giant a project by hubbard / birchler Ballroom Marfa is collaborating on a new project by Austin-based artists Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler. Giant will be the last in a trilogy of video installations exploring the social and physical sites of cinema in the southwest United States. Since 2010, the artists have been making periodic visits to Marfa to film and record on location. Currently in post-production, Giant is slated to premiere in a solo exhibition at Ballroom Marfa in 2014. The exhibition will feature all three projects in the completed trilogy and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. To initiate fundraising for the exhibition and monograph, Ballroom Marfa would like to announce a new photographic edition by Hubbard / Birchler now for sale: Sunrise Filmset Sunset.
about giant Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler have been working collaboratively in video, photography and sculpture since 1990. Their work invites suggestive, open-ended reflections on memory, place and cinema. Each component of the trilogy interweaves and unpacks layers of cinema history. The first part, completed in 2009 and titled Grand Paris Texas, considers simultaneously the physical and social space of a dead cinema, a forgotten song and the inhabitants of a small town. The film connects three seminal movies of the southwest: Wim Wenders s Paris, Texas (1984), Bruce Bereford s Tender Mercies (1983), and King Baggot s classic silent film, Tumbleweeds (1925). Méliès, a two-channel video completed in 2011, explores the residue of cinema and social terrain around the site of Movie Mountain in West Texas. Searching for the origin of the mountain s name, Hubbard / Birchler embarked on a journey traversing the landscape of early silent-era film production and uncovered a possible relationship between Movie Mountain and Gaston Méliès, the lesser known brother and business partner of the famous filmmaker George Méliès. Giant, the third component produced in collaboration with Ballroom Marfa, is a detailed, impressionistic observation of a decayed, iconic film set - the set of a mansion called Reata built for the epic 1956 Warner Brother s film Giant. The three-sided facade structure was designed to appear as an imposing, decadent mansion on a wealthy cattle ranch, and it played a central role in Giant alongside actors Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. Once the filming of Giant was complete, the set was abandoned in the landscape. Filming entirely on location at a private ranch just outside of Marfa, Texas, Hubbard / Birchler explore the remains of the film set over an extended period of time, as the seasons and weather change, as day turns to night, and as parts of the structure swing and fall off. Working in a Pure Cinema style, the artists have recorded detailed observations of change and difference over the course of a year. In a nod to the Brechtian theatrical strategies of distancing and self absorption, Giant also records a film crew as they appear unexpectedly and set up movie lights, building towards a dramatic yet fleeting illumination of the ruin in the dark.
support giant Giant will premiere in January 2014 at Ballroom Marfa in a solo show of the artists work and, the exhibition will be the first presentation of the completed trilogy. An accompanying catalogue publication is also planned. Following exhibition in Marfa, the show is slated to travel to the Blaffer Museum of Art, Houston and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Ballroom Marfa is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, founded in the spring of 2003 by Virginia Lebermann and Fairfax Dorn as a center for public exploration of contemporary art and culture. As an advocate for the freedom of artistic expression, Ballroom Marfa s mission is to serve international, national, regional, and local arts communities and support the work of both emerging and recognized artists working in all media. Since its inception, Ballroom Marfa has worked directly with artists in commissioning new work and realizing projects that would be impossible in a traditional gallery or museum setting. Giant, as a collaboration with Hubbard / Birchler, is a continuation of this legacy. The 2014 presentation of the trilogy has the potential to be Ballroom Marfa s most engaged exhibition yet. As the commissioning partner for the production of Giant, Ballroom Marfa announces a new limited-edition photograph available for sale. Shot on location by Hubbard / Birchler, Sunrise Filmset Sunset shows the skeleton of the Reata structure twice from an identical vantage point, immersed within a dramatic, yet banal, atmosphere of natural light: the beginning and ending of a day. Sunrise Filmset Sunset represents a unique opportunity to participate in this important project. Supporters will be acknowledged as underwriters in all printed and digital collateral material supporting the exhibition at Ballroom Marfa as well as the forthcoming exhibition catalogue.
Teresa hubbard / alexander birchler 2012 Sunrise Filmset Sunset Diptych, each image 43.5 x 54.5 inches Edition of 6 + 2 AP
Teresa hubbard / alexander birchler 2012 Sunrise Filmset Sunset Diptych, each image 43.5 x 54.5 inches Edition of 6 + 2 AP
Teresa hubbard / alexander birchler 2012 Sunrise Filmset Sunset Diptych, each image 43.5 x 54.5 inches Edition of 6 + 2 AP
curriculum vitae hubbard / birchler Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler currently live and work in Austin, Texas. Hubbard / Birchler are represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin; Galerie Bob van Orsow, Zürich; Galerie Vera Munro, Hamburg and Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin. Teresa Hubbard (1965, Dublin, Ireland) Alexander Birchler (1962, Baden, Switzerland) Selected Solo Exhibitions 2012 Eight, Museum Brandhorst, Munich Hubbard / Birchler, curated by Tricia Y. Paik, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO 2011 Hubbard / Birchler, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler. Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin 2010 Grand Paris Texas at The Paramount Theater, Film Screening. Austin 2009 No Room to Answer, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau No Room to Answer Projections, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart Grand Paris Texas, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin 2008 No Room to Answer, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Hello Darkness, K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 2006 House with Pool, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin House with Pool, Miami Art Museum, Miami 2005 Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler, Museum Sammlung Goetz, Munich Little Pictures at Mrs. Owens House, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela Troop, Galerie Bob van Orsouw, Zürich Editing the Dark, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City Single Wide, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld
2005 New Spaces, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich Single Wide, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel 2004 Single Wide, Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York House with Pool, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York House with Pool, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel 2003 Eight, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler, Vera Munro Gallery, Hamburg County Line Road, Gallery Barbara Thumm, Berlin 2002 ArtPace Foundation for Contemporary Art, San Antonio Kunsthalle zu Kiel Kunstmuseum St. Gallen Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2001 Museum Haus Lange and Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld Huis Marseille. Foundation for Photography, Amsterdam Gallery Bob van Orsouw, Zürich 2000 Arsenal, Bonakdar Jancou Gallery, New York Werk Raum 1, National Gallery in the Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin 1999 Motion pictures, Gallery Barbara Thumm, Berlin National Gallery, Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, Prague Gregor s Room, Gallery Bob van Orsouw, Zürich 1998 Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart Stripping, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 1997 Slow Place, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel Gallery Bob van Orsouw, Zürich Kunsthalle zu Kiel Kunstmuseum St. Gallen Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York Selected Group Exhibitions 2012 Open places - Secret Places, Works from the Verbund Collection, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg Open End, Haus der Kunst, Munich A Window on the World. From Dürer to Mondrian, Museo d Arte, Lugano
Eröffnung des Städel Erweiterungsbaus mit dem Sammlungbereich Gegenwartskunst, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main Reverberations, Cinema Regained, Official Selection, International Film Festival Rotterdam An Orchestrated Vision: The Theater of Contemporary Photography, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis 2011 The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image, Organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, curated by Kerry Brougher and Kelly Gordon, CaixaForum, Barcelona Videonale 13, Kunstmuseum Bonn The Heinz and Marianne Ebers Foundation Collection, Museum Haus Lange and Esters, Krefeld 2010 Grand Paris Texas, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid Berger + Berger, A Prefabricated Movie Theater, Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Venice Biennial, 12th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Projections, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm The Night Pleases Us, 51st Edition October International Salon, Belgrade 2009 Götenborg International Biennial, Götenborg Parades & Processions. Here comes everybody, Parasol Unit, Foundation for Contemporary Art, London Held Together with Water: Art from the Sammlung Verbund., Modern Art Museum Istanbul Conflicting Tales, Burger Collection, Berlin 2008 Made Up, Liverpool Biennial, Tate Liverpool Atelier 2008, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. Interior / Exterior, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg 2007 12th Biennial of Moving Images, Center for Contemporary Images, Geneva Seduction - A Theory-Fiction between the Real and the Possible, Borderline Moving Images, Beijing Centre for Creativity The Narrativity of the Image, Le Mois de la photo 2007, VOX Centre de l image contemporaine, Montreal Imagination Becomes Reality. Werke aus der Sammlung Goetz, ZKM, Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe Kunst aus der Sammlung Verbund, MAK, Museum für angewandte Kunst/ Gegenwartskunst, Vienna 2006 Upsetting the Balance - Irritation des Gleichgewichts, Paul Klee Museum, Bern No Peak No View, Viper International Festival for Video and Media Art, Kunsthalle Basel Gefrorene Augenblicke. Von Vallotton bis Hubbard /Birchler, Kunsthaus Zürich 2005 Vanishing Point, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus Swiss Experimental Film, Image Forum, Tokyo The World is a Stage, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo 2004 3 : Condensed Information, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main Video dreams: between the cinematic and theatrical, Kunsthaus Graz Einleuchten- Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg
2003 Adolescence, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid 2002 Out of Place: Contemporary Art and the Architectural Uncanny, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Starting Line, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich Wallflowers, Grosse Fotografien, Kunsthaus Zürich 2001 New Work, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York Photography from the KPN, Huis Marseille. Foundation for Photography, Amsterdam 9th Biennial of Moving Images, Centre for Contemporary Images, Geneva 6 Artists - 6 positions, Museum Sammlung Goetz, Munich 2000 Anti-Memory, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama Every Time, La Biennale de Montréal Selected public collections Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland American Friends of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia Centre for Photography, University of Salamanca, Spain Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, USA Daros Collection, Zurich, Switzerland Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C, USA Huis Marseille Foundation for Photography, Amsterdam, Netherlands International Centre for Photography, New York, USA Kaiser-Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany Kunstmuseum Luzern, Depositum Kanton Luzern, Switzerland Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA Los Angeles, USA Museum of Fine Arts Houston, USA Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, USA Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain Museum Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, USA Staedel Museum Frankfurt, Germany Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Bern, Switzerland Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Vienna, Austria Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas, USA Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
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