INFERNO

REBECCA HORN – Retrospective – Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien – Sept 28, 2021 – Jan 23, 2022

This comprehensive retrospective presents a wide-ranging and insightful view into Rebecca Horn’s artistic practice and focuses on the inter-relationships in various media and genres in her work.

One of the most extraordinary and versatile artists of her generation, Rebecca Horn (b. 1944, Michelstadt, Germany) was acclaimed in 1972 as the youngest participant in documenta 5, titled Individual Mythologies, which was curated by Harald Szeemann. Her early body art and performances, feature films, kinetic sculptures and site-specific installations, as well as her intimate drawings and poems, are evidence of the richly faceted quality of her oeuvre.

For fifty years, she has been creating a unique, symbolically charged cosmos in which reality and fiction overlap, and dualities such as material/spirit, subject/object, male/female are transgressed. Her works composed of an expanding web of objects, motifs and themes, Horn constantly interweaves numerous traditions of art, literature and film along with mythology and fairy tales.

The Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien is celebrating her with the first comprehensive retrospective of her works in Austria in almost thirty years. The exhibition focuses on the interrelationships in various media between the diverse genres in Rebecca Horn’s works and will present a wide-ranging and insightful view into her artistic practice.

Rebecca Horn achieved fame in 1972 as the youngest participant in the epochal documenta 5 with the title Individual Mythologies – curated by Harald Szeemann. Her early body art and performances, her feature films and kinetic sculptures, her location-specific installations, also her intimate drawings and poems are ample evidence of the richly facetted quality of Rebecca Horn’s oeuvre. She has been practising her art now for fifty years, during which time she has created her own symbolically charged cosmos in which reality and fiction overlap, and dualisms such as material/spirit, subject/object, male/female are transgressed. Her works make up an expanding web of objects, motifs and themes that she constantly spins anew. In doing so she interweaves numerous traditions of art, literature and film – likewise mythology and the world of fairy tales.

Curator: Bettina M. Busse

Rebecca Horn est reconnue comme l’une des artistes les plus extraordinaires et polyvalentes de sa génération. Le Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien la célèbre avec la première rétrospective complète de ses œuvres en Autriche depuis près de trente ans. L’exposition se concentre sur les interrelations dans divers médias entre les divers genres dans les œuvres de Rebecca Horn et présentera une vision large et perspicace de sa pratique artistique. Rebecca Horn est devenue célèbre en 1972 en tant que plus jeune participante à la documenta 5 de l’époque avec le titre Mythologies individuelles – organisée par Harald Szeemann.

Ses premières performances de body-art, ses longs métrages et sculptures cinétiques, ses installations spécifiques au lieu, ses dessins et poèmes intimes sont de nombreuses preuves de la qualité richement facette de l’œuvre de Rebecca Horn. Elle pratique son art depuis maintenant cinquante ans, au cours desquels elle a créé son propre cosmos symboliquement chargé dans lequel la réalité et la fiction se chevauchent, et les dualismes tels que matériel / esprit, sujet / objet, homme / femme sont transgressés. Ses œuvres constituent un réseau croissant d’objets, de motifs et de thèmes qu’elle ne cesse de faire tourner. Ce faisant, elle entremêle de nombreuses traditions de l’art, de la littérature et du cinéma – tout comme la mythologie et le monde des contes de fées.

Images: 1- Rebecca Horn, Concert for Anarchy, 1990. Konzertflügel, Hydraulikkolben und Kompressor, 150 x 106 x 155,5 cm, Sammlung Tate (London). Foto: Attilio Maranzano © Rebecca Horn _ 2- Rebecca Horn, Die Pfauenmaschine, 1981. Metall, Glas, Pfauenfedern, Motor, Asche, Caput mortuum, Beschriftung, Maße variabel, Sammlung Museum Ludwig, Köln. Ausstellungsansicht „Körperphantasien“, 2019, Museum Tinguely, Basel. Foto: Daniel Spehr, Basel © Rebecca Horn – 3- Rebecca Horn, Concerto dei Sospiri, 1997, Ausstellungsansicht Biennale di Venezia, 1997. Foto: Attilio Maranzano © Rebecca Horn