"Sources of Friction and Elective Affinities"
The Press on Blind Date Seligenstadt
Unusual encounters, exciting dialogues – the exhibition Blind Date
Seligenstadt combines the latest acquisitions of the Deutsche Bank
Collection with highlights that have long since been part of the largest
corporate collection worldwide. In the historical atmosphere of the
Benedictine Abbey and in Seligenstadt’s oldest secular building,
Wilhelm Sasnal was juxtaposed with
Raymond Pettibon and
Rosemarie Trockel with
Joseph Beuys.
The rooms, lavishly decorated with Baroque
frescoes, plaster ornaments, and chandeliers in an original and enigmatic
atmosphere, contained one of the most unusual exhibitions ever to present
the Deutsche
Bank Collection. Here, contemporary art and historical architecture
encountered and overlapped one another in a very special way. The show
combined two premieres: following its extensive restoration, the
cloister’s prelate was once again accessible to visitors, while the latest
acquisitions were introduced to the public for the first time in the
27-year history of the Deutsche Bank Collection.
The fact that
"Blind Dates" harbors a certain potential risk is something the
Frankfurter Rundschau clearly recognized. "If you’re lucky, then all
goes well: the tickling feeling in your stomach creates a sense of
anticipation, you compare notes, discover differences and common
denominators. (…) But it can also end terribly: something bothers you at
first glance, the euphoria is gone, and a dialogue simply will not come
about. (…) Who would have thought that of all institutions
Deutsche Bank, the epitome of respectability, would in 2006 have a go at
organizing an encounter with an uncertain outcome such as this? And in
placid Seligenstadt to boot. This is where the leading bank of the
republic is showing new additions to its collection for the first time –
juxtaposing them with old hands in more than 40
Blind Dates. (…) Following the discussion surrounding ‘Peanuts’ and
corporate culture in a time when layoffs abound despite huge profit
margins, Deutsche Bank presents itself as a generous supporter of
contemporary artists." The idea of situating the exhibition in a
historical ambience proved convincing to Clemens Schürger. "With veritable
instinct, the bank took the bull by the horns: they’re the first to
exhibit in the prelate of the recently restored former
Benedictine Cloister in Seligenstadt – before it becomes closed once again
to the public." Yet the author also has a few problems with some of the
Blind Dates. "The twelve photographs by
Richard Prince (…) steal the show and make
Sharon Lockhart’s Boy with Guitar seem even lonelier." But
"in most cases, curator
Ariane Grigoteit from Deutsche Bank, supported by
Jessica Morgan, proves to have a sure instinct for coupling.
Jeff Koons’ Hair, large in scale and loud both in color and
gesture meets the drier
Richard Hamilton, father of British Pop Art. The encounter between
László Moholy-Nagy and
Markus Amm beneath a Bohemian chandelier is wonderfully
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cool. (…) The flat black and white photographs by the young
Viennese
Markus Schinwald are also austerely composed; they investigate the
interplay between fashion and costume, movement and representation. Placed
next to them in an interesting way are two works by
Oskar Schlemmer in which the Bauhaus artist uses the delicate technique of
the watercolor to soften his views on the geometry of the figure in
space." The Frankfurter Rundschau chose the pairing of
Avner Ben-Gal and
Karen Kilimnik to illustrate the article.
Ackermann’s choice of words also inspired Reinhold Gries at the
Offenbach Post. "At the start of its European tour, the Blind
Date Seligenstadt exhibition of the Deutsche Bank Art Collection is
showing anything but peanuts." The "ambitious project" does justice to the
"high demands of global players." According to Gries, "newcomers and known
artists provide surprising encounters between the historical and the
modern, particularly in the Baroque abbey. In the audience hall, Richard
Hamilton’s ironic Pop Art silkscreens (…) enter a dialogue with the
historical legend of Tobias." He found many of the artist combinations
extremely successful. "Confronted with
Rirkrit Tiravanija’s political demonstration collage,
Kurt Schwitters’ Dada collage seems suspended in classical
equilibrium. Oskar Schlemmer’s human marionettes (1931/32) seem animated
in the interplay with Markus Schinwald’s double-exposure photographic
observations from 2003. The ‘excellent show’ becomes concentrated in the
Altes Haus with works by
Beuys,
Trockel,
Kippenberger, and Eliasson
into a Who’s Who of contemporary art."
The
Kunstzeitung has also recommended the show to its readers: "the
largest corporate collection worldwide takes on shape in the form of
artist couplings." And the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung speaks of "encounters of a special
sort" that provide a "view behind the scenes at the collection." It
praises the collaboration between the bank, the
Kunstforum Seligenstadt, and the city’s administration of the State
Municipal Palaces and Gardens, which made it possible to present these
"extraordinary image pairs" in such an "unusual location." The newspaper
also reports extensively on the press conference to the exhibition and
quotes the enthusiastic words of the director of the
Palaces Administration of Hessen on its successful symbiosis between
historical rooms and contemporary art: "One can learn how to see here."
Karlheinz Schmidt from
Informationsdienst Kunst had abundant praise for the Blind Date
issue of Visuell, the catalogue magazine to the show: "Shouldn’t we
finally fling a little mud at the boys and girls at Deutsche Bank? Nothing
but praise – aren’t we losing our credibility? But what should we do? The
‘Deutsche Bank Art’ crew at Rossmarkt 18 in Frankfurt am Main evidently
know what they’re doing. They know how to create collections, exhibitions,
projects, and catalogues. By the way: the
catalogue to the ‘Blind Date’ exhibition tour with new acquisitions is
great. A deep bow to Spin in London
for the design and layout alone."
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