Go See – Cologne: ‘ISA GENZKEN. Sesam, öffne dich!’ at Museum Ludwig through Nov 15, 2009

August 18th, 2009


Detail from Isa Genzken’s “Kinder filmen III” (2005), part of “Sesam, öffne dich!” currently showing at Museum Ludwig.

Isa Genzken’s “Sesam, öffne dich!” moves to Museum Ludwig from a show at Whitechapel Gallery which drew over 50,000 visitors. The exhibition features Genzken’s mixed media pieces from as early as 1970, spanning thirty years of her unique fusion of paint, photography, found art, and architectural installation. Co-curated by Kasper König and Nina Gülicher, “Sesam, öffne dich!” closes at Museum Ludwig on November 15.


Further detail from Isa Genzken’s “Kinder filmen III” (2005), at Museum Ludwig.

Related links:
Museum Ludwig – Exhibitions
Isa Genzken – Open Sesame! [Whitechapel Gallery]
Isa Genzken [Re-title]

more images and story after the jump…

“Sesam, öffne dich!” roughly translated from the German to “Open Sesame!” gives patrons a look at the multiplicity of genre and medium which Genzken employs in a bid to reflect that mixture which — to her — is life. ” A sculpture is really a photo,” she has said; “it must have a certain relation to reality.” The pieces in “Sesam, öffne dich!” are no different.  Notes Museum Ludwig, “Sesam, öffne dich!” is Genzken’s commentary on the often tense and unstable political, social, and economic climates that have characterized the years in which the show’s pieces were developed. Included is “Oil,” Genzken’s 2007 pavilion at the Venice Biennale and an indictment of the way society’s oil dependence affects both the environment and world politics; and “Ground Zero,” a 2008 installation first shown at Hauser & Wirth that takes its name from the former site of the World Trade Center.


Detail of “Disco ‘Soon’,” from “Ground Zero,” at Museum Ludwig. Via Hauser & Wirth.


Isa Genzken, “Ohr” (1980), at Museum Ludwig.


Isa Genzken, “Rot-gelb-schwarzes Doppelellipsoid ,,Zwilling” (1982), at Museum Ludwig.


Isa Genzken, “Hall” (1987), at Museum Ludwig.

Born in 1948 in Germany, Isa Genzken studied at the Hamburg College of Fine Arts, the Berlin University of Fine Arts, the University of Cologne, and Düsseldorf Art Academy.  She has had solo shows at David Zwirner in New York; Kunsthalle Zürich; Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Portikus Frankfurt; Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris; Galerie Jürgen Becker, Hamburg; and more.  Genzken lives and works in Berlin.


Isa Genzken, “Fuck the Bauhaus 4″ (2000), at Museum Ludwig.


Isa Genzken, “Spielautomat” (1999-2000) at Museum Ludwig.


Isa Genzken, “Dan” (1999), at Museum Ludwig.

– R. Fogel