Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft

Opening and Bilderlauf by Baumgartner’s Class and Guests: 26.10.2024, 2 pm
Maximiliane Baumgartner Book Launch: 26.10.2024, 3:30 pm
Duration: 26.10. – 17.11.2024 

Under the title “Ort zu sein“ (Being a place), eighteen artists from Baumgartner’s class and guests from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf present an intervention exhibition as part of the exhibition “Das Lokale ist nicht lokal“ (The Local Is Not Local) by Maximiliane Baumgartner at the Kunstverein Nürnberg—Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft. “Ort zu sein“ takes the form of a series of banners and flags by the artists, which will be carried into public space on a Bilderlauf (picture walk) and subsequently presented in the foyer as a collective spatial installation. The invited artists have developed their own perspectives in response to Baumgartner’s “Das Lokale ist nicht lokal“, in which she examines the work and reception of the Nuremberg artist Dore Meyer-Vax (1908–1980) and updates her democratic pictorial approach.

The shared starting point of the intervention is the action wagon situated in the foyer of the Kunstverein, “Viele Vampire sind Vögel“ (Many Vampires are Birds, 2019/24), and particularly the banner stretched across it, which is based on a ceiling painting by Meyer-Vax from the 1950s that depicts children occupying public space in independent play. Drawing on radical pedagogical approaches, “Ort zu sein“ employs strategies for acquiring artistic knowledge such as “using pictures to talk about pictures.” The artists invoke their own situated knowledge to determine the relevance of site-specific working methods and which stories seem worth telling. A wide variety of artistic themes and approaches come into play, from research into the housing situation and living conditions in the area to (post-)migrant perspectives and even the involvement of the animals and plants that call the Wöhrder See home. In Lucy Lippard’s text “The Lure of the Local“, which

was read by the participants, the author describes it as follows: “Each time we enter a new place, we become one of the ingredients of an existing hybridity, which is really what all ‘local places’ consist of.”

Visitors are warmly invited to take part in the Bilderlauf and the opening of the intervention “Ort zu sein“. The meeting point is at the Kunstverein Nürnberg on Saturday, October 26 at 2 pm. The event is followed by Maximiliane Baumgartner’s book launch at 3:30 pm and a conversation between the artists and the authors.

Participating students from Baumgartner’s class and guests from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf: Alex Fedmann, Max Graf, Filiz Huz, Katharina Janz, Sarah Jeong, Aylin Ismihan Kabakcı, Lucien Liebecke, Liam Lutz, Ziran Pei, Antonia Prinz, Flora Seidl, Nan Shen, Paula Slomke, Gabriela Tudor, Amelie Uliczka, Lea Weeber, Vin Zaik, Lea-Sue Zorlu.

Maximiliane Baumgartner’s exhibition “Das Lokale ist nicht lokal“ as well as the accompanying interventions and publication were all made possible by the Marianne Defet Painting Scholarship and its sponsors as well as the Kunststiftung NRW. The realization of the publication was supported by the Stiftung Zumikon. We would like to sincerely thank all our sponsors.