ART COLOGNE
Nov 16 - Nov 19, 2023
 

EXILE is returning to Art Cologne with a presentation of works by Astrid Proll (*1942), Jobst Meyer (1940-2017), Sine Hansen (1942-2009), and Zuzanna Czebatul (*1986) as part of the fair’s Collaborations sector. The presentation interweaves various political times and artworks to create a web of interferences that collectively point to contemporary challenges:

1945
Josef Weinheber (1892-1945), a popular German-language poet and devout Nazi commits suicide in advance of the Russian troops to Vienna in April 1945. His exiled peer, Theodor Kramer (1897-1958) writes Requiem für einen Faschisten in response to his former peer’s suicide.¹ 

1969
Astrid Proll collaborates in the escape of Andreas Baader from the German justice system. Together with Gudrun Ennslin, Peter Borsch, and Thorwald Proll they escape to Paris and take the images later known as Pictures on the Run at a café and private apartment in Paris. Consecutively, the camera is taken away from Proll and disappears.²

Early 1970s
Influenced by the appalling atrocities of the ongoing Vietnam War and repressive domestic politics in Germany, Jobst Meyer paints a series of large-scale canvases picturing tent-like structures depicting charged symbolisms reminiscent of battlefields or war zones. Kreuzzelt and Spaten, 1973, exhibited at the fair, is a rare remaining example.¹

Mid 1970s
The roll of film taken away from Proll in 1969 reappears at Der Stern magazine who markets the images as part of their picture library. Proll lives undercover as Anna Puttick in London and works as a car mechanic.² 

Late 1970s
Following her early success, Sine Hansen increasingly withdraws from the artworld and paints her Spannungszangen series out of which two examples are on display at the fair. The large-format painting entitled Die Rote, 1979, arguably a commentary on the repressive political situation of late 1970s Germany, has not been shown since production.³

1980s
The negatives of Pictures on the Run disappear again. Proll receives a set of press prints from Der Stern and further collects images from this roll of film from various other sources.² 

1998
Astrid Proll publishes Baader Meinhof: Pictures on the Run ’67-77. Alongside other images taken by arresting police officers and newspaper journalists the publication includes the 1969 Paris photos. Concurrently to a feature in British life-style magazine Dazed & Confused, Proll is invited to create an exhibition alongside the publication which is curated by influential German photographer, curator and collector F.C. Gundlach (1926-2021).²

2021
A statue of Joseph Weinheber remains prominently displayed near EXILE’s location in Vienna igniting the exhibition Monument Error with works by Jobst Meyer and Zuzanna Czebatul. As part of the exhibition, Czebatul digitizes the statue and renders a distorted monument from the source.¹

2023
Astrid Proll exhibits at EXILE Erfurt.²
Perpetual (Weinheber), 2023 by Zuzanna Czebatul, Kreuzzelt und Spaten, 1973 by Jobst Meyer, Die Rote, 1979 by Sine Hansen, and Astrid Proll’s original set of Pictures on the Run, last seen in 1998, are exhibited collaboratively at Art Cologne. Please find us at Hall 11.2, booth A 212.4

The exhibited works collaboratively aim to apply parallels of past repressive political climates to today’s realities.

This presentation at Art Cologne is kindly supported by Wirtschaftsagentur Wien. Ein Fonds der Stadt Wien.

 

¹→Zuzanna Czebatul and Jobst Meyer: Monument Error

²→Astrid Proll: Pictures on the Run

³→Sine Hansen: Spannungszangen

4→artcologne.com