POESIS – Sprachkunst | Language Art (en)

Exhibition at the Kunsttempel Kassel, Germany from August 30 to October 6, 2019

The exhibition in the Kunsttempel presents a snapshot of international language art. Adopting a post-digital perspective, the exhibition displays works by 63 artists from 17 countries who are working with language as an artistic medium and who have all exhibited in the Kunsttempel in the past two decades. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Jenior Verlag, Kassel.

In the age of digitalization, big data and social media, art with language faces great challenges. Individual language practices can no longer ignore the tension between machine-made and human action, evident even in voice usage or handwriting. Thoughts and actions are shaped by language for every individual in all areas of society. Language art reflects these developments and circumstances, making them more tangible. It is a sensitive, aesthetic and highly political medium for poetic knowledge and education – and for pleasure and joy.

For 20 years, the Kunsttempel in Kassel has been one of the few spaces in Europe where international language art has been shown continuously, mainly in the form of exhibitions and events. In 2000, just one year after its foundation, an international exhibition on digital poetry took place here. Language games, humor, post-digital publishing, appropriation and poetic anthropophagy featured in subsequent language art exhibitions. Between 2003 and 2016, more than 100 artists from all over the world came to the Kunsttempel to present performances and readings in the language art series „3durch3“. The 20th anniversary celebrations in 2019 provide an excellent opportunity to invite artists from the field of language art back to the Kunsttempel to participate in a retrospective and forward-looking initiative.

This ‚retrosperspective‘, presented in the form of an exhibition is specially tailored to the intimate spatial conditions of the Kunsttempel (smaller formats in different forms of presentation and media). Additionally, a catalogue will be published in which each artist presents a double-page visual and poetological commentary. The catalogue will be published by Jenior-Verlag in Kassel (136 pages). The exhibition also includes a program of readings and performances by participating artists.

Once again, this is a close cooperation between the Kunsttempel and the Brückner-Kühner Foundation.

The project is funded by: Hessische Kulturstiftung, Stadt Kassel, Stiftung Brückner-Kühner, Fotowerkstatt Carolin Ludwig.

Participating artists:
AND-OR (CH), Hartmut Andryczuk (DE), Hannes Bajohr  (DE), Jean-Pierre Balpe (FR), Josef Bauer (AT), Giselle Beiguelman (BR), Simon Biggs (AU), Friedrich W. Block (DE), Philippe Bootz (FR), Amaranth Borsuk (US), Anton Bruhin (CH), Augusto de Campos (BR), John Cayley (CA), Klaus Peter Dencker (DE), Gerhild Ebel (DE), Eduard Escoffet (ES), Brigitta Falkner (AT), Gundi Feyrer (DE, AT), Heike Fiedler (DE, CH), Hartmut Geerken (DE), Mara Genschel (DE), Nora Gomringer (DE), Rozalie Hirs (NL), Zuzana Husárová (SK), Peter Hutchinson (GB, US), Steffi Jüngling (DE), Eduardo Kac (BR, US), Thomas Kapielski (DE), Angelika Kaufmann (AT), Stephan Krass (DE), Dagmara Kraus (DE, PL), Betty Leirner (BR, CH), Fritz Lichtenauer  (AT), Josef Linschinger (AT), Rana Matloub (IQ, DE), Michèle Métail (FR), Franz Mon (DE), Virgile Novarina (FR), Pavel Novotný (CZ), Jürgen O. Olbrich (DE), Clara Oppel (DE, AT), Jörg Piringer (AT), Renate Pittroff (DE, AT), Sascha Pogacar (DE), Louis Roquin (FR), Carola Ruf (DE), Gerhard Rühm (AT, DE), Valeri Scherstjanoi (RU, DE), Matze Schmidt (DE), Siegfried J. Schmidt (DE), Hubert Sielecki (AT), Lisa Spalt (AT), Christian Steinbacher (AT), Rod Summers (GB, NL), W. Mark Sutherland (CA), Christoph Theiler (DE, AT), Rui Torres (PT), Timm Ulrichs (DE), Günter Vallaster (AT), André Vallias (BR), Gregor Weichbrodt (DE)

Curator: Friedrich W. Block
Title graphics: Anton Bruhin („Hice for Weiss 501“)