Crossing Media

„Crossing Media“ – that is the name of the format with which the photography triennial first held in Esslingen in 1989 has now been replaced, or rather expanded into a festival built around an exhibition, with video presentations, performances, readings, discussions and concerts. The keyword crossover – the blurring and interpenetration of genres and disciplines – admittedly no longer describes anything so new, yet as a working method it still applies to much of what characterises art today. Such crossover not only gives rise to those works of art that take our ways of seeing and other modes of experience by surprise; it also demonstrates once again that art can no longer have any unified narratives. What all the works and actions have in common, especially at this festival, is that for their understanding and their presentation they resort to a stage-like presentation or performance. In the villa’s large entrance hall visitors are already surprised by a precarious construction by Banks Violette with a high-gloss black stage floor and ceiling from which white neon tubes appear to be tumbling in disarray – it bears the title „Kill Yourself“. Or in the room next door, where a large empty sculpture plinth, lit precisely on its footprint, stands on a red carpet: „Public Sculpture“ by Julien Berthier, walking around which one is transported into an ephemeral sound situation by the symphonic hammer blows the artist has dealt to bronze sculptures in public space – one might almost say: enveloped by a sound sculpture. These examples stand for many others among the 17 artists on show, as assembled in the substantial volume now available. Further participants in „Crossing Media. Der Kunst eine Bühne“: Nevin Aladag, Birgit Brenner, Daniele Buetti, Kurt Caviezel, Beate Engl, Rainer Ganahl, Johan Grimonprez, Paul Harrison/John Wood, Christine Hill, Eva Kotátková, Jung Lee, Alexandra Leykauf, Atelier van Lieshout, Andres Lutz & Anders Guggisberg and Philippe Ramette.

Exhibition:
Villa Merkel Esslingen, 19/7–6/10/2103