Haus der Kunst (House of Art) in Munich is a particular place: constructed as a Nazi art temple it nowadays houses all kinds of contemporary art exhibitions which enter into spectacular contrast with its totalitarian architecture.
On my last visit there were several shows on display, here are some of personal highlights:
The work of the Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno is known for its combination of art and activism, and it is often inspired by natural sciences. All of these components are on display in his current show at HDK.
It’s already in the entrance hall, that the visitor is confronted with an example of “social sculpture” in the form of a huge inflatable balloon made from plastic bags, more of which are newly added at each exhibition place. Visitors can contribute with bicycle-powered ventilators to pumping up the balloon. Nice.
Aesthetically more exciting and frankly breathtaking is an installation entitled “Towards the sanctuary of water” It occupies a huge darkened hall, with a large part of the floor covered by a silent water pool, leaving only a small part in the shape of a bay to be walked on. Inside this space, numerous objects such as reflecting spheres are arranged, sparsely illuminated and accompanied by sound effects. In this gloomy underwater-like environment, the visitor’s eye tries to establish the spacial relations between the objects and the sounds, creating a highly fascinating ambiguity.
This work is to be seen in the context of an initiative to help indigenous tribes of the Atacama lake against companies using their water for lithium exploitation, as presented in the next room, the floor of which is covered with salt.
“Algo-r(h)i(y)thms” plays with spatial acoustics: ropes are arranged in the shapes of polyhedrons or microorganisms. When the ropes are touched, different musical chords are played.
Further on, illuminated glass showcases in darkened rooms are filled with spider webs of strikingly different architectures and shapes, created by the artist’s little helpers.
“Playback”: Video artist Steina, originally from Iceland has been a pioneer in video art since the 1980s and has a retrospective here. Inevitably, some parts of the exhibition must resemble a technology museum, many approaches and visual vocabulary having been taken over and banalized by music videos. However, a group of exquisite panels showing videos of breaking waves and plants in turn (alternating with TV screens showing urban scenes) deeply impress as moving nature paintings. The projections in the entry staircase resemble wonderfully orchestrated abstract paintings in motion. The quiet polyphony of New Mexico panoramas shown on a dozen TV screens witness a peaceful state of mind.
“Eisbach Treasures”: An amusing and quirky small annex exhibition presents, strictly sorted by object class (cell phones, car keys, credit cards, flood lights…) the collection of things the diver Tao Schirrmacher found over the years on the bottom of the Eisbach, the artificial creek that traverses the adjacent “English garden” public park, giving rise (again) to the famous standing wave which is surfed day and night, attracting a constant crowd of spectators.
