Kriegfried- Paris preview

Portrait photo of the 4 artists - Kriegfried Exhibition - Art hall /Schaffhausen/Switzerland 1993 - by Gudrun Häuser

The 59 rivoli, Paris shows a photographic documentation of a performance at the biennal of Venice in 1980
and a new installation for the Paris exhibition space.

The spontaneous performance „Kreide-Kreise“ (chalk circels) at the biennal of Venice in 1980, when the surprised visitors were stopped and encircled , is documented by 16 black and white photos, which were taken by Heinz Pelz.
( www.circles.electricmuseum.de on button: link )

Kriegfried, the artist's group, was founded in 1980 in Karlsruhe/Germany.
Now four of its members Heinz Pelz, Ralf Scherrer, Wolf Pehlke and Harald Häuser, created a special series of works for this new project:

Each one of the 4 artists worked on 10 ellipses in their personal style. All 40 ellipses are combined to one installation thoughout the exhibition spaces.

The order of the ellipses on this website is not corresponding with the final display in the exhibition space, but gives an impression of the works as such.

The idea of being tolerated as an individual in a group, in a society, leads the visitor
through both stories of the exhibition space.
While seeing the photos of the „30 years old circles“ at the same time, the transformation of those into ellipses, a more „accelerated“ type of a circle, comes to mind.
By demonstrating time as a phenomenon of centrifugal force a historical reference comes to existence:
Societies work well and keep their tolerant attitudes only while being in a process of permanent changes – this at a growing speed ?

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„Modern art makes use of the variation of the repetition, the sequence or series, to exemplarly demonstrate the transformation will as such and also the infinitely thinkable richness of variety.“

Prof. Axel Heil, in the article „The nihilisme of the conditions – Kriegfried for everybody“
published in the art book „ precursor and companions – art of the past 60 years“ - museum of contemporary art – collection Hurrle, 2010.

59 Rivoli is the latest of Paris’s legalized art squats.

"Previously owned by the Crédit Lyonnais bank and then abandoned, the six-story, mid-19th-century Haussmann era building (59, rue de Rivoli, First Arrondissement) was taken over by a group of young rebellious artists in 1999. Despite or possibly because of its illegal status, tourists soon came flowing in to see their work.
In 2006, as part of a citywide effort to legitimize popular but technically illegal art venues, the space was bought, closed and renovated by the Paris city hall for 10 million euros (about $12.1 million). It reopened in September 2009, and today serves as studio space for 32 resident artists. It is also the site of biweekly exhibitions of art .
The 59rivoli is the third most visited art center for contemporary art in Paris."
From : New York Times Travel guide
info about the artists group : http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegfried

the 59 rivoli artists' building

the gallery on two levels