Contemporary Art from Germany

אמנות עכשווית מגרמניה (Custom)

The “Contemporary Art from Germany” exhibition is opening concurrently in two venues, the
Umm Al Fahm Art Gallery and the Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod – sister institutions that have collaborated with one another for many years and have also produced several joint exhibitions. Dozens of artists from Germany are represented in this comprehensive exhibition. Their works have been selected meticulously from the German Institution of Foreign Affairs’ vast collection of contemporary art, which contains some 23,000 art works. This collection is still being updated, and its focus on contemporary art distinguishes its policy of collecting and exhibiting to this day. The multi-dimensional project of displaying a selection of contemporary art of an international standard jointly at Umm Al Fahm and Ein Harod carries a message of collaboration. It is opening soon after the Hebrew new year, closing soon after the civil new year and Its focus is contemporary art, with the critical perspective and the complexity of the worlds of content and language entailed in it.

The exhibition at Umm Al Fahm and Ein Harod presents a tight and broad picture of contemporary art in Germany. It includes works by constitutive artists whose influence is central to this day, such as Joseph Beuys or the Bechers, artists who have become sources of inspiration in Israeli art, where overt and covert dialogue with their works has been significant since the ’60s. It also includes works by younger artists who are active today in the international art scene. The exhibition at its two sites is largely organized chronologically, with an orientation of representing not only the mainstream but also the “sidetracks” (as the curators refer to them): artists who have been forgotten but whose works are worthy of rediscovery. There is also an emphasis on the work of feminist artists, especially from the ’70s on. The exhibition includes works by Rebecca Horn, Christiane Möbus, Katarina Fritsch, Rosemarie Trockel, and others. Moreover, the curators have sought to challenge the “sterile model” of perceiving East German art as a closed enclave (enormous sums are invested in representing it as such, they have remarked). In contrast, they point to “a multiplicity of parallels and relations that existed under the surface”. Why? Their reply: “Artistic development doesn’t follow the rules and commands of politics”.
Thanks to IFA, the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations and to the Goethe Institute Tel-Aviv. Thanks and special esteem to the curators and their devoted staff.

Contamporary Art In Day Of Violence

Contemporary Art from Germany

Curators: Matthias Flügge and Matthias Winzen

October 2015-February 2016

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