The last Image The Sight of Death in Contemporary Art 9 Feb 29 April 2018

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1 The last Image The Sight of Death in Contemporary Art 9 Feb 29 April 2018 In recent years, there has been much discussion about the new visibility of death. From massmedia images of catastrophic wholesale slaughter in the world s crisis regions, to sensational cases of fatal accidents in roadside ditches, we are presented with pictures of death which satisfy our thirst for horror and therefore have a high entertainment value, aggrandized by murder victims of the cinema and crime fiction. They are images that cause a shudder to run down our spines, yet, at the same time, leave us feeling indifferent, because ultimately they do not concern us and in doubt serve to confirm the illusion of our own immortality. In contemporary art, a dialogue of a different, nearly antipodal nature can be observed. Many contemporary artists are directing their attention not to the voyeuristic aspects of dying, but rather to the everyday, quiet, yet relentless scenes of death, even if or perhaps precisely because it does not befall us violently. It is the inconspicuous, slow death, which the individual image cannot capture, because it cannot be recorded in a single moment. Rather, it is the processes the experience of death over a period of time, the experience of loss and despair, a slow farewell or an abrupt collapse that leave us on our own, to mourn and grasp the inconceivable.

2 In his multipart photography series, Daniel Schumann also portrays individuals receiving hospice care, directing our attention to the process of life in death Daniel Schumann, Purpur, Braun, Grau, Weiß, Schwarz (Horst Kloeters, 30 August) ( Purple, Brown, Grey, White, Black Horst Kloeters, 30 August ) 2009 In photography in particular, the processual experience of death is expressed with a cautious approach, which directly affects the viewer. In this way, Walter Schels photography series Noch mal leben vor dem Tod (Living Again before Death) confronts us with portraits of the dying in hospice care, that are as personal as they are moving. Accompanying writing from journalist Beate Lakotta makes these encounters all the more haunting. Walter Schels, NochmallebenvordemTod( Living Again before Death ), photography series, An additional focus of the exhibition includes space installations that make the experience of death, or of loss due to death, tangible, by way of the spatial situations that we are physically, directly exposed to, such as Ben Goossens powerful video installation Lucid Liquid and Simon Schubert s rooms of folded emptiness, like Haus Ascher (House Usher).

3 Ben Goossens, Lucid Liquid 2014, video with eight-channel sound installation. Duration: 25:00 min.

4 Simon Schubert, Haus Ascher ( House of Usher ) 2011, Magazine4 Bregenzer Kunstverein Simon Schubert, Haus Ascher ( House of Usher ) 2011, Magazine4 Bregenzer Kunstverein

5 The last vestiges of life also play a central role in the work of Tina Ruisinger, whose photography series Traces considers objects that are preserved as keepsakes for remembering the deceased, and addresses the absence of people who have left their mark on our lives. Tina Ruisinger, Traces, photography series, 2016

6 The photography series by Japanese artist Yamanaka Manabu, on the other hand, revolves around the first and last stages of life, from stillborn babies to nude studies of elderly women, whom the Buddhist artist portrayed shortly before they deceased. Yamanaka Manabu, WuKongMangMangRan, photographs, 2001

7 Andres Serrano is another Mexican artist whose work explores the inexorable nature of ordinary death. His photo series The Morgue presents images of the deceased, not all of whom have died of natural causes. Yet it is the cautiously examined close-ups and details of faces and bodies, which are marked by a special intimacy, often revealing, only upon second look, some of the suffering that has befallen the subjects. Andres Serrano, Pneumonia Death 1992 (from the series The Morgue) Heart Attack 1992 (from the series The Morgue)

8 Andres Serrano, Child Abuse 1992 (from the series The Morgue) Andres Serrano, Fatal Menigitis 1992 (from the series The Morgue)

9 Internationally celebrated for her uncompromising work, Mexican artist Teresa Margolles creates minimal installations, videos, and objects that bring us to an encounter with death. She often works with bodily remains such as water used for washing cadavers, traces of blood, or other bodily fluids whose significance can only be realized in the context of violence from which they arose. In this case it is not the image itself, but the knowledge of its origin and the history of its material, which bring us physically and mentally close to death. Teresa Margolles, Entierro / Begräbnis ( Burial ) 1999 Teresa Margolles, Papeles 2003, installation view at MMK Frankfurt

10 The experience of death in life is also conveyed in the video works of Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. They are performances with the dead, which she carried out in camera at a morgue. The artist is concerned with the preservation of relationships that exist beyond death. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Conversations 2005, video performance Adding to this examination of Japanese culture and its handling of death is a series of drawings by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, which has been made especially for the exhibition. In them, the individual is part of a structure in which past and present, life and death are closely interwoven..