Right Brain Problems

Right Brain Problems I Group Show

Stuart Sherman with Serge Baghdassarians/Boris Baltschun, Christine Lemke, Babette Mangolte, Anahita Razmi, Olivier Toulemonde

Opening Friday, April 19, 2013 | 7 pm
Exhibition from April 20 until June 23, 2013

The group exhibition "Right Brain Problems" links the first European, institutional solo exhibition of Stuart Sherman with contemporary artists who are connected to his work in various ways.

The American performer and filmmaker Stuart Sherman (1945-2001) was part of the avant-garde scene of artists, theater performers and filmmakers in New York in the 1970s and 80s. He presented his art - small-scale, obsessive and headstrong - mostly in places beyond the art establishment.

An important part of his artistic work is Sherman's short performances, the so-called "Spectacles". During these performances, he set up everyday objects in new constellations on a camping table and thereby opened references to genres like comedy, magic, musicals, minimalism, surrealism, fluxus and opera. Though small in presentation, Sherman discussed in the Spectacles extensive topics like time, language, eroticism and identity. With "Right Brain Problems" the Heidelberger Kunstverein shows for the first time in Europe an overview of the cinematic and performative works of Sherman as well as a comprehensive selection of his drawings and sketches.

Even though almost all of his short films are part of the collection of MoMa in New York, Sherman has received little public attention after his death. An exception is the retrospective "Beginningless Thought/Endless Seeing", curated by friends of Sherman in 2009 in New York. Next to a comprehensive overview of Stuart Sherman's art, the Heidelberger Kunstverein will present works by Serge Baghdassarians and Boris Baltschun (1972/1974), Christine Lemke (1967), Babette Mangolte (1941), Anahita Razmi (1981) and Olivier Toulemonde (1972), who either worked together with Sherman (Babette Mangolte) or whose works have several references to Sherman's way of thinking, his humor and his self understanding as an artist.

Concept: Susanne Weiß und Lena Ziese

The exhibition was developed within the framework of the project "Through the Roadblocks: Realities in Raw Motion" (2010-2012) initiated and organized by: NeMe

Calendar

Sunday 4/21, 12 p.m.
Curator Tour
Tour with Kunstverein director Susanne Weiß and Lena Ziese.

Friday 5/17, 6:00 p.m.
English Guided Tour
with Hannah Stamler und Lisette van Leemput

Friday 6/7, 7:00 p.m.
"Approximating the Art of Stuart Sherman"
Performance by Robin Deacon

Saturday 6/15, 4:00 p.m.
"The Extraordinary Sounds of Ordinary Objects"
Performance by Olivier Toulemonde

Friday 6/21, 6 p.m.
English Guided Tour
with Hannah Stamler and Lisette van Leemput

Stuart Sherman, From the Performance-Series "Spectacles" 1977-1993, Courtesy of the Estate of Stuart Sherman

Stuart Sherman,"The Eleventh Spectacle (The Erotic)", 1978
Photo: Babette Mangolte. Courtesy of the artists and Broadway 1602 Gallery, New York

Anahita Razmi, Videostill aus "Roof Piece Tehran", 2011