Maria Eichhorn, Rose Valland Institute, 2017, detail: Unlawfully acquired books from Jewish ownership, 2017, detail, exhibition view, documenta 14, Neue Galerie, Kassel, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021,photo: Mathias Völzke
Con calma anche la Germania ha scelto la sua rappresentate per la prossima Biennale di Arti Visive, sarà Maria Eichhorn, artista poco conosciuta in Italia ma già affermata nel nord Europa con una tipologia di lavoro, molto concettuale che affronta spesso le intricate relazioni tra denaro, arte e le istituzioni politiche, soprattutto legate alla storia della sua nazione. Curerà il progetto Yilmaz Dziewior, direttore del Museum Ludwig di Colonia.
CS
MARIA EICHHORN
The German Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition—la Biennale di Venezia in 2022 will feature the artist Maria Eichhorn. By choosing Eichhorn, who was born in Bamberg in 1962 and lives in Berlin, the curator Yilmaz Dziewior has decided in favor of an internationally highly recognized artist known as much for her conceptual approach as for her subtle sense of humor. With her visually minimal gestures, spatial interventions, and process-based works, Eichhorn critically examines institutional power structures and political and economic interrelationships.
Maria Eichhorn already drew wide notice in 2002 with her work Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft [Maria Eichhorn Public Limited Company], which she realized for the Documenta11 in Kassel. It consisted in the artist’s founding a public limited company with a special status that prohibited it from increasing its capital. By presenting foundation documents and the 50,000-Euro equity capital—placed in a display case in a neat bundle of a hundred brand-new 500-Euro bills—, she made a striking commentary on the relationship between art and the economy.
The Rose Valland Institute founded by Maria Eichhorn in 2017 on the occasion of the documenta 14 likewise gained international attention. The project, which is still in progress today in cooperation with various scholarly institutions, researches and documents the dispossession of Europe’s Jewish population. In a manner resembling her earlier projects— for example Restitutionspolitik / Politics of Restitution (2003) and In den Zelten ... (2015)—, Eichhorn thus raises the issue of unresolved ownership and property structures from 1933 to the present and the continued effects of Nazism.
Maria Eichhorn is the artist I have always wanted to see in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Because in my view there are few artists who address themselves to German history and its impact on the present in as multifaceted and intensive a manner as Maria Eichhorn.
—Yilmaz Dziewior
Maria Eichhorn’s work has been on view in numerous solo and group exhibitions in prestigious institutions and at international biennials. The artist has been teaching at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2003.
IN THE 2022 GERMAN PAVILION
www.deutscher-pavillon.org
La Biennale di Venezia
59th International Art Exhibition
Deutscher Pavillon 2022
Curator: Yilmaz Dziewior
Artist: Maria Eichhorn
YD Do you still remember what went through your mind when I asked you whether you could imagine exhibiting in the German Pavilion at the next Biennale in Venice? I thought you seemed very relaxed, but you did want to know immediately whether you’d be exhibiting alone or with others.
ME At first I was incredulous and amazed and at the same time very delighted about your invitation. I remember we talked for a long time about the Biennale’s past and present and what it means to society, and about certain Biennale contributions. Our conversation gave me a sense of the seriousness and responsibility artists before me have attached to this task. In any case, I was glad that we’ve known each other for so long, have already worked together several times, that we’re a team built on trust.
YD When I’ve visited the German Pavilion in the past, I’ve often asked myself which artist I would have presented there. In that sense, I’ve often tried to imagine one day being responsible for the German Pavilion in Venice in the role of curator, though admittedly never in great depth. Was it like that for you, too? I mean, did you ever think of possibly taking on this task as an artist?
ME No, I didn’t start thinking about it until you invited me.
YD I think it’s downright surprising that you’ve never exhibited in the German Pavilion before because you’ve addressed yourself repeatedly to various topics related to German history. I’m thinking above all of Restitutionspolitik / Politics of Restitution (2003) and In den Zelten ... (2015), and of course the Rose Valland Institute (2017) you founded in the context of the documenta 14. All of these projects are about unresolved ownership and property structures from 1933 to the present—that is, about how Nazism continues to have an impact today in the broadest sense. The architecture of the German Pavilion in Venice can also be interpreted as a symbol of that period. What’s your view on the subject?
ME Several artists have grappled with the architecture of the German pavilion and with German history. There have been a number of attempts and proposals to redesign the pavilion. Since its monumental reconstruction in the Nazi period, the building has undergone various changes—inside and out. In 1957, for example, the documenta founder Arnold Bode had the idea of redesigning the pavilion in such a way as to give it a more democratic look. He wanted to renew the façade, m ve the entrance, and have a second level constructed in the interior—an idea later exhibition contributions picked up on. The issue of how we should deal with the architectural vestiges of the Nazi era, or with Nazi architecture, is one of ongoing topicality. With regard to the German Pavilion in Venice, I share the view of Hans Haacke and others that, historically speaking, the pavilion should be preserved as a monument. History, which also conveys itself to us in architecture, can’t just simply be dismantled and belied like with the Palast der Republik in Berlin, which was replaced with a fake Schloss.
YD What contributions to the German Pavilion have you especially liked and why?
ME I especially remember contributions by artists who responded to the site, for example Sigmar Polke, whose works reacted to the humidity of the lagoon and who showed a painting entitled Polizeischwein (Police Pig) on the pavilion’s façade, right next to the words “Bundesrepublik Deutschland.” Then there was Hans Haacke, who made reference to the history of the pavilion and broke up the floor. The commissioner Klaus Bußmann’s nomination of Hans Haacke and Nam June Paik, which questioned national affiliation, was quite foresighted. I liked Katharina Fritsch for the clarity of her contribution. Isa Genzken, who hid the façade behind scaffolding. Liam Gillick and his talking cat. Hito Steyerl’s attack on the Deutsche Bank, and finally Natascha Sadr Haghighian, who involved herself performatively by disguising herself and focused on the AnkER centres.
YD It’s not uncommon for your works to bear specific reference to the exhibition site for which they’re made. Against that background, what does it mean to you to exhibit in the German Pavilion?
ME The German Pavilion is symbolically charged and presents a challenge to artists on several very different levels. With every attempt at deconstruction you’re confronted with that fact, but it also makes it fun. Without departing from that aspect, I regard the German Pavilion not as isolated, but as part of an ensemble and engaged in interplay with other pavilions and other country participations in terms of national-territorial and geopolitical, global-economic, and ecological developments. Why was the Biennale founded in 1895? When were the respective country pavilions built? Which countries have never been represented and why? Is the Biennale really still a mirror of politics between nation states, as is often assumed, or hasn’t its representative function actually already long been brokered in a transnational arena of the art market extended by capital? Then there’s the question of ownership: Who do the pavilions belong to? The fact that Venice continues to adhere to the model of national pavilions is inseparably linked to the fact that, like embassy buildings, the Giardini pavilions are the property of the respective countries—except the U.S. pavilion, which is owned by the Guggenheim Foundation. And country participations without their own Giardini pavilions copy this dominant structure almost without exception. How would art be produced and received more independently of such constructions of national identity? The individual state, to refer to Hannah Arendt, can be seen as an abstract structure consisting of many nationalities, which could help dissolve the concept of the nation.
YD Country contributions at the Biennale in Venice are also always associated with attributions and expectations regarding national representation and cultural affiliation. How will you deal with the expectations that might be placed on you?
ME I don’t think art is subject to the kind of representation that occurs in politics or religion, where figures with a claim to leadership and representation play a prominent role. Most of the artists who do a Biennale pavilion, including the German Pavilion, simply see it as an assignment either to pursue their accustomed work and show that, or to expose grievances, question politics, initiate forms of solidary exchange between groups of society, take a stance, etc. In my view, an artist is not a representative of a country, but of a certain attitude, a certain way of thinking and acting in relation to a given situation. As for the question of affiliation: I conceive of myself as a mixture of multiple identities and non-identities and distinguish myself from myself. It’s not me as a person but my work that’s supposed to be the focus of the attention. I make my work and then recede into the background.
YD Biennials are a special kind of exhibition format you’ve already had a lot of experience with, for example through your participation in Istanbul (1995 and 2005), Yokohama (2001), Berlin (2004 and 2008), Łódź (2004), Sevilla (2006), and Guangzhou (2008). You’ve even contributed to the Venice Biennale three times in the past—in 1993, 2001, and 2015. Do you think those experiences will help you in Venice in 2022?
ME Yes, definitely. But conversations with colleagues and artist friends who have exhibited in the German Pavilion or other pavilions in the past are also instructive and helpful.
YD Large-scale exhibitions like biennials are coming under fire more and more frequently, also with regard to the ecological implications of the excessive travelling they’re associated with. Neither art insiders nor art tourism necessarily contribute to improving the ecological footprint. How do you see the relationship between ecology and large-scale exhibitions?
ME Ironically, the 1895 Venice Biennale was founded in response to Venice’s economic decline as a way of boosting the economy and the tourist industry. And by the way, that’s often the modus operandi for newly founded biennials to this day. Now, 126 years later, we have to bear the consequences of an excessive tourist industry. The Venice Biennale, and the culture industry in general, are part of the ecological disaster. In addition to social displacement and real estate speculation, cruise and mass tourism are huge problems in Venice. The Comitato No Grandi Navi has been protesting against the cruise and luxury liners for years already, and the Venice Climate Camp activists carry out campaigns demanding that tourists stay away from Venice.
YD Do you think the pandemic that’s still very much with us today will have an impact on your work? And how will it be reflected in Venice in 2022?
ME No one knows how things will be in 2022. But Covid-19 has been raging for more than a year and has had extreme consequences for nearly all areas of life. The pandemic is going to have a lasting impact already for that reason alone, even if it’s not being talked about directly.
YD Without revealing too much at this early stage, how would you characterize your contribution in Venice in 2022 in three sentences?
ME I’ll try it in two: The work is accessible. It can be experienced both conceptually and— physically and in motion—on site.
Maria Eichhorn’s artistic projects are usually processual in nature and aspire to illuminate and transform existing social orders.
Within the context of her work, she often poses the question of ownership. On the occasion of the Sculpture. Projects in Münster 1997, Eichhorn explored the topic of land holding and purchased a plot in the city center. When she sold the property, she donated the proceeds to an organization that combats gentrification. For her presentation at the Documenta11 in Kassel she founded the Maria EichhornAktiengesellschaft [Maria Eichhorn Public Limited Company](2002), whose share capital was withdrawn from the monetary cycle and whose shares were transferred to the company itself. Her exhibition Restitutionspolitik / Politics of Restitution (2003) at the Lenbachhaus in Munich marked the beginning of her search for artworks stolen from Jewish ownership in the Nazi era—a topic she continued to pursue in later projects. For her contribution to the exhibition Wohnungsfrage [Housing Question] at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, she realized a work entitled In den Zelten 4 / 5 / 5a / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 9a / 10, Kronprinzenufer 29 / 30, Beethovenstraße 1 / 2 / 3 (1832 to 1959) > John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 (since 1959), Berlin (2015) to determine the ownership structure of the property on which the building was erected. Consisting among other things of floor drawings, excerpts from the registry of deeds, and related texts, this work exposes the fact that the Kongresshalle (now the Haus der Kulturen der Welt) was built partially on expropriated land for which restitution should have been paid. For Building as Unowned Property (2017—), the work she presented at the documenta 14, she purchased a property in Athens in order to convert it into unowned property, and founded the Rose Valland Institute (2017—) in Kassel for research on the dispossession of Europe’s Jewish population and its lingering effects until the present.
Maria Eichhorn concerns herself as intensively with the relationship between ownership and possession as with that between work, value, and time. Her exhibition 5 weeks, 25 days, 175 hours (2016) at the Chisenhale Gallery in London consisted in giving all the employees time out from their work. The institution remained closed for the duration of the show.
The same year, Maria Eichhorn had the city of Cologne hire her as a research associate at the Museum Ludwig and, in a work called Employment Contract between the City of Cologne, Represented by the Mayor, and Ms. Maria Eichhorn (2016), addressed herself to the status society assigns to artistic work.
Maria Eichhorn was born in Bamberg in 1962 and lives in Berlin. She studied with Karl Horst Hödicke at the Berlin University of the Arts between 1984 and 1990. She has been teaching as a professor since 1999, initially as a guest professor at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia and since 2003 at the Zurich University of the Arts.
In addition to her participation in the documenta in Kassel in 2002 and in Athens and Kassel in 2017, Maria Eichhorn has participated in the Biennale di Venezia several times (2015, 2001, 1993) as well as in numerous other international biennials, for example in Guangzhou (2008), Berlin (2008, 2004), Sevilla (2006), Istanbul (2005, 1995), Łódź (2004), and Yokohama (2001) and in the Sculpture. Projects in Münster 1997. She has been exhibiting her work in prestigious institutions since 1986. From 2018 to 2019, the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich presented an extensive monographic show of her work entitled Zwölf Arbeiten / Twelve Works (1988—2018). Solo exhibitions featuring Maria Eichhorn have also taken place at the Chisenhale Gallery in London (2016), the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver (2015), the Kunsthaus Bregenz (2014), the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (2007—2010), the Lenbachhaus in Munich (2003), the Kunsthalle Bern (2001), the Portikus in Frankfurt am Main (1999), the Kunsthaus Zürich (1997), and elsewhere. Eichhorn’s work has moreover been on view in numerous group exhibitions, for example at the MACRO—Museo d‘Arte Contemporanea di Roma (2021), the Jewish Museum in New York (2021, 2016), the IVAM—Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (2019), the Swiss Institute in New York (2018, 2009), the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2016, 2010), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2015), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin (2015), the mumok—Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna (2015, 2013), the Jeu de Paume in Paris (2013), the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2009), the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (2009), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008), the Hamburger Bahnhof—Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin (2008, 2002, 2001), the Museo de Arte Carillo Gil in Mexico City (2003), the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2000, 1992), the Castello di Rivoli—Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin (1996), the Serpentine Gallery in London (1995), the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (1994), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney (1993), and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (1991).
Maria Eichhorn’s publications include the Film Lexicon of Sexual Practices / Prohibited Imports (2019); Maria Eichhorn Werkverzeichnis / Catalogue Raisonné 1986—2015 (2017); 5 weeks, 25 days, 175 hours (2016); In den Zelten 4 / 5 / 5a / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 9a / 10, Kronprinzenufer 29 / 30, Beethovenstraße 1 / 2 / 3 (1832 bis/to 1959) > John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 (seit/ since 1959), Berlin (2015); Die Zeitkapsel im Wasserfall der Steinach / The Time Capsule in the Waterfall on the Steinach River (2012); The Artist’s Contract: Interviews with Carl Andre, Daniel Buren, Paula Cooper, Hans Haacke, Jenny Holzer, Adrian Piper, Robert Projansky, Robert Ryman, Seth Siegelaub, John Weber, Lawrence Weiner, Jackie Winsor (2009); Between Artists (with John Miller, 2008); Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft (2007); von 12,37 bis 36,08 = 24,94 von 100% (2007); CAMPUS: Politische Mündigkeit / Political Responsibility / Emancipazione politica (2005); Restitutionspolitik / Politics of Restitution (2004); and Das Geld der Kunsthalle Bern / Money at Kunsthalle Bern (2001/2002). In 2017, Maria Eichhorn launched the website www.rosevallandinstitut.org Among the awards Maria Eichhorn has received for her work are the George Maciunas Prize (1992), the Arnold Bode Prize of the City of Kassel (2002), and the Paolo Bozzi Prize for Ontology of the University of Turin (2018). From 2018 to 2020 she was a Georg Simmel grant recipient as well as a fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture” of the Bonn University, which, in cooperation with the Department of Art History, housed her Rose Valland Institute.
Since 2020, Eichhorn has been a research fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme. In 2021 she will receive the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.
