Gregor Schneider
Erste Veränderung
24.01.2010

He is no stranger to heated arguments and debates that extend far beyond the inner circles of the art scene. His art projects have repeatedly led to discussions that are at times full of emotion. There has been both high praise and devastating criticism. He has even received death threats. We are talking about the artist Gregor Schneider. At the end of the 1980s, he began to remodel rooms inside a multi-story building. Dealing with rooms, with interior and exterior spaces, with spaces in between, dead spaces, their duplication or change is still the subject of his work to this day. At the same time, his sculptural work is aimed at subliminal fears. He addresses clichés, questions our perception and makes the depths of human existence the subject of his art.

Emotional reactions are therefore predictable. When he wanted to have a black cube built on St. Mark’s Square in 2005 for the 51st Venice Biennale, his plan led to intercultural discussions for years, when the construction was stopped for fear of Islamist attacks from Rome. In 2008, his idea of ​​a public death room stirred up emotions for months. In 2001, however, he was awarded the Golden Lion for his exhibition “Dead House” in the German Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious awards in the art world.

This controversial artist was already known in Bremerhaven much earlier. In 1998, he lived in the city for a year as a scholarship holder of the KUNST & NUTZEN association. At the end of his stay, a large photo exhibition was held in the Kunsthalle in 1999. He was there several times before and after for exhibitions in the Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst. Yes, he doubled and even duplicated the Kabinett. Among other places, it has been faithfully recreated in the Museum for Modern Art in Frankfurt. There it is a work by the artist and is currently also the venue for a repeat of key exhibitions from the Kabinett’s history. In the MMK, Gregor Schneider not only repeats the static, auratic space, but also its art-historical significance.

Gregor Schneider is now also coming to the new Kunstmuseum in Bremerhaven. In keeping with the previous museum concept, which assigns artists or groups of artists their own room for in-depth presentation - the majority of which were designed in close collaboration with the artists - Gregor Schneider will also use an entire room.