This week, the art institutions of Munich are hosting a slew of talks and openings that make a trip to the Bavarian capital well worth your while. We’ve picked out the top events to guide you through the week.
FRIDAY April 24
Cory Arcangel “Be the first of your friends” Opens at Espace Louis Vuitton München
The American new media artist Cory Arcangel, best known for his innovative amalgamations of digital and traditional mediums, presents his first monographic show at Espace Louis Vuitton in Munich.
The exhibition features new works by Arcangel as well as a selection of seminal early works which the artist has reconfigured especially for the exhibition. “Be the first of your friends” explores the themes of early computer technology and the development of the Internet. The exhibition title alludes to the absurdity of contemporary online culture, culminating in Facebook’s role in the redefinition of the concept of “friends.”
Photoshop CS: 684 by 4600 centimeters, 10 DPC, RGB, square pixels, default gradient “Russell’s Rainbow”, mousedown y=2357 x=4633, mouseup y=4548 x=4666 (2015) is one of the key works in the show, and is emblematic of Arcangel’s oeuvre. The work is a default Photoshop gradient pattern which the artist has reproduced in the form of a carpet on both levels of the exhibition floor. The title doubles as an instruction on how to reproduce the exact image in Photoshop. The lush carpeting represents a departure from the traditional “white cube” gallery format and transforms the space into a showroom in which goods are displayed and consumed.
Espace Louis Vuitton München, Maximilianstraße 2a, Friday April 24
Other exciting openings and events around Munich include:
Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven “Serving Compressed Energy With Vacuum” opens at Kunstverein München e.V.
The Munich Kunstverein presents a comprehensive retrospective of the Belgian artist Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven. The exhibition features almost 200 works made between 1975 and 2015. But the artworks, many of which are being presented for the first time, have deliberately not been hanged chronologically, creating an eclectic amalgamation of the artist’s oeuvre.
Kunstverein München, Galeriestraße 4, Friday, April 24, 7 PM
Talks and Tours: “Mark Leckey: Als ob” with Kerstin Brätsch, at Haus der Kunst
German painter Kerstin Brätsch takes on the role of tour guide, walking visitors through Mark Leckey’s show at Haus der Kunst. Introduced in November 2014, the unique format gives visitors the opportunity to discuss the various aspects of the institution’s shows with a selection of experts, thereby benefitting from the distinct insights of artists and curators. What would Brätsch, with her offbeat humor, have to say about Leckey’s formative chronicling of our time?
Haus der Kunst, Prinzregentenstraße 1, Wednesday April 22, 6:30 PM (English: Friday May 15, 18:30 PM)
Artist Talk with Dor Guez and Nicola Trezzi (in English)
In his new work The Sick Man of Europe: The Painter which can be seen at his exhibition “Common Grounds,” Dor Guez highlights the significance of the artist in history. He is the founder of the Christian Palestinian Archives (CPA) and is head of the Department of Photography at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Nicola Trezzi is Editor at Large of Flash Art magazine, and head of the MFA program at Bezalel Academy.
Museum Villa Stuck, Prinzregentenstraße 60, Friday April 24, 18:30