Katrin Mayer / Christo

Shroud or unfold. facing each other #8

Curator Laura Rehme on the interaction of the works. Film by Roman Schauerte Clip from Roman Schauerte

In the series “facing each other” a work from the collection of Kunsthalle Bielefeld meets a selected loan from another institution. This encounter leads to new, often surprising perspectives. In the eighth installment of the exhibition series, “Package” (1963) by Christo from the ahlers collection and “Screens” (2014) by Katrin Mayer from the Kunsthalle’s collection meet.

A unifying element of both works is the use of textiles, which refer to something underneath. Shrouding has a long art-historical pictorial tradition. While in Christo’s “Package” (1963) a tied-up bundle of linen in an ornate frame becomes a work of art and explodes the pictorial space, Katrin Mayer’s “Screens” (2014) as linen fabrics push themselves multilayered in front of the architecture of the Kunsthalle and thematize the history of the museum’s textile wall panels. Both artists play with the viewers’ expectations and make their role in the interpretation of artworks apparent: What do the textiles show us? Do they keep something hidden or do they open up new ways of looking?

The University of Bielefeld also describes the project in more detail in their Uni-Aktuell-Blog.

A brown lump of cloth wrapped with twine is mounted in an old picture frame. The background is golden, the wide border blue and gold, with a fine pattern. A plexiglass hood serves to protect the work. On both sides, white fabric panels hang from the ceiling.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld installation view, photo: Philipp Ottendörfer

The exhibition is produced in cooperation with the Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation.

The exhibition series is produced in cooperation with the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1288 “Practices of Comparison. Arranging and Changing the World” at Bielefeld University.

facing
each other

The series “facing each other” focuses on a work from the collection of Kunsthalle Bielefeld that addresses central issues in juxtaposition with a selected external work. The focus is always on a concentrated comparison of the selected works. In 2023, the Kunsthalle is cooperating with the Herford-based Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation, which is providing the external artworks on loan for all three interventions. In the three juxtapositions we show works by Alberto Giacometti, Christo, Paul McCarthy and Katrin Mayer, among others.

Gallerie

A brown lump of cloth wrapped with twine is mounted in an old picture frame. The background is golden, the wide border blue and gold, with a fine pattern. A plexiglass hood serves to protect the work. On both sides, white fabric panels hang from the ceiling.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld installation view, photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Two white hemmed linen fabrics hang from the ceiling, with a label in their lower right corner showing the floor plan of Kunsthalle Bielefeld. Light shines through them and shows that they are woven in different densities.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld installation view, photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
A brown lump of cloth wrapped with twine is mounted in an old picture frame. The background is golden, the wide edge of the frame is blue and gold, with a fine pattern.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld installation view, photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Two fabric samples with floor plans of the Kunsthalle museum rooms.
Katrin Mayer, Screens (detail), 2014, installation view Kunsthalle Bielefeld