Space-Space & Bar Bar

This year, instead of holding its workshops in traditional seminar rooms, the Sommerakademie 2009 invites its twelve visiting Fellows (ten artists and two curators) to convene in the Forum of the Zentrum Paul Klee. The visiting public is equally welcome to drop by: for public events at the Zentrum Paul Klee and the Loge / PROGR. During the workshop sessions, participants will discuss the necessities of contemporary art practices, including the determining factors of art production and the terminology of art’s needs. One objective here is to explore possibilities for using existing structures for art-internal goals, and to avoid instrumentalisation by external elements. This implies thinking beyond conventional exhibition practice, and enabling feedback and dialogue in the most open way possible.

The workshops at the Forum in the Zentrum Paul Klee will take place in an installation designed by New York artist Ethan Breckenridge (*1977). The minimalist and modular character of the installation lends itself to a certain measure of participation and communication, allowing participants to leave ideological and structural marks according to “internal necessity”, thereby sharing authorship and accountability. Wooden module forms, acting as surrogates for formal and informal furnishings, can be arranged according to the desires of workshop participants. A standardised metal ceiling grid, enclosed on its perimeters by common aluminium window blinds, provides a set-like, or stage-like atmosphere. This installation isolates itself from the reality of the existing space. A room within a room emerges. Yet there is no negation of the environment, since the work maintains remains a direct conversation with the institutional architecture, and thus to the Zentrum Paul Klee.