Future Bodies from a Recent Past—Sculpture, Technology, and the Body since the 1950s

Future Bodies from a Recent Past—Sculpture, Technology, and the Body since the 1950s

Press Preview: 1 June 2022, 11 a.m.

Opening: 1 June 2022, 7 p.m.

Exhibition: 2 June 2022 - 15 January 2023

The exhibition “Future Bodies from a Recent Past—Sculpture, Technology, and the Body since the 1950s” at Museum Brandhorst brings to life a hitherto little-noticed phenomenon in art, and more particularly in sculpture: the reciprocal interpenetration of body and technology. With more than 100 works and several large-scale installations by around 60 artists—primarily from Europe, the United States, and Japan—the exhibition focuses on the major technological changes since World War II and their influence on our ideas of the body.

You are cordially invited to a press preview in the presence of chief curator Patrizia Dander and Franziska Linhardt, research associate on Wednesday, June 1, at 11 a.m..

Please obtain accreditation by no later than 11 a.m. on May 31, 2022 at presse@museum-brandhorst.de.

Program:

Inaugural address | Prof. Dr. Bernhard Maaz, Director General Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
Inaugural address | Achim Hochdörfer, Director Museum Brandhorst
Introduction | Patrizia Dander, Chief Curator

Afterwards:

Opportunity to pose questions to Patrizia Dander and Franziska Linhardt
Exhibition viewing

Possibility to make film and photographic recordings in the exhibition

Contemporary art is characterized by an examination of the relationship between the body and technology. Many artworks from recent years reflect how we experience ourselves and our environments in the highly technological and networked present. Yet this relationship can be traced far back into the 20th century. The post-war period was marked by rapid technological change, which has become the pinnacle of ideological instrumentalization. It satisfied the need for novelty as much as the need to overcome the traumas of war. At the same time, technology became a crystallization point for global threats and fears of change, or even loss of control. Within this broad spectrum, ranging from euphoria about the future to critical distancing, sculpture also engaged with new technologies. These served equally as means of emancipation as surveillance and (external) control, and profoundly influenced our understanding of bodies.

Across two floors of the museum, “Future Bodies from a Recent Past” presents for the first time a structured frame of reference for this narrative, ranging from the post-war period to the present. Throughout, it becomes clear that sculpture is particularly well suited to picking up and reflecting on these changes—not only because sculptures are physical objects in space and therefore provide a possibility for projecting our own corporeality, but also because they share their materials and production methods with the world that surrounds us. This permeability to outside influences is also evident in the works included here. The exhibition charts a journey through forms and modes of expression in sculpture, which have changed more in the last 70 years than probably ever before in its long history.

How has the relationship between humans and technology shifted since the 1950s? Can the boundaries still be clearly drawn? Where do our digital extensions, such as computers or cell phones, begin and end? What does this mean for our ideas of corporeality and materiality? And what are the social implications of these developments for our (collective) self-understanding? The exhibition explores these core questions.

With works by:

Genpei Akasegawa, Paweł Althamer, Nairy Baghramian, Joachim Bandau, Matthew Barney, Alexandra Bircken, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Breer, John Chamberlain, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Shu Lea Cheang, Jesse Darling, Stephanie Dinkins, Aleksandra Domanović, Melvin Edwards, Bruno Gironcoli, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Nancy Grossman, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Eva Hesse, Judith Hopf, Rebecca Horn, Tishan Hsu, Edward Ihnatowicz, Arthur Jafa, Motoharu Jōnouchi, KAYA, Kiki Kogelnik, Shigeko Kubota, Tetsumi Kudo, Yayoi Kusama, Nicola L., Mark Leckey, Sarah Lucas, Bruce Nauman, Senga Nengudi, Kiyoji Ōtsuji, Tony Oursler, Nam June Paik, Eduardo Paolozzi, Friederike Pezold, Julia Phillips, Walter Pichler, Seth Price, Carol Rama, Germaine Richier, Niki de Saint Phalle, Hans Salentin, Ashley Hans Scheirl, David Smith, Alina Szapocznikow, Takis, Atsuko Tanaka, Paul Thek, Jean Tinguely, Hannsjörg Voth, Franz West

Catalogue:
The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive publication with essays by Louis Chude-Sokei, Patrizia Dander, Alex Kitnick, Franziska Linhardt, Megan R. Luke, and Jenny Nachtigall.

240 pages, about 200 color images
Deutscher Kunstverlag
German edition: ISBN 978-3-422-99019-7
English edition: ISBN 978-3-422-99024-1

Curated by:

Patrizia Dander with Franziska Linhardt

Film program „Coming Together in Parts: Carriers“
June 2 till September 4, 2022 | media room Museum Brandhorst
Curated by Franziska Linhardt
The film program “Coming Together in Parts” responds to and extends the themes of the exhibition “Future Bodies from a Recent Past—Sculpture, Technology, and the Body since the 1950s”—in terms of media, time, and content. The first part of the program, entitled “Carriers”, addresses bodies as carriers of meaning and how artists engage with the representations of bodies in digital and technological environments. The video works on display, by Jill Magid, Sondra Perry, and Jeamin Cha, examine different forms of alienation between subjects and their images, as well as their relationships to organizations and institutional structures.

Museum Brandhorst x FILMFEST MÜNCHEN

Film program „Licking My Wounds—Body Horror Inside Out”
Curated by Charlie Fox
Panel and film screening with Charlie Fox, writer and artist from London
28 June 2022 | 8 p.m. | Museum Brandhorst

Museum Brandhorst and FILMFEST MÜNCHEN are cooperating for the third time, this year on the occasion of the exhibition "Future Bodies from a Recent Past - Sculpture, Technology, Body since the 1950s". The focus is on changing images of the body - also in its monstrous forms: "Body Horror." On June 28, 2022, a panel discussion and film screening with Charlie Fox will take place at 8 p.m. at Museum Brandhorst. While Charlie Fox takes a rather intimate, haunted look at the genre in his program "Licking My Wounds—Body Horror Inside Out" along films and videos since the late 1980s, the current cinema productions "A Banquet," (directed by Ruth Paxton, UK 2021), "Dual," (directed by Riley Stearns, USA 2022), and "Watcher" (directed by Chloe Okuno, USA 2022) will be screened in the main program of FILMFEST MÜNCHEN.

With films and videos by Matthew Barney, David Cronenberg, Claire Denis, Julia Ducournau, Jon Rafman & Daniel Lopatin, Tarsem Singh
26 June 2022 | 10 p.m. | Rio Filmpalast
27 June 2022 | 10 p.m. | Rio Filmpalast
29 June 2022 | 9 p.m. | Astor Filmlounge im Arri

Technobodies – Talks, Performances, Workshops and Music
Haus der Kunst | Lenbachhaus | Museum Brandhorst
July 29, 2022 till July 31, 2022
On the occasion of their exhibitions, the Munich institutions Haus der Kunst, Lenbachhaus and Museum Brandhorst are organizing a joint weekend. "Technobodies" focuses on the influence of new technologies on visual art and music. Starting from discourses rooted in the 1960s–’70s, Technobodies explores the relationship between human bodies and technologies over three days of lectures, talks, screenings, performances, and events.

The exhibition is generously supported by:
PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne e.V.

ERES-Stiftung

K. S. Fischer-Stiftung

Allianz, Partner von PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne e.V.

Media Partners:

ARTE

ZÜNDFUNK Bayern2

The art education programs for the exhibition are developed within the context of "dive in. Program for Digital Interactions" of the Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) in the NEUSTART KULTUR program.

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