first stop Düsseldorf
We started spring on March 8th with a coffee trip, celebrating Women's Day with a visit to the exhibitions in Düsseldorf: Yoko Ono at the K20 and Katharina Sieverding at the K21. The Yoko Ono exhibition was quite interesting, lots to see, including some from the early years that you don't get to see so often, and which charmed me and brought home how much of that eary work also influenced my own practice without really realizing it – osmosis - otherwise, a lot of weel-know stuff... and also very common these days, good to remember where the trends originally came from (I had forgotten, for example, that she participated in the DIAS in London... (Destruction in Art Symposium 1962, organized by Gustaf Metzger)... Katharina Sieverding was also interesting, you're more familiar with the early years in actionist Düsseldorf and have somewhat forgotten the large photographic works of the 70s... or repressed them, seen them as less relevant en though equally engaged as the earlier stuff -... good to take another look, but still not entirely convincing – heart in the right place, but the works just don't quite speak... the distance doesn't help.
Next stop Bonn
Fast-forward Meanwhile, it's April, and finally some time for a detour to Bonn... Yes The grave –. The cemetery was quite pleasant this time, with flowering trees and such. Birds were chirping, and someone had thrown their entire record collection into the general waste bin. I chose a German Grammaphon recording (Privilege Collection) of "Les Grandes Lieder de Schubert" (with Fischer-Diskau and Fritz Wunderlich, Grace Bumbry, and Irmgard Seefried, among others)... In true Romantic style, I lay down at the foot of the gravestone and Sighed and sobbed; Well, a bit Dadaist, yes – I'm thinking of the ProPathetic cabaret, for example, partly because this time we did a cult-culture combo and went to the museum (Bundeskunsthalle): Continuing our series on strong women: Sausan Sontag... interesting, but perhaps more of an overview for the younger generation who may not be so familiar with her work... Another (random) discovery was the exhibition "Para Moderne," which critically examined the lifestyle reforms since the turn of the befor-last century, including the slosh zone between Oberdada Baader's critique of democracy and Schultze-Naumberg's Nazi ideology, all the way to the Haeusserian swastika-communist superman... that's how quickly things can go wrong-wrong, hey – all the way to the alternative (commercialized) lifestyle of the hippies and to "today's false prophets & profits," so to speak - We probably needed a A decent iced coffee on the terrace of the art museum, just to be decadent... but much of the Bonn we knew is disappearing, like everything else. Nevertheless, I was delighted that some of the old avenue trees were still standing... (at Telekom, Friedrich Ebertallee) – because a lot of things are disappearing, and there's also a large construction hole behind the Science Center on Kennedyallee... we'll see wht that will become...
another leap / and back in Belgium
this time still with a strong sexual reference but on gender-neutral terms, or perspective – specifically sex work an violence – South Africa specifically; Candice Breitz breaking a lance for sexworkers (Ghost Series, Capetown 1994-96 TLDR 2017) and critical of the white middle-class hollywood womens stance, tho well meaning not relevant to the real world.. quite an eye opener, radical and relevant without becoming screamy, letting the voices of the practitioners carry the show – another strong showing in between a slightly stayed 'Broodthaerisan' environment the series of births revisited:reviewed – pushing baby back into the womb... that simple detournement setting off quite some tought... the matriarchal manifest on the other hand seemed a bit much... would have left it to the viewer of the strong imagry to ponder...
