translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
270212: Kunsthaus Bregenz Yvonne Rainer – The language of trees
Kunsthaus Bregenz
Yvonne Rainer – The language of trees
04.02.12 – 09.04.12
Creating dance history with a flag
The icon of postmodern dance, Yvonne Rainer, born 1934, proves to Bregenz that, as in the past, she continually demonstrates the highest artistic quality. Film material of the impressive early works coalesces partially with material shown for the first time from the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and dance recordings, which extend into the immediate, present at a world class level. The latest coup of the Bregenz Kunsthaus is the co-operation with the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.
The first solo retrospective in Europe for Yvonne Rainer can be viewed until April 9, 2012 in Bregenz, after which it will move to Cologne from April 28 to July 29. While Kuehn Malvezzi created the exhibition's architecture for Bregenz, in Cologne, Heimo Zobernig will develop an "illuminating subtext" together with works, movement by the visitors, and films. In Cologne, Yvonne Rainer will also be honoured as an individual who has paved the way for performative tendencies in contemporary fine arts.
The opening of the exhibition "Room, Body, Language" took place in the Vorarlberger Landestheater and included the two dance works "Spiraling Down" (2008) und "Assisted Living: Good Sports 2" (2011). The incredibly dense choreography – the one dealing with a jogger, the other circling around passion and virtue – did not only left the Vorarlberg dance scene exultant.
In the Kunsthaus itself, the 50 years of work of the New York dancer and film-maker, Yvonne Rainer, can be seen on three floors. The first floor is divided by a curtain into two cinemas where works that were presented at the Dokumenta 2007 are shown. On the second floor, the archives of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles have been opened up – they include many historical photos never seen by the public before, together with original notebooks and a score by John Cage. A photo from 1966 shows Yvonne Rainer together with Andy Warhol and Barbara Rose in Frank Stella's studio. Like Andy Warhol's mass products - such as the famous can of soup - which were declared works of art, or Roy Lichtenstein who gave comics art status, Yvonne Rainer introduced daily movement into theatrical dance, thereby significantly influencing the style creation of generations of dance companies. Apart from this, ten rarely shown documentary films of performances during the early years are to be seen; there's even a film – the existence of which the grande dame of modern dance didn't know about - of a performance given on the October 24,1964 by Yvonne Rainer with Robert Morris in the auditorium of the State Academy of Art.
Absolutely spectacular is the performance of "Trio A With flags". It shows Yvonne Rainer and her dance company dancing naked, except for using the US flag as an apron, when she was protesting against America's repression and censure of that time.
On the third floor, seven films can be seen which Rainer made between 1972 and 1996. Seven small flatscreens with stools and headphones are available, and a White Cube was erected in the middle of the museum room, featuring a different one of the seven films every day in large format. One of these seven films is called "Lives of Performers", and details the fight between two women over one man. Self-experience is intertwined with fiction and predefined dance steps meld with the production of a film to form a work of art, which is both authentic and aesthetic.
Kunsthaus Bregenz
6900 Bregenz, Karl Tizian Platz
Tel: +43 5574 48 594-0
Fax: +43 5574 48 594-8
E-mail: kub@kunsthaus-bregenz.at
http://www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 10-18 hours, Thu 10-21 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
270212
Kunsthaus Bregenz
6900 Bregenz, Karl Tizian Platz
Tel: +43 5574 48 594-0, Fax: +43 5574 48 594-8
Email: kub@kunsthaus-bregenz.at
http://www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 10-18, Do 10-20 Uhr
Kunsthaus Bregenz
6900 Bregenz, Karl Tizian Platz
Tel: +43 5574 48 594-0, Fax: +43 5574 48 594-8
Email: kub@kunsthaus-bregenz.at
http://www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 10-18, Do 10-20 Uhr