Bonner Kunstverein

For our next monthly dinner at Bonner Kunstverein, we are delighted that collector and photographer Wilhelm Schürmann will be joining us as contributor and guest: Tuesday 7 November, 7pm. In a talk entitled 'Was macht der Unterschied', Schürmann will be speaking about his approach to collecting, the notion of sensibility and some reflections on the knowledge, frienships and moments of desire that have shaped his collection from the 1970s until the present. Drinks and stew will be served, free for members and students, 5 eur for everyone else - a warm welcome! Image: Sarah Rapson

Michael Kleine in der Blumenhalle

A warm invitation to:

60 Jahre Bonner Kunstverein 
Friday 10 November
6 pm–midnight

Bonner Kunstverein was founded in 1963 by artists and members of the public committed to contemporary art and the idea of a collective structure to commission, show and support artists. This is an evening hosted and staged together with our members. 

As part of this evening, we are setting up a framework and an experiment of coming together – of that which can happen when we as a Verein join in with our now over thousand members to stage an evening which is generated from within our resources and means, radiating outwards. 

The event is open, and you are warmly welcome. We will also be sharing a more detailed programme closer to the time - for now we are in a joint production mode.

The evening is a celebration of the Kunstverein, a moment to reflect on its history and to activate one of its foundational principles: the unfolding, challenging and beautiful negotiations of collective making.

Image: Christian Flamm, 2023

A warm welcome to today's artist talk with Michael Kleine

Simon Lässig
Peter Mertes Stipendium 2023, Bonner Kunstverein

The newly conceived work in these images jnclude:

Simon Lässig, Adoption, We hear how the orphans approach the house. Hear a woman leaving her room to await them in the courtyard. The woman and one of the girls will grow very close. They will begin to understand each other's lives and loneliness. This is their first contact. Lives in which they are placed in a near relation to a world over which their lives, joined to it, have no power of being received. From here on their thoughts, views and feelings will connect and become one. She knew that all was decided, we had to whisper, she had only to keep silent., 2023, digital video, sound, 4:37 min.
 
untitled, 2023, object taken from family member, 18,4 x 14,3 cm.

Adoption, An image already received early in life shows itself again and I am reminded of the feeling in the way that a life must remain in relation to this image. We hoped for some small means of improvement, whatever it might be; she knew that all was decided, we had to whisper, she had only to keep silent., 2023, digital video, sound, 3:48 min.

until November 26, 2023 at Bonner Kunstverein

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until November 26, 2023 at Bonner Kunstverein

Michael Kleine
in conversation
Sunday, 15 October, 4pm

The event will take the form of a conversation between Michael Kleine and Fatima Hellberg, reflecting on the artist's work in light of an ongoing collaboration, which in this iteration takes the form of a solo show. The exchange will be coupled by a walk together and reflection on the work from within the 700 m2 former industrial flower market hosting the exhibition. 
 
The conversation will centre on Michael Kleine's practice, and his particular approach to audience, space and body – a holistic form of exhibition making where the body of the audience, of the artist, and of the objects themselves are central negotiations.

Michael Kleine
in der Blumenhalle

"In my encounter with artworks, and this is quite elastic in the sense that it also applies to historical works, I am continuously drawn back into this strange transferral of energy. This transferral connects the artist, the recipient and the circumstances of the here and now – all these things play together. And in that interplay, you realise that something has happened, an activation… Once you pay attention to this occurrence, it also shifts the perspective on how you understand art. It becomes a kind of Haltung towards exhibition making, performance, staging etc. It also means that the recipient becomes absolutely central – an active maker of their experience – because the work of art does not exist on its own. I pay a great deal of attention to elements that are “just there,” say, the quality of light, density, temperature, volume, elements that have a great enveloping and mood-based presence. I also like to smudge the edges between these things, a form of fascination with the transitional, one thing passing into the next. In the time running up to this show, I made a performance within the previous exhibition, The First Finger by Tolia Astakhishvili that created a bridge and a form of transition from one container into another.. " excerpt from my ongoing conversation with Michael Kleine.

Michael Kleine
in der Blumenhalle
"In my encounter with artworks, and this is quite elastic in the sense that it also applies to historical works, I am continuously drawn back into this strange transferral of energy. This transferral connects the artist, the recipient and the circumstances of the here and now – all these things play together. And in that interplay, you realise that something has happened, an activation… Once you pay attention to this occurrence, it also shifts the perspective on how you understand art. It becomes a kind of Haltung towards exhibition making, performance, staging etc. It also means that the recipient becomes absolutely central – an active maker of their experience – because the work of art does not exist on its own. I pay a great deal of attention to elements that are “just there,” say, the quality of light, density, temperature, volume, elements that have a great enveloping and mood-based presence. I also like to smudge the edges between these things, a form of fascination with the transitional, one thing passing into the next. In the time running up to this show, I made a performance within the previous exhibition, The First Finger by Tolia Astakhishvili that created a bridge and a form of transition from one container into another.. " excerpt from my ongoing conversation with Michael Kleine.

Sunday 15 October, 4pm - a conversation with Michael Kleine on his practice and our current exhibition at Bonner Kunstverein. Much looking forward!

Sunday 15 October, 4pm - a conversation with Michael Kleine on his practice and his current exhibition at Bonner Kunstverein. Much looking forward!

A warm welcome to our forthcoming Stammtisch at Bonner Kunstverein: The monthly dinners at Bonner Kunstverein continue with the co-organisers of Rinde am Rhein, Tuesday 10th October, 7pm.

The organisers, Tobias Hohn, Philip Markert, Philipp Naujoks and Christoph Wiedemann will talk about their collective experiences from their work at various artist-run exhibition and event spaces. Some questions reflected on include: Why should artists organise exhibition and event spaces themselves? Under what conditions can self-organized spaces be created today? What is the relationship between artist-run spaces, the city and its inhabitants, especially in the face of an increasing desertification of inner cities? What cultural expressions and what forms of togetherness are possible in artist-run spaces apart from other/established institutions? We will discuss this and much more at the Stammtisch of the Bonner Kunstverein. Free for members and students, 5 EUR for everyone else .p.naujoks ujoks

In the current issue of Springerin, Tal Sterngast reflects on Tolia Astakhishvili, The First Finger, some excerpts here below:
"...Eine solche Bewegung von Aufbau und Zerstörung, von Wachstum und Zersetzung, ist Tolia Astakhishvilis paradoxerweise immersiven Installationen eigen. Sie enthüllen und verbergen gleichzeitig ihr eigenes Planen und Machen und erscheinen als ein Interface zwischen inneren und äußeren Welten, das wie ein Möbiusband funktioniert: Es entschärft einen jeden solchen Gegensatz. Die große Halle des Bonner Kunstvereins wurde zur Hälfte verdunkelt, die sieben Meter hohe Decke abgesenkt und die Säulen des Gebäudes vervielfacht, so dass eine unterirdische Kolonnade entstand, eine Mischung aus Innenhof und Parkplatz (Entire, 2023). Ein leiser Sound aus einer der Säulen, mystifizierte – wie ein eingeschlossener Geist – den Raum. Versperrte Öffnungen legten Aussparungen und Enklaven in der fabrizierten Umgebung frei – teils eine Kulisse, teils ein verlassenes Haus."

"Die Räume der Ausstellungen entfal- ten sich eher in einer dezentralisierten Fülle, organisch und architektonisch, durcheinander und entschieden skulptural („I listen to what the rooms tell me“, sagt Astakhishvili). Der Widerstand gegen eine klare Hierarchie stellt letztlich die Konventionen einer Ausstellung infrage – so sehr, dass es unnütz erscheint, nach den Titeln der Kunstwerke zu suchen – und fördert (oder besser gesagt: befreit) die Paradigmen der künstlerischen Praxis und des „kollaborativen Ansatzes“." Image: Tolia Astakhishvili and James Richards, Half-Life, 2023

Michael Kleine in der Blumenhalle.
Photography: Mareike Tocha

View from Sitznischen in Michael Kleine, in der Blumenhalle here at Bonner Kunstverein.
Photography: Mareike Tocha

A talk and workshop preparing the garden at Bonner Kunstverein, tomorrow 7pm with Jonas Justen. Drinks and a ligh meal will be served. All welcome!

Opening next Friday, The First Finger, Tolia Astakhishvili with collaborations with Zurab Astakhishvili and James Richards, further works and contributions by Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Kirsty Bell, Vera Palme and Ser Serpas. Design by Pedro Cid Proença. A warm welcome!

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The Bonner Kunstverein is recruiting - Curatorial Assistant. Application deadline: 24th October
More information: https://www.bonner-kunstverein.de/about/stellen/

Today's programme: KURVE Café-Bar, from 12 onwards, guided tour of Lucie Stahl, Seven Sisters at 2pm, DJ Ravindra Murti 5pm-7pm, Cameraperson, screening and conversation at 7pm - A warm welcome

At Bonner Kunstverein this afternoon –2pm a guided tour of Lucie Stahl, Seven Sisters; at 4pm a DJ set by Iriai Verlag and from 6pm a live concert by bbc employee at KURVE, a temporary café bar in the glass pavilion and adjoining garden. A warm welcome.

Our part salon, part Stammtisch at Bonner Kunstverein continues on the 3rd May at 7pm with Roman Luckscheiter, General Secretary of the German Commission of UNESCO. Luckscheiter will reflect on the historical and ideological context which brought about UNESCO, and how its founding impetus relates to the present. He will consider the changing role and modes of work of the institution, in particular since the 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The event is free of charge for members and students, 5 EUR for non-members. Image: Tolia Astakhishvili