The Story That Never Ends. Die Sammlung des ZKM
In the organizer's words:
With the exhibition "The Story That Never Ends. The ZKM Collection", the ZKM | Karlsruhe provides a comprehensive insight into its own collection, which, with around 12,000 works, is one of the largest and most important media art collections in the world. The exhibition not only tells of the interwoven histories of art and technology, but also of the challenges that fast-moving technological media pose for museums worldwide.
The history of media art from the 1950s to the present day
Electrification and digitalization have changed the world. This change has not only affected our everyday lives, but has also had an impact on artistic creation.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, artists have been using these rapidly evolving technologies to continuously expand the expressive possibilities of art: the spectrum ranges from video, light and sound artworks to motor-driven kinetic objects, computer-based interactive installations and works created with the help of artificial intelligence.
With around 100 works, "The Story That Never Ends" traces these lines of development of the apparative arts and their opening up to the categories of space, time and movement as well as interaction and participation - from the 1950s to the present day. A selection of important key works, which represent important moments and milestones in media art, illustrate the diversity and influence of these technological developments. Marie-Jo Lafontaine's monumental video sculpture "Les larmes d'acier" (1987), in which she ironically deconstructs the complex conceptual constellations of "man, machine, power and sexuality" in a paradigmatic way, and Bill Viola's video-sound installation "Stations" (1994), which unites central aspects of his artistic work such as fundamental themes of human existence, or Jeffrey Shaw's "Virtual Sculpture" (1981), which stands for early experiments in augmented reality, form a small selection of examples here.
At the same time, the exhibition also makes the social and socio-political context in which the works were created comprehensible in order to enable conclusions and references to the pressing issues of our time: Feminist works by early (media art) pioneers, such as pezoldo (aka Friederike Pezold), Lynn Hershman Leeson, Kirsten Geisler or Rebecca Horn, are just as worthy of mention here as works that examine the effects of mass media such as television (Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell), the connection between technology and the military, borders and surveillance or violence in digital space (Paul Garrin, Hanna Haaslahti, David Rokeby) or natural ecosystems (Justine Emard, Claudia González Godoy). Again and again, artists question the possibilities and effects of new media, rethink and reshape them, and thus create new social and cultural narratives that shape the discourse on our relationship to technology.
We see art, as the exhibition title suggests, as a story that will never end as long as humans exist. What it has in common with technology is that we do not know what form it will take in the future. Our knowledge of the past and present influences how we shape the future and value what is yet to come.
The restoration of media art
"The story that never ends" alludes not only to artistic development, but also to the challenges faced by museums that collect media artworks: Technical devices are not made to last forever, data carriers disintegrate, software standards are quickly outdated and media formats are no longer readable after a few years. This means that works must be continuously monitored and technically updated by conservators. What impact does this have on art and our cultural memory? What skills do we need to develop in order to have not only a future, but also a past?
The ZKM has internationally recognized expertise in the conservation and restoration of media art. However, since this conservation and restoration work is mainly done in secret, "The Story That Never Ends" takes a radical step: the decision as to which key works from the collection will be shown in the exhibition has been entrusted to the ZKM conservators. In this way, they bring hidden treasures to light, some of which have not been visible to the public for decades due to extensive conservation measures. As the works themselves do not necessarily reveal the complexity of their technology and the challenges of their conservation, the exhibition also offers an introduction to the history of technology and conservation strategies for this type of work.
Looking from the past to the future
"The Story That Never Ends" thus not only tells the fascinating story of media art based on the ZKM's unique collection. It also highlights the fragility of our electrified and digitalized civilization. The exhibition provides an in-depth insight into the history of art and technology in the 20th and 21st centuries and shows how history sharpens our view of the present and encourages us to imagine possible futures.
This content has been machine translated.Location
You might enjoy this as well?
The best event recommendations for the Rausgegangen App!