PHILIPP GUFLER
FILE 1, p. 16-32
in: Open Archief - Artistic Reuse of Archives edited by Eline de Graaf, Michael Karabinos, Thijs van Leeuwen, Cees Martens, Marius Schwarz
Published by International Institute of Social History, Nieuwe Instituut and Sound & Vision.
Opening, Friday, November 29 from 5 to 9 p.m.
On view till January, 25, 2025.
Philipp Gufler (born in Germany in 1989) delves into the history of Germany, The Netherlands and beyond, using his research to create works composed of pigment-spattered mirrors. Rectangular, triangular, square, these forms are reminiscent of the recognizable modernist shapes in the paintings of Frank Stella. Repetitive, geometric divisions into fields of color emanate a sense of calm and dignity. At times, it’s just color, or rather the material the pigment was drawn from, that is queerying our thought process, twisting the realm of pure abstraction into a narrative inspired by real-life events.
Is it not a carnation, whose pink essence covers the surface of such a mirror, a Wildesque symbol of cruising around the city in search of a partner? Can we talk about the suffering of the LGBTQ+ community without including pink triangles, which were the shapes the Nazis made gay people sew into their clothing at concentration camps during the Third Reich? These motifs set Gufler’s mirrored works into the queer context in a fascinating way, opening doors to the increasingly crowded room marked “Queer Art.” In Poland, it’s a novel moment. In this context, it’s worth mentioning the conceptual project by Karol Radziszewski Invisible (History of Belarussian Queerness) which comprises a series of purposely overexposed images, arranged as black squares on a white background. These images portray events from the lives of gay Belarussians in Communist Minsk. There’s also his “Flag” series, which references the Olympic symbol. Gufler goes one step further, launching a game onto the field of modernist art, whereby the mirror image is a symbol of relativity. This convention has been expertly applied in the past by the likes of Andy Warhol and Michelangelo Pistoletto in the west, and Edward Krasiński in Poland.
Gufler’s mirrored reflections are suffused with pigment, so they no longer depict their subject in a direct way. Instead, the vibrant mix of colors, cut up with slashes of more color, mar their reflections, just like gossip and lies mar the facts of life. The world in these mirrors is radically different from the one we know.
An Invitation to Indulge stands as an appendix of sorts to Gossipmongers (a group show bringing together Philipp Gufler, Karol Radziszewski and Jaanus Samma). A piece of gossip may often be the only bit of information we are afforded about an event, which doesn’t quite fit into the main narrative, primarily because it refers to an excluded group: for instance, women, immigrants, queer people. The archaeology of collective LGBTQ+ memory is based on detailed accounts tucked away in private archives. These documents are often coded, to disguise them from the prying eyes of society, who have the power to ostracize and censure, blurring out everything that is outside of the bounds of the heterosexual norm. And yet, don’t the histories written by heterosexual men through the ages also bend the truth, twist the facts to create a binary, black-and-white image of the world, with no room for shades of gray? Perhaps the queer-infused vision of the world conjured by Philipp Gufler isn’t so unrealistic as some might think. Perhaps a closer look would in fact bring us closer to the truth?
Photo: Julika Rudelius and Bartosz Zalewski
BWA WARSZAWA
ul. Marszałkowska 34/50/666
00-554 Warsaw
Tuesday - Friday
12 - 7 p.m.
Saturday noon - 4 p.m.
06.12.2024, 9 p.m.
Artist talk by: Sam Steverlynck
Reserve your tickets here
The German artist Philipp Gufler (1989), who lives in Amsterdam, expresses himself using a wide range of media: from films to installations, objects, performances, publications and textile works. What connects this multiplicity of media – that are often mutually interrelated – is years of research into queer portrayals based on archival documents including legislation, police reports, newspapers or queer theory as well as oral histories, personal documents and footage from popular culture. For over a decade now, Gufler has been a member of the Forum Queeres Archiv München, an archive and study centre for the LGBTIQ+ community in Munich that also pays attention to personal or forgotten stories. Gufler himself highlights various events, places, periods and people who played a role in the micro and macro history of the queer movement: from Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825 - 1895), the legal expert who was a proponent of gay rights and is known as the first man to ever come out, to underground, 1980’s performance artist Rabe perplexum or the non-binary star of reality TV in the 2000s, Lana Kaiser who elicited a multitude of opinions. Elements from these films such as wardrobe items or props, not only occur in the former, but also in his installations or other spatial works. For the filmed performance Cockatoo Archive (2022) he worked with Johanna Gonschorek; both wear robes that incorporate archival items referring to, among others, the people they discuss. Bringing an archive to life as well as reflecting on the former using a variety of visual strategies including collage or superposition, are recurring elements in Gufler’s practice.
Program
Cockatoo Archive, 2022, 29 min.
Becoming-Rabe, 2016, 7 min.
Lana Kaiser, 2020, 13 min.
Conversation with Albert Knoll, 2023, 25 min.
Filmtheater De Uitkijk
Prinsengracht 452
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Manifold Books #24
Remembering Paul
Paul Hoecker Research Group
with works by Paul Hoecker
and Philipp Gufler
21/09/'24-26/10/'24
Opening
21/09/'24, 4-6pm
location: MAP
We would like to invite you to the opening of Remembering Paul by the Paul Hoecker Research Group (art historians Nicholas Maniu and Christina Spachtholz, architect Stefan Gruhne and artist Philipp Gufler) with works by Paul Hoecker and Philipp Gufler.
Throughout his life, the Munich based artist and teacher Paul Hoecker (1854-1910) has been an inspiration to artists of various generations. A founding member of the Munich Secession and a true innovator, during his professorship at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts he brought his students in contact with new movements in painting, such as Impressionism. In 1898 however, a scandal forced him to resign from this position, as he allegedly used a male sex worker as a model for his depiction of the Madonna in the painting Ave Maria. However, the true underlying reason was likely the revelation of his own homosexuality. Although he continued to be supported by his students, following his death in 1910, his work was largely forgotten. Remembering Paul is not only an ode to the artist and his work, but it also makes space for queer histories and intergenerational grieving in a wider sense.
Remembering Paul showcases letters, sketches and photographs on loan from the grassroots archive Forum Queeres Archiv München (FQAM); two prints by Philipp Gufler after a portrait by Paul Hoecker of Nino Cesarini in Capri; as well as a small interior painting by the artist and a slide show comprising all of his paintings known so far. Many of Paul Hoecker's works were lost over time, but throughout this projection, these otherwise vanished pieces find representation within an exhibition, offering them a new life and audience. Consisting of members of the FQAM, the Paul Hoecker Research Group has been tracing back the individual paintings forming his oeuvre, spanning from Dutch genre paintings to religious moral paintings, landscapes, Pierrot figures, and, after his dismissal from the academy, also more homoerotic portraits. After having been almost entirely forgotten for over a century, this show stresses the urgency to celebrate his work and legacy.
Manifold Books
Kraijenhoffstraat 34
1018RL Amsterdam
Open
Fri + Sat 1 - 5 p.m.
and by appointment
Photos: Lazimg or Lazoo
4/10/ - 03/11/2024
Opening: Thursday, 03/10/2024 at 5 p.m.
With works by Pablo Lerma, Philipp Gufler, Tabea Nixdorff, Pauline Agustoni, Christian Friedrich, Jacquill G. Basdew and Oscar Eriksson Furunes.
This exhibition features works by seven Dutch and international artists who have researched the IHLIA – LGBTQ collection through their respective practices. Each piece is driven by a different approach of dealing with archival documents: Some of them creatively reframe archival objects to reconstruct and revitalize fragmented histories, forgotten figures, and activist strategies. Others apply montage and collage strategies based on archival holdings, highlighting questions surrounding the ordering and preserving of subaltern heritage.
Together, the works engulf a wide medial range, spanning from textiles and books to sculpture, sound, and video installation. All displays date from the last few years, reflecting the continuously growing relevance of archival art. The exhibition thus offers an insight into contemporary artistic discourses renegotiating art’s access to and participation in LGBTQIA+ history.
The motivation behind artistic research in non-heteronormative archives is not simply to extract material but also to add to the collections by way of critical inquiry and new creations. How then does archival art contribute to queer and trans heritage? By going beyond the traditional logics of archival ordering and display, archival art speculatively explores the potentials of new readings of archival records. In this regard, aesthetic sensibilities strategically recover evasive traces of intimacy and sexuality, instantiating an alternative and indirect form of archiving.
One of the central goals of the exhibition is to bring the different works and approaches into conversation, sounding out their intersecting concerns and interests in a still understudied field. Furthermore, the selection of works underscores the importance of the added value that comes from the artistic making tangible of the abundance and plentitude of queer and trans lives, routinely submerged in dominant narratives of vulnerability, loss, and death.
Curated by Sandro Weilenmann.
IHLIA
(3rd floor OBA Oosterdok)
Oosterdokskade 143
1011 DL Amsterdam
Free entrance
Mo-Fr: 08.00 – 22.00 hrs
Sa-Su: 10.00 – 20.00 hrs
It hûs is net ien
28. septimber – 03. novimber 2024
In which house and with which woman does-did-will love happen? And when is it time for love, anyway? Time for work? How can the stakes in love and work be sorted out?
– Luce Irigaray, ‘This Sex Which is Not One’ (1977)
Kunsthuis SYB invites you to the 4th edition of the Triënnale fan Beetstersweach, from Saturday 28 September to Sunday 3 November 2024. The exhibition takes place in the village of Beetsterzwaag, in the bilingual province of Friesland.
This year’s Triennial is titled It hûs is net ien. This title loosely translates into English as This house which is not one. The exhibition brings together works by the artists who have been in residence at SYB over the past three years and aims to plant the seeds for the 2025-2028 program around questions of habitation. Since it was founded in 2000, Kunsthuis SYB has been a place for research, support and experimentation, a space where artists live and art is made. Conversations are often held around the kitchen table, stimulating connections with the local residents, and in relation to the Frisian landscape and its stories.
In the 1970s, second wave feminism introduced the now famous saying, ‘the personal is political’, to reexamine the prevalent norms and gender positions in society. This edition of the Triennial embraces this principle and proposes it in relation to exhibition making, asking questions such as: What is a house? Who lives in a house? And how does such a personal space relate to the world outside?
The exhibition takes place in two artist houses in Beetsterzwaag, as well as in the Tropische Kas, a garden and greenhouse which was once part of one of the houses in the village. Kunsthuis SYB, Sybren Hellinga’s former home, functioned as a gallery and a ‘schenkerij’ where drinks were served. In line with this, the exhibition takes place throughout the house. A newly commissioned bar is located on the ground floor. Publik Universal Frxnd (fka Richard John Jones) creates an installation inspired by both 18th-century clandestine bars called ‘lolhuizen’ and a 20th-century artist’s bar named Bei Cosy. Here, Pia Louwerens and Katinka van Gorkum present their work inspired by the Anna Blaman House, a place to preserve feminist and lesbian heritage in Friesland.
Connections between artists of different generations play an important role throughout the exhibition. For instance, Philipp Gufler pays homage to artist Cosy Pièro’s legacy in a performance and Rory Pilgrim portrays their friend, artist Louwrien Wijers. Attention to intergenerational healing is also present in the works of artists Ola Hassanain and Steven Jouwersma. ‘How to carry a house with you?’ they seem to ask.
Across the street the exhibition continues in a room in the home and working space of artist Eja Siepman van den Berg. Assembled here are works that delve into the surroundings of Kunsthuis SYB. Where Sol Archer dives into the relationship between ecology and colonial imagery, Olivia D’Cruz portrays a changing relationship between people, the landscape and bodies of water. It hûs is net ien mirrors, a world full of tensions, but also a world of wonder, curiosity and kinship between people. A world which inevitably enters the house. A house which is not one.
Curated by Arnisa Zeqo, director Kunsthuis SYB, with associate curator Titus Nouwens.
Saturday 2 November 2024
Artist Philipp Gufler pays homage to artist Cosy Pièro with a new live performance titled Remembering Cosy. The performance touches upon the different aspects of their friendship and collaboration. The performance questions how to physically carry and make space for queer genealogies and intergenerational dialogue.
Photos: Ernst van Deursen
Kunsthuis SYB (hoofdlocatie)
Hoofdstraat 70
9244 CP Beetsterzwaag
Openingstijden: Vrijdag, zaterdag, zondag 13:00 - 18:00 uur, en op aanvraag
