daniels: Media art must be conveyed using multimedia. © 2004. Multi-part essay on media art at a glance , here: Rudolf Frieling: "Form Follows Format: on the tension between museum, media technology and media art (2004).
  8. ↑ Kahler in: Archív orientální. 62, 1994, pp. 300-314.
  9. ↑ Janet Gyatso: The literary traditions of Thang-stong rGyal-po. A study of visionary Buddhism in Tibet. University of California at Berkeley, Ph.D., 1981: Buddhist studies.
  10. ↑ Janet Gyatso: Genre, authorship, and transmission in visionary Buddhism: the literary traditions of Thang-stong rGyal-po. In: Steven D. Goodman, Ronald M. Davidson (Eds.): Tibetan Buddhism: reason and revelation. State University of New York Press, Albany © 1992, ISBN 0-7914-0785-3 , pp. 95-106 ( Detailed preview on Google Books. Retrieved July 3, 2010).
  11. ↑ Elfi Kreis: Ambassador of the forbidden poetry. In: Der Tagesspiegel. Berlin, July 25, 1997 (exhibition review on: Nothing But Dust)
  12. ↑ kulturkurier.de (from July 2, 2010)
personal data
SURNAME Bald, wolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German video and performance artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen