15.2. – 17.8.2014 & 30.8. – 9.11.2014
Slavs and Tatars
(Continuous project to be presented in the library space of Kunsthalle Zürich from 15.2. – 17.8.2014 and exhibition 30.8. – 9.11.2014)
The Slavs and Tatars collective (established in 2006) sees itself as “a faction of the polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia”. The collective’s work is characterised by medial diversity and covers a broad cultural area by mixing pop and high culture and historical and current dimensions, and exploring the peripheral and often forgotten. In their primarily research-based works, the focus is on the overlap between Slavic, Caucasian and Central Asian influences. In their quest for a comparative basis, they discover similarities in the seemingly incomparable and re-interpret stories so that they contradict the well-known and major tales of the powerful and victorious. The collective has produced two cycles over the past four years: projects like Kidnapping Mountains (2009), Hymns of No Resistance (2009) and Molla Nasreddin (2011) explore the Caucasus while the unexpected shared heritage of Iran and Poland provides the theme of Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi'ite Showbiz (2010), 79.89.09 (2010) and A Monobrow Manifesto (2010). An exhibition at the Secession, Vienna in 2012 marked the beginning of the collective’s third cycle of work, which involves the attempt to depict today’s anti-modern. The contributions were presented in 2012 in group shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art (GfZK) in Leipzig, the New Museum Triennial and the Asia Pacific Triennial, and at individual shows in the Secession, Vienna, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the MoMA New York and the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.
24.5. – 17.8.2014
Haim Steinbach
Opening: Friday, 23.5.2014, 6 - 9pm
This expansive exhibition at Kunsthalle Zürich presents the work of Haim Steinbach (born in Israel in 1944, lives and works in New York) from the early 1970s to the present day. The show focuses on Haim Steinbach’s contextual work with objects. Beginning with the question of the square frame of the paintings of the early 1970s, the work moves on to encompass architectural settings. Having incorporated objects from local collections, and realized in his exhibitions at the Center for Curatorial Studies Bard Hessel Museum in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 2013, and in the Serpentine Galleries in London in Spring 2014, with which the Kunsthalle Zürich is collaborating for this exhibition, Haim Steinbach also integrates specific objects and artworks from Zürich art collections into his “Displays.”The exhibition is a collaboration between Kunsthalle Zürich and the Center for Curatorial Studies Bard Hessel Museum in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
A comprehensive catalogue compiled in cooperation with the Center for Curatorial Studies Bard Hessel Museum, New York and the Serpentine Galleries will be published to accompany the exhibition.
