SUBSTITUTES at W139

SUBSTITUTES

22 April - 18 June 2023
Exhibition opening: Friday, 21 April 2023 from 6 pm - 10 pm

Substitutes engages with queer history and discourses around the body, gender, and sexuality. It features artists across several generations working in a variety of mediums to contextualise and converse with these discourses. The exhibition is about the absence of bodies, the abstraction of the body, and the tools and language we use to maintain or describe our bodies—costuming, staging, masks, layering, clothing. It questions the normative frameworks that queer and functionally diverse people are subjected to. The human body is, paradoxically, both absent and present within the exhibition. 

Initiated by the artist Philipp Gufler, Substitutes brings together works of Lorenza Böttner, Johanna Gonschorek, Elisàr von Kupffer, Rabe perplexum, Louwrien Wijers, Johannes Büttner, and Bruno Zhu. Philipp Gufler will show a new work titled Body/Text: a large-scale silk screen printed textile piece that draws inspiration from Elisàr von Kupffer’s panorama painting Klarwelt der Seligen (Clear World of the Blissful). By connecting contemporary discussions to historical perspectives, the exhibition aims to create a ‘living archive’. Drawing together artistic positions from then and now, the exhibition traces queer lives and networks from the past to our present. 

public programme

Keeping up with the Virus
Thursday 11 May from 20:00 to 21:00

A performance by Szymon Adamczak with Billy Mullaney exploring interdependency, connection seeking, risk-taking, and solidarity through the embodied metaphor of the virus performing in the artist’s body in the era of undetectability. Situated in relation to the unique constellation of artists gathered at W139, the performance looks to activate genealogies and dramaturgies of living with HIV across time.

Tomorrow’s Language
Saturday 3 June from 16:00 to 17:30

A dialogue between the artists Louwrien Wijers, Rory Pilgrim, and Philipp Gufler. Together they will explore Louwrien’s artworks, the significance of food, intergenerational friendships among artists, and the importance of learning from one another. Expanding on the topic of food, chef, artist and longtime collaborator of Louwrien, Egon Hanfstingl, will be preparing a saffron honey yogurt for all attendees to enjoy at the end of the event.

Guided Tour of the Exhibition
Sunday 4 June from 15:00 to 16:00

by Philipp Gufler and Tomas Adolfs.

Guided Tour of the Exhibition
Friday 9 June from 18:30 to 19:30

by Philipp Gufler and Wilfred van Buuren in collaboration with IHLIA.

Rabe perplexum and the Eccentric 80s
Friday 9 June from 20:00 to 21:30

A film screening and book presentation with Angela Stiegler and Philipp Gufler in collaboration with the Goethe Institut Amsterdam. With their performative and collaborative works, Rabe perplexum was a subversive voice of queer subculture in the 1980s. In conversation with Fabian Reichle, the artists Gufler and Stiegler will discuss artistic practices of the ‘Eccentric 80s’, their exhibition and publication of the same name, from today’s perspective.

Visual identity by Jacob Hoving.

This exhibition is generously supported by Mondriaan Fonds, Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, Fonds21, Goethe Institut, Centro Elisarion, Pro Elisarion Association, Monacensia im Hildebrandhaus, Forum Queeres Archiv München and Grafisch Atelier Hilversum. 

W139
Warmoesstraat 139
1012JB Amsterdam, Nederland
Tue – Sun 12:00 – 18:00

Photos: Pieter Kiers

Eccentric 80s at Kunsthaus Hamburg

 

Eccentric 80s: Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen, Rabe perplexum, and Contemporary Accomplices

25 March – 21 May 2023
Kunsthaus Hamburg

An exhibition and publication project by Burcu Dogramaci, Ergül Cengiz, Philipp Gufler, Mareike Schwarz, Angela Stiegler.

Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen and Rabe perplexum were eccentric artists of the 1980s in a double sense – they deviated from norms and acted outside the centre in the subcultural milieu. Their structurally buried work will be artistically questioned and activated by the contemporary artists Ergül Cengiz (3 Hamburg Women), Philipp Gufler and Angela Stiegler. For the first time, Blumenschein, Nordhausen and perplexum will be shown in one exhibition and in the cities where they worked: Munich (Lothringer 13 Halle), Berlin (Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten) and Hamburg (Kunsthaus Hamburg).

A German- and English-language publication has been published by b_books, Berlin, to accompany the exhibition. An extensive programme of events with films, readings, workshops and discussions with contemporary witnesses accompanies the exhibition.

24 March 2023

7 pm: Opening

25 March 2023

4 pm: Guided Tour

5 pm: Screening & Talk Nicht Mann, nicht Frau, nur Rabe by Rabe perplexum with Philipp Gufler

Kunsthaus Hamburg

Klosterwall 15

20095 Hamburg  

Opening Hours

Tuesday – Sunday: 11 am – 6 pm

Exzentrische 80er: Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen, Rabe perplexum und Kompliz*innen aus dem Jetzt im Kunstverein Tiergarten

VOICE:over V

14. 12. 2022 – 4. 2. 2023

Eröffnung: Mi 14. Dezember, 19 Uhr

Das Ausstellungs- und Publikationsprojekt präsentiert marginalisierte Stimmen der Kunst aus den 80er Jahren der BRD und verbindet historische und aktuelle Formen von Subkultur, Queerness, performativen und kollaborativen Arbeitsweisen.

Tabea Blumenschein (1952−2020), Hilka Nordhausen (1949−1993) und Rabe perplexum (1956−1996) waren exzentrische Stimmen der 80er Jahre. Abweichend von Normen agierten die drei Künstler:innen in Berlin, Hamburg und München. Sie lebten sexuelle Orientierungen nonkonform und repräsentierten nicht-anerkannte Geschlechts- und Identitätsbilder. Ihre Kunst überschritt die Grenzen von Genres und äußerte sich in kollaborativen Arbeitsweisen und flüchtigen Formen. Tabea Blumenschein wirkte als Performerin, entwarf Kostüme für Film und Theater und schuf Zeichnungen und Gemälde. Die Malerin und Schriftstellerin Hilka Nordhausen gründete in Hamburg den legendären Off-Space Buch Handlung Welt, der Kunstraum, Buchladen und soziale Kontaktzone war. Rabe perplexum malte und zeichnete, realisierte kollaborative Aktionen und war eine:r der frühen Videokünstler:innen.

Erstmals werden ihre Werke gemeinsam in den Städten gezeigt, in denen sie lebten und arbeiteten. Die zeitgenössischen Künstler:innen Ergül Cengiz (3 Hamburger Frauen), Philipp Gufler und Angela Stiegler haben dafür gemeinsam mit den Kunsthistorikerinnen Burcu Dogramaci und Mareike Schwarz eine Szenografie aus Bildern, Videos, Dokumenten, Texten und eigenen aktuellen Arbeiten geschaffen. So entstand im Austausch mit Zeitgenoss:innen ein audiovisueller Resonanzraum, der vielstimmige Einblicke in die subkulturellen Szenen der achtziger Jahre bietet und sie für das Heute reflektiert.

Kuratiert von Ergül Cengiz, Burcu Dogramaci, Philipp Gufler, Mareike Schwarz und Angela Stiegler

Ausstellung und Katalog werden gefördert durch: Spartenoffene Förderung und bezirkliche Förderfonds der Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, Prinzessin Therese von Bayern-Stiftung, Erwin und Gisela von Steiner-Stiftung, Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse München, Liebelt-Stiftung Hamburg, Bundesprogramm „Neustart Kultur“ der Stiftung Kunstfonds, Studio Ulrike Ottinger: Reinhild Feldhaus und Sarah Polligkeit, die Stiftung IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute, Düsseldorf, Monacensia im Hildebrandhaus, München.

Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten
Turmstraße 75 – 10551 Berlin
Dienstag – Samstag: 12 – 19 Uhr
Eintritt frei

Buch Exzentrische 80er Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen, Rabe Perplexum und Kompliz*innen aus dem Jetzt

Deutsch/English
372 pages
22 Euro
ISBN 978 3 942214 47 6

Tabea Blumenschein (1952–2020), Hilka Nordhausen(1949–1993), and Rabe perplexum (1956–1996) were eccentric artists of the eighties – they deviated from norms and operated outside of the centre in subcultural milieus. They worked in friendly constellations in the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. Blumenschein, Nordhausen, and perplexum represented images of gender and identity that weren’t recognized at the time and lived their sexual orientations in a non-conformist manner. The artistic work of the eccentrics was formulated in performances, readings, films, concerts, or murals – in collaborative and often ephemeral forms. For the first time, they are now brought together in one book and discussed contextually.

Their lives and works are activated by contemporary artists Ergül Cengiz(*1975) (3 Hamburger Frauen), Philipp Gufler (*1989), and Angela Stiegler(*1987) in a series of images and texts. Art theoretical and philosophical texts as well as voices of contemporaries provide insights into the diverse scenes of the eighties and reflect them for today.

The book is published by b_books in the context of the exhibition“Eccentric 80s”, which will be seen in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg:

Lothringer 13 Halle, Lothringerstr. 13, 81667 München (8.9.2022–6.11.2022), Galerie Nord |Kunstverein Tiergarten, Turmstraße 75, 10551 Berlin (14.12.2022–4.2.2023),Kunsthaus Hamburg, Klosterwall 15, 20095 Hamburg (25.3.2023–21.5.2023)

Editors:
Burcu Dogramaci teaches art history at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Ergül Cengiz is an artist and part of the group 3 Hamburger Frauen.
Philipp Gufler is an artist and member of Forum Queeres Archiv München.
Mareike Schwarz is an art researcher at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Angela Stiegler is an artist and co-founder of K Hybrid and Opernkollektiv DIVA.

Eccentric 80s: Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen, Rabe perplexum, and Contemporary Accomplices

© left © Archiv der Tödlichen Doris, Foto: Peter Heim; middle © Birger Bustorff, right: Foto: Toni Paula © Monacensia

09.09.—06.11.2022

Opening: Thursday, 08.09.22, 7 p.m.

Tabea Blumenschein (1952–2020), Hilka Nordhausen (1949–1993), and Rabe perplexum (1956–1996) acted ex-centrically in several senses: outside the centre of attention, deviating from social norms and often also from institutionalised art. The results of their productions - performances, readings, films, concerts or murals - were sometimes fleeting, ephemeral and thus less marketable at the time. Blumenschein, Nordhausen and perplexum worked in the cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. At the time, they represented non-recognised gender and identity images and lived sexual orientations non-conformably. Their work transcended the narrow boundaries of genres and modes of expression: Hilka Nordhausen, for example, founded the off-space Buch Handlung Welt, which was a bookshop, art space and social contact zone. Tabea Blumenschein worked as a performer, designed costumes for film and theatre, and left behind a body of drawings and paintings. Rabe perplexum realised performances and actions in public space in collaboration with friends and confidants, painted and was one of the early digital video artists.

The exhibition and publication project focuses on themes such as subculture, queerness, performative and collaborative ways of working. It tells a different story of the art of the 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany; beyond the great male master narrative that has dominated the narrative of these years until now.

The contemporary artists Ergül Cengiz (*1975) (3 Hamburger Frauen), Philipp Gufler (*1989) and Angela Stiegler (*1987) question the positions of the 1980s from today's perspective. Their structurally hidden work will be activated on the basis of archive material, exchange with companions and their own artworks: Together with the art historians Burcu Dogramaci and Mareike Schwarz, an exhibition project is being created in which artistic and art-historically situated knowledge is combined. In this way, the three positions from the 1980s are made accessible for new perspectives of reception, both in relation to each other and to the contemporary artworks.

The exhibition project was developed in cooperation with Lothringer 13 Halle Munich, Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten Berlin and Kunsthaus Hamburg.

A German- and English-language publication will be published by b_books, Berlin, to accompany the project. Check out our Instagram account: @exzentrische80er

10.09.22, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, guided tours

with the curatorial team, Ergül Cengiz, Burcu Dogramaci, Philipp Gufler, Mareike Schwarz, Angela Stiegler

11.09.22, 4 pm, Book Launch
Sundowner Sunday with drinks, launch of the catalog "Eccentric 80s" (b_books, Berlin) and a talk with the editors

19.10.22, 7 pm, Screening and Talk „Lil Picard 1920s / 1980s“
with Philipp Gufler, Oona Lochner and Angela Stiegler. Moderation: Burcu Dogramaci. In cooperation with the NS Documentation Center. Venue: NS-Documentation Center, Max-Mannheimer-Platz 1

20.10.22, 7 pm, Screening and Talk „Nicht Mann, nicht Frau, nur Rabe” (WDR, 1984, director: Katja Raganelli)
followed by a talk with Toni Paula, Philipp Gufler and Mareike Schwarz

Lothringer 13 Halle
An art space of the city of Munich
Lothringer Straße 13, 81667 München

opening hours: Wed — Sun, 11 am — 7 pm
Free entry

photos: Constanza Melendez 

Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead. Techniques of Becoming

October 16, 2021 – January 23, 2022

Artists
Daniel G. Andújar, Banu Cennetoglu, Kate Crawford / Vladan Joler, Thirza Cuthand, Anna Dasovic, Laressa Dickey, Eva Egermann, Magdalena Freudenschuss, Robert Gabris, Ali Gharavi, Niklas Goldbach, Philipp Gufler, Jan Peter Hammer, Minna Henriksson, Che-Yu Hsu, Nina Støttrup Larsen, Yunyop Lee, Alice Lex-Nerlinger, Suntag Noh, Jo Spence, P. Staff, peter steudtner, Sunaura Taylor, Romily Alice Walden, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Workers' Families Seeking Justice (WFSJ) and its Support Group

Curators
Hans D. Christ, Iris Dressler, Viktor Neumann

Techniques of Becoming is the third and last part of the exhibition series Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead, which was conceived in turn as a continuation of the Bergen Assembly 2019, a triennial for contemporary art in Norway.

Following the revolt of the bodies and the political dimensions of the festival, the third part revolves on the effects and dynamics of infrastructures. The exhibition explores the institutions, networks, architectures, and logistics both of materialized and immaterial nature, with regard to their entangled relations with the prevailing neoliberal and neocolonial power structures.

In addition to the museum, the school, the clinic, or the prison— those classical institutions of biopower that philosopher Michel Foucault investigated extensively and consequently has influenced generations if thinkers and artists—the exhibition focuses on infrastructures that enable the global circulation and administration of commodities, currencies, affects, and discourses: social media, computer games, and other systems of so-called smart technologies. It probes how these institutions and systems are entangled with structural forms of sexism, racism, pathologization, violence against non-normative and more-than-human bodies, and capitalist extractivsm of recources and living beings.

The show further reflects on the historical contexts of classifying, normalizing, and excluding forms of governing, looking into their histories from the emergence of modern nation-states to the establishment of globally and digitally active economies. The invited artists counter these structures and their mechanisms of exclusion, pathologization, and oppression with aesthetic and activist practices of appropriation, empowerment, and transformation. The philosopher Gilles Deleuze described the act of becoming as a polymorphic and constant process of change and of the affirmation of difference. In this sense, the artists negotiate becoming as site of possibilities and as a technique for exercising autonomy over one’s own body, for the development of structures of mutual support and for the formation of counter-publics.

Saturday, October 30, 2021, 6 p.m.

Philipp Gufler, Quilts*

Lecture and film screenings on various queer and other protagonists from Philipp Gufler's Quilt series

Württ. Kunstverein Stuttgart

Schlossplatz 2
D-70173 Stuttgart

Movie poster, 2019

each 6 Euros + shipping! Get them here: kontakt (at) philippgufler.de 
Poster by Philipp Gufler, special thanks to Yvonne Quirmbach!

33. Kasseler Dok Fest

33. Kasseler Dok Fest

15. - 20. November 2016



So. 20.11 - 14 Uhr im Bali

Institution Kunst - Exercises in Critique

Becoming-Rabe

Rabe Perplexum (1956 - 1996) war zu Lebzeiten eine feste Größe in der Münchener Performancekunstszene. Ihre queeren, energetischen Auftritte sind Stoff von Legenden. Heute ist Perplexum weitgehend in Vergessenheit geraten. Als Protagonistin des Underground ist sie nie in die offizielle Geschichtsschreibung eingegangen. Philipp Gufler, der als "Nachgeborener" Perplexum nie live sah, vollzieht ausgehend von wenigen existierenden Videomitschnitten und mithilfe der erhaltenen Orginalrequisiten Performancefragmente nach und versucht so eine mimetische Annäherung.

Deutschland 2016 / 08:02 Min. / deuztsch / englische UT
Regie: Philipp Gufler
Weltprimiere


http://www.kasselerdokfest.de

Setze dein Ich in Anführungsstriche, Kunstverein Göttingen

Philipp
Gufler

19.06. – 31.07. 2016

Setz dein Ich in Anführungsstriche

Mit »Setz dein Ich in Anführungsstriche« präsentiert der Kunstverein Göttingen Philipp Guflers erste institutionelle Einzelausstellung. Der Titel bezieht sich auf Hubert Fichtes »Versuch über die Pubertät« (1974), der mit den Worten »Setz doch dein Ich in Anführungsstriche – nenn dich ›Roman‹« seiner literarischen Annäherung auch eine analytische Distanz zur Seite stellte, um die eigene (zum Teil autobiografische) Herangehensweise infrage zu stellen. Mit einer ähnlichen Geste nähert sich Philipp Gufler den Inhalten der Ausstellung an: Guflers Arbeiten beschäftigen sich unter anderem mit zwei künstlerischen Positionen der 70er und 80er Jahre – Rabe Perplexum in München und Ben d’Armagnac in den Niederlanden – deren Performances und künstlerisches Werk heute nur in Bruchstücken rezipiert werden können. Es ist ein persönlicher Zugang, der trotz großer Nähe eine künstlerische Distanz wahrt; eine Überlagerung, ohne dass sich die eigene Künstleridentität in den Sujets auflöst.

Die Annäherung an die beiden Positionen erfolgt bei Gufler nicht nach kunsthistorischen Regeln oder durch Reenactments, stattdessen versucht er eine Art künstlerische Dopplung zu schaffen. Es geht ihm nicht um das (Wieder-)Auf- führen der Performances, sondern darum, mit den Mitteln der eigenen künstlerischen Praxis die Persona hinter der Performance auszuloten. »Becoming-Rabe« heißt eine Videoinstallation, in der Gufler die Rolle der Künstlerin Rabe Perplexum übernimmt. Die resultierende Verschmelzung der Identitäten passiert nicht linear, sondern durch eine poetische Mimesis, die durch Archivaufnahmen und Rabes Performance-Requisiten aufgebaut wird.

Das Motiv der Dopplung oder Überlagerung zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch den Ausstellungsraum. Durch das Zusammenbringen verschiedener Ebenen, sowohl visueller als auch zeitlicher und identitärer, bricht Gufler mit einem üblichen (wissenschaftlichen) Geschichtsverständnis. Indem er die beiden Künstleridentitäten nicht als abgeschlossene, historische Entitäten betrachtet, kann er diese fortschreiben, um- ändern oder neu anordnen. Philipp Gufler produziert keine identitäre Festschreibung, sondern verwischt die Grenzen zwischen dem künstlerischen Selbst und dem Sujet – eine Geste, die in einer Serie von Quilts wieder aufgegriffen wird und die sich für die BetrachterInnen auch in einer Reihe an Siebdrucken auf Spiegeln entwickelt.

»Schwule Sprache ist uneigentlich, ist indirekte Sprache«, schrieb Fichte über Henry James, sie arbeite mit »Soussentendus, Verfremdungen, Übertreibungen, Ironie, Travestie«. Gufler greift diese Stilmittel in seinen Arbeiten auf. Dabei wird er nicht zu einem »Für-Sprecher«, sondern im Gegenteil zu einem Sprecher, der mit den anderen zusammen spricht. Er formuliert Andeutungen, die einen Raum für das Werk Rabes und D’Armagnacs schaffen, und er verfremdet diesen Raum, um mit der eigenen Sprache die Idee einer Künstleridentität zu destabilisieren.

 ////////////////////////////

»Setz dein Ich in Anführungsstriche« (Put your I in quotation marks) is Philipp Gufler's first institutional solo show. The title references Hubert Fichte's "Essay on puberty" (1974) with the excerpt, "Just put your I in quotation marks – call yourself a ‘novel’", which adds an analytical distance to his otherwise literary advancements in order to question his own (partly autobiographical) approach. Philipp Gufler appropriates a similar gesture when handling the exhibition content: The work deals with two artistic positions from the 1970's and 80's – Rabe Perplexum in Munich and Ben d'Armagnac in Holland, whose performances and artistic oeuvre can nowadays only be perceived fragmentarily. It is a personal technique, which through its immediacy still manages to preserve an artistic distance; a layering, without losing the artistic identity of its subjects.

The method Gufler applies does not follow art historical norms nor make use of reenactments, instead he attempts to create a kind of artistic doubling. His interest lies not in the repetition of a performance, rather he uses his own artistic praxis to sound out the persona behind the performance. "Becoming-Rabe" is a video installation in which Gufler takes on the role of artist Rabe Perplexum, wherein the resulting identity-merge does not occur on a linear basis, but through poetic mimesis using archival footage and Rabe's performance props.

The motive of doubling and layering is a common denominator throughout Gufler's exhibition. The merging of layers, visual as well as temporal and identitarian, manages to break with the common (scientific) understanding of history. Gufler's disregard of artistic identities as finalized, historical entities allows him the freedom to update, change and realign these. His work is not a production of identitarian fixation, but instead blurs the borders between the artist's self and the subject – a gesture which is also reflected in his series of quilts and elaborated on for the viewer in a sequence of silkscreened mirrors. The resulting reflections within the space add an additional layer to the exhibition's conceptual discourse.

Fichte wrote of Henry James that, "Gay language is inauthentic, it is a form of indirect speech", consisting of "innuendoes, alienation, exaggerations, irony, travesty". Gufler appropriates these stylistic devices, speaking with them, not for them. Gufler's individual language of intimations creates a space for the work of Rabe and D'Armagnac, whilst at the same time defamiliarizing it, in order to ultimately destabilize any form of artistic identity.


Kuratiert von Anja Lückenkemper

KUNSTVEREIN GÖTTINGEN

im Künstlerhaus

Gotmarstraße 1
37073 Göttingen

ÖFFNUNGSZEITEN

Di-Fr 14-18 Uhr, Sa/So 11-17 Uhr

VERNISSAGE
So, 19. Juni 2016, 11.30 Uhr

http://www.kunstvereingoettingen.de/ 

Fotos: Lucie Marsmann