The Kuenstlerhaus-Dortmund-initiated project is based on a cooperation with the Museum am Ostwall, The Dortmunder Kunstverein and the Ev. Stadtkirche St. Petri, a protestant church located in the city center of Dortmund. The Kuenstlerhaus Dortmund serves as a base camp where the artist group "Die Weissenhofer" will present a team-created work. As a counterpart the other art institutions function as satellites and present the solo work of the three artists. This combination will offer new insights into the general concept of an artst's identity as well as into the artists' concrete, individual forms of artistic creation and expression. The simultaneous presentation reveals parallels, differences and interactions between the group and the solo work of the invited artists.

opening, April 11

"Die Weissenhofer" will use the Kuenstlerhaus Dortmund as a base camp where-from to receive signals broadcasted by the satellites. To this issue e.g. three screens will show live images from the Museum am Ostwall, the Petri-church and the Dortmunder Kunstverein where the artists are presented with their solo work. A large city map visually connects the marked locations of the project.

In common works shown at the Kuenstlerhaus the Weissenhofer broach the issue of their artists' legend which they have created in parallel to a manifest, usually set up by artists groups of the modernity. (Following the legend, the brothers fleed from the burnt-down Weissenhof to the New World from their poor existence in the Wallis region where they had to do wood carving spoons and paint wooden discs with alpine subjects to upkeep the family. [Martin Stather, Mannheimer Kunstverein] In their new homeland the brothers Bob, Keith and Carl founded The Weisenhofer Ranch, acchieved first success as musicians and art painters and finally returned as artists group and rock band "Die Weissenhofer" to the Old World after they had assured their parents' subsistence.) The legend that was knowingly adapted to the Vitae of Georgio Vasari and is realized in common works plays with artists' clichées and focuses on medial (self) staging as part of art marketing.

At the Kuenstlerhaus, the Weissenhofers show relicts of their own history as e.g. the semi-charred boot worn by Bob when escaping from the burning Weissenhof, the last dropping by cow Lisa, the first Penny earned in the U.S. or the family bible that has always accompanied them... In large scale photographs the artists fake up their common childhood at the Weissenhof. Furthermore video work as "Computerhackerclub“, „Healing I und II“ as well as documentaries of music sessions, excursions and performances is shown. At the "Weissenhofers' Archive" we are provided with further information by means of catalogues, invitation cards, newspaper articles, collectibles, leftovers of past activities, photograpies, music excerpts, interviews...

„Das Goldene Wunder“ ("the Golden Miracle") is what the inhabitants of Dortmund call the impressive wood-carved altar from Antwerp inside the St. Petri-church located opposite the main station. To create the series of drawings that deals with christian counting of images and our view from today onto the sacral art work the artist even climbs onto a scaffold to be able to have a close look at the details. Matthias Beckmann's observations intergrate the spacial scenario of the church interior and the urban enviromnet. The series on the "Goldene Wunder" stands in the context of the examination by drawing of socially and symbolically outstanding places and institutions (German Parliament Berlin, roman churches in Cologne, Fraunhofer Institute Stuttgart, Art Museum Bonn, S.M.A.K. Gent). The drawings which are unemotionally recording the situation by strictly linear means are generated in situ and without any photographic aids. They confront the everyday-scenario with the aura by treating seemingly unimportant details as seating, signposting and illumination with the same care as the objects meant to represent the institution.

www.stpetrido.de

Joerg Mandernach
„sedimente_01“ - installation

In the small park of the Museum am Ostwall, at the interface between the civic institution of the museum and the exterior world, Uwe Schaefer builds a hut with collected and brought-along material that is illuminated at night and invites to enter and abide. The visitor may take a seat at the kitchen table, watch the plants grow, skim through the guest book, write down his or her own thougts or simply relax. The park is an area of recreation and in the evening a gathering place of the local drug scene. Uwe Schaefer's shelter is an offer to pause for a moment, not intervening but engaging to the situation that is open concerning the reactions or the changes of the place initiated by the work. Bisedes paintings and drawings the Studio of the Museum presents photgraphs and material parts of comparable temporary huts Uwe Schaefer has built in different places (Boxmeer (NL), im Parc du Pilat (F), im Hospitalhof Stuttgart). Objects discoverd on his excursions through the city of Dortmund and considered worth showing are presneted in showcases.

www.museumamostwall.dortmund.de

Invitation ©:
photos ©: the artists
Organisation: Linda Opgen-Rhein | Willi Otremba | Dr. Peter Schmieder | Elly Valk-Verheijen

kindly supported by: Stiftung Kunstfonds, Kunststiftung NRW, Sparkasse Dortmund, Dept. for cultural affairs of the city of Dortmund