PressClub United Kingdom · Article.
BMW Tate Live Exhibition: Anne Imhof.
Thu Mar 21 11:00:00 CET 2019 Press Release
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Tate Modern unveils major new work by Anne Imhof.
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Angela Stangroom
BMW Group
London. Between 22 - 31 March Tate Modern stages its
third annual BMW Tate Live Exhibition in the atmospheric subterranean
Tanks. Anne Imhof’s dynamic installation “Sex” is the first project by
a solo artist to occupy the full suite of spaces in the Tanks. Anne
Imhof is one of the most pioneering contemporary artists of her
generation, awarded in 2015 with the Preis der Nationalgalerie, a
long-term partner of BMW, and winner of the prestigious Golden Lion at
Venice Biennale in 2017.
The commission is both an exhibition by day and a series of six live performances by night. Titled “Sex”, the work deals with fluidity between binaries – female and male, top and bottom, night and day – and the blurred line where two opposing zones meet. Structural interventions splice through each of the grand spaces. In the South Tank, visitors walk into the space on a raised platform, a scenario mirrored in the East Tank where the hierarchy of viewing is reversed and visitors are situated on the ground beneath a pier. The adjacent Transformer galleries display a collection of Imhof’s Gradient and Scratch paintings, alongside elements of sculpture that intervene in the architecture.
Since 2012, Imhof has worked with a core group of collaborators from diverse backgrounds to make her durational performances. During six remarkable evenings at Tate Modern, they will inhabit the space while interacting with each other and engaging with situations and objects that serve as settings for their characters. Imhof doesn’t appear in the work herself but is present, orchestrating the work and sending notes and directions to her collaborators. Power dynamics between performer and viewer are also a key component of “Sex”. Viewing positions alternate between high and low, shifting perspectives on the live tableaux. Performers also occupy an inaccessible zone behind a glass partition in the East Tank, onto which they paint. Although the structure and score of the live work is carefully developed by Imhof, what happens within the four-hour duration is dependent on the individuality and agency of the performers, making each staging unique and unrepeatable.
Graeme Grieve, Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group UK and Ireland, said: “Through our partnership with Tate Modern, BMW Tate Live has developed into an innovative exhibition format which attracts the world’s leading performance artists to London. We are delighted that Anne Imhof will stage her exciting programme in the Tanks space in March and look forward to another successful exhibition.“
The commission is both an exhibition by day and a series of six live performances by night. Titled “Sex”, the work deals with fluidity between binaries – female and male, top and bottom, night and day – and the blurred line where two opposing zones meet. Structural interventions splice through each of the grand spaces. In the South Tank, visitors walk into the space on a raised platform, a scenario mirrored in the East Tank where the hierarchy of viewing is reversed and visitors are situated on the ground beneath a pier. The adjacent Transformer galleries display a collection of Imhof’s Gradient and Scratch paintings, alongside elements of sculpture that intervene in the architecture.
Since 2012, Imhof has worked with a core group of collaborators from diverse backgrounds to make her durational performances. During six remarkable evenings at Tate Modern, they will inhabit the space while interacting with each other and engaging with situations and objects that serve as settings for their characters. Imhof doesn’t appear in the work herself but is present, orchestrating the work and sending notes and directions to her collaborators. Power dynamics between performer and viewer are also a key component of “Sex”. Viewing positions alternate between high and low, shifting perspectives on the live tableaux. Performers also occupy an inaccessible zone behind a glass partition in the East Tank, onto which they paint. Although the structure and score of the live work is carefully developed by Imhof, what happens within the four-hour duration is dependent on the individuality and agency of the performers, making each staging unique and unrepeatable.
Graeme Grieve, Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group UK and Ireland, said: “Through our partnership with Tate Modern, BMW Tate Live has developed into an innovative exhibition format which attracts the world’s leading performance artists to London. We are delighted that Anne Imhof will stage her exciting programme in the Tanks space in March and look forward to another successful exhibition.“
Anne Imhof is renowned for staging complex performative projects
over long periods of time, such as “Faust”, an intense and engaging
installation created for the German pavilion at the 57th Venice
Biennale in 2017. The artist divided the interior with glass
partitions and floors inhabited by a choreographed group of
performers. Other recent projects have included “Angst”, presented in
three acts at Kunsthalle Basel, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für
Gegenwart – Berlin, and the Biennale de Montréal in 2016.
This year’s exhibition follows the success of the first two BMW Tate Live Exhibitions in 2017 and 2018. These groundbreaking programs pioneered a new model for the exhibition format with an ever-changing series of installations and live performances across ten days. Taking place in the Tanks, the world’s first museum spaces dedicated to performance, film and installation, the BMW Tate Live Exhibitions have showcased a wide range of artists including Joan Jonas, Fujiko Nakaya, Isabel Lewis, Jason Moran, Mark Leckey, Jumana Emil Abboud, Wu Tsang and Fred Moten.
Prof. Dr Thomas Girst
This year’s exhibition follows the success of the first two BMW Tate Live Exhibitions in 2017 and 2018. These groundbreaking programs pioneered a new model for the exhibition format with an ever-changing series of installations and live performances across ten days. Taking place in the Tanks, the world’s first museum spaces dedicated to performance, film and installation, the BMW Tate Live Exhibitions have showcased a wide range of artists including Joan Jonas, Fujiko Nakaya, Isabel Lewis, Jason Moran, Mark Leckey, Jumana Emil Abboud, Wu Tsang and Fred Moten.
BMW Tate Live Exhibition is curated by Catherine Wood, Isabella
Maidment and produced by Judith Bowdler.
“Sex” is the first of three chapters in a project commissioned by
Tate Modern, London, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Castello di
Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin.
BMW Tate Live is a major international partnership between BMW
and Tate, which aims to foreground the pivotal role of live
experimentation in art history and among artists working today.
The programme has now showcased over 50 artists including both
emerging and more familiar figures from across the world. It began
in 2012 with the world’s first performance programme created for
live online broadcast, and evolved into an ongoing series of
performances at Tate Modern. As performance took on an
increasingly key role in Tate Modern’s vision for the future of
the museum, the first annual BMW Tate Live Exhibition was opened
in the Tanks in 2017. For further information, please visit tate.org.uk/bmwtatelive
About Anne Imhof
Anne Imhof (b. 1978) lives and works in Berlin and Frankfurt am
Main, Germany. She represented Germany at the 2017 Venice
Biennale, where she was awarded the Golden Lion for best national
participation, and has won the Absolut Art Award (2017) and the
Preis der Nationalgalerie (2015). Imhof’s performances have been
staged in solo exhibitions at major international venues including
the Hamburger Bahnhof, Biennale de Montréal, Kunsthalle Basel and
Portikus Frankfurt (2016), MoMA PS1, New York (2015) and the Musée
d'art contemporain, Nîmes (2014). Her work has also been featured
in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Palais de Tokyo,
Paris; the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); and the Museum für
Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2014).
BMW Art Guide
The fifth edition of the BMW Art Guide by Independent
Collectors presents 270 private yet publicly accessible
collections of contemporary art — featuring large and small,
famous and the relatively unknown. Succinct portraits of the
collections with color photographs take the reader to forty-three
countries and 196 cities, often to regions that are off the beaten
path. This no comparable compendium of international private
collections of contemporary art exists on the internet or in
printed form.
For further questions please contact:
Doris Fleischer
Doris Fleischer
BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs
Cultural Engagement
Telephone: +49-151-601-27806
Prof. Dr Thomas Girst
BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs
Head of Cultural Engagement
Telephone: +49-89-382-24753
www.press.bmwgroup.com
E-mail: presse@bmw.de
Duncan Holden
Senior Press Officer, Tate
Telephone: +44-20-7887-4939
E-mail: pressoffice@tate.org.uk
About BMW Group Cultural Engagement
For almost 50 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and
engaged in over 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company
places the main focus of its long-term commitment on
contemporary and modern art, classical music and jazz as well as
architecture and design. In 1972, three large-scale paintings
were created by the artist Gerhard Richter specifically for the
foyer of the BMW Group's Munich headquarters. Since then,
artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Daniel Barenboim, Jonas
Kaufmann and architect Zaha Hadid have co-operated with BMW. In
2016 and 2017, female artist Cao Fei from China and American
John Baldessari created the next two vehicles for the BMW Art
Car Collection. Besides co-initiatives, such as BMW Tate Live,
the BMW Art Journey and the “Opera for All” concerts in Berlin,
Munich, Moscow and London, the company also partners with
leading museums and art fairs as well as orchestras and opera
houses around the world. The BMW Group takes absolute creative
freedom in all its cultural activities – as this initiative is
as essential for producing groundbreaking artistic work as it is
for major innovations in a successful business.
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