FELLBACH.- Founded in 1980, the
Fellbach Small Sculpture Triennial is one of the most longstanding art exhibitions of its kind in Germany and attracts enormous public attention. The curator of the 14th edition is Brigitte Franzen. Her concept connects art that is 40,000 years old with contemporary positions.
Since its founding in 1980, the Fellbach Triennial has remained true to its name and traced the current impact and significance of small sculpture in contemporary art. With its 14th edition the Triennial is daring to drill deep into history for the first time and go back 40,000 years: the oldest works of art in human history were found close to Fellbach, in the Swabian Jura, small sculptures from the Ice Age which were possibly created there but similarly could also be relics of early migration.
This year’s curator Brigitte Franzen takes this heritage as the starting point for an intensive exploration of the phenomenon of proportion and scale. Small formats are easily transportable, they can be carried directly on the body, and yet at the same time they make something large, or indeed abstract, graspable, in many ways functioning like a scaled model. Talismans, totems, fetishes, toys, charms or attributes: small sculptures were – and are still – used very frequently close to the human body or integrated into the immediate living environment.
This immediacy, this intimate relationship between human and object, between an artefact and its owner or viewer demands, if not compels direct attention. To what extent this is still influential in contemporary art is the question the exhibition pursues in summer 2019. From the reminiscence of folkloristic elements through to spiritualist aspects and virtualised art worlds: the focus is always on the role artworks play – or can play – today in this context, how artists derive works from the development and history of our multidimensional world and what kind of perspectives are capable of describing the relationship between humans and these objects accompanying us in everyday situations and throughout life. Around 150 objects selected under these parameters, including artistic artefacts by more than 50 artists from over 40 nations, created over the last two decades, will be shown. Some works will be newly created, while others will reflect the format and its thematic significance, but – for example through video projections – move beyond the given dimension and take up and define spaces outside the actual exhibition building.
The exhibition thus performs for the first time a balancing act between contemporary art and the origins of art from 40,000 years ago, seeking to reveal their shared essence: the interest driving humans, our inherent curiosity to make an image of the world through “easy-to-handle” objects, grasping them as a means to understand and configure the world – and to survive in it. As the curator puts it, “the idea of art as a reflection and expression of curiosity and the urge of inquisitiveness distilled from this mélange, signaled by the subtitle of the project – the ‘Museum of Curiosity’ – is to be the leitmotif of the Triennial 2019.” In addition, the curator will work together with the garden and landscape architects from atelier le balto to give the concept a fitting layout and special setting in the historical space of the Alter Kelter.
Participating artists: Aladag, Nevin (*1972) - Allora, Jennifer & Calzadilla, Guillermo (*1974 & *1971) - Althamer, Pawel (*1967) - Baghramian, Nairy (*1971) - Batniji, Taysir (*1965) - Berresheim, Tim (*1975) - Bliss, Jenna (*1984) - Bock, Katinka (*1976) - Braun, Matti (*1968) - Broodthaers, Marcel (1924) - Covini, Alessandra - Mel Chin (*1951, USA) - Clark, Lygia (*1923 +1988) - Creischer, Alice (*1960) - Csörgö, Attila (*1965) - Danz, Mariechen (*1980) - Deller, Jeremy (*1966) - Denny, Simon (*1982) - Dillemuth, Stephan (*1954) - Disler, Martin (*1949 +1996) - Domanovic, Aleksandra (*1981) - Erkmen, Ayse (*1949) - Evans, Cerith Wyn (1958, GB) - Feichter, Fabian (*1986, Brixen) - Fogarasi, Andreas - Gironcoli, Bruno (*1936 +2010) - Graves, Nancy (*1939 +1995) - Gröting, Asta (*1961) - Haliti, Flaka (*1982) - CMUK // Hörner, Ute/Antlfinger, Mathias (*1964/*1960) - Hopf, Judith (*1969) - Humeau, Marguerite (*1986) - Kala, Euridice Zaituna (*1987) - KAYA (Brätsch, Kerstin/Eilers, Debo) (*1969/*1974) - Kirchuk, Irina (*1983) - Kricke, Norbert (*1922 +1984) - Lang, Nikolaus (*1941) - Lanigan-Schmidt, Thomas (*1948) - Leimer, Sonia (*1977) - M’barek, Pauline XXX - Mendieta, Ana (*1948 +1985) - Nishiko (*1981, Japan) - Novitskova, Katja (*1984) - Ourahmane, Lydia (*1992) - Pernice, Manfred - Perry, Grayson (*1960) - Prouvost, Laure (*1978) - Rakowitz, Michael (*1973) - Relle, Viola & Weilguni, Raphael - Rondinone, Ugo (*1964) - Rosler, Martha (*1943, US) - Sidner, Eric (*1985) - Sitthiket, Vasan (*1957) - Smith, Michael E. (*1977) - Spichtig, Tobias (*1982, Schweiz) - Thurfjell, Johann (*1970) - Uddenberg, Anna (*1982) - Wen, Ma (*1973) - Xiao, Guan (*1983) - Yang, Haegue (*1971)
