Press release Rotterdam, 6 January 2016
Charlemagne Palestine GesammttkkunnsttMeshuggahhLaandtttt
Charlemagne Palestine, divinitusssanimalusssacréusssorganusss (2014), at Experimental Sound Studio, photo: Dan Mohr
29 January – 1 May 2016 Opening: 28 January 2016, 5 pm Opening performance: 28 January 2016, 7 pm
GesammttkkunnsttMeshuggahhLaandtttt, a solo exhibition with artist Charlemagne Palestine, presents a selection of works from the artist’s oeuvre, including early video works, sculptures, paintings, installations, and sound scores. Palestine’s works form a highly personal universe of rituals, intoxication, and shamanism. In the last four decades, the artist has created an extensive body of experimental musical compositions, bodily performances, and, in later
years, visual art works that are inhabited by stuffed animals. To Palestine, teddy bears figure as powerful shamanic totems, which he fondly calls Divinities. Central to his exhibition are a grand piano, the sounding heart of the show, and a new large-scale version of the so-called God-Bear Museum Model, a proposal for a new kind of museum where music and performance find a home just as easily as a painting would. Also part of the exhibition are Palestine’s extraordinary music or sound annotations, a collection of works on paper, which aim to translate sound into image. Performances During the run of the exhibition several performances and events will take place. • The exhibition is kicked off with a performance by Palestine on the opening night, Thursday 28 January 2016, at 7 pm. • On Thursday 17 March 2016, 6 pm, Witte de With hosts Tuning – Detuning / Noting – Denoting, a series of performances and short lectures focusing on Charlemagne Palestine’s experimental musical scores and visual renderings of sound included in his exhibition. In collaboration with DE PLAYER. • Finally on 2-3 April 2016, Charlemagne Palestine and Simone Forti will present a new version of their performance Illuminations at Vleeshal Markt, organized by Vleeshal, Middelburg on the occasion of Simone Forti’s solo exhibition Here It Comes (31 January – 3 April 2016). About Charlemagne Palestine Charlemagne Palestine lives and works in Brussels. He has released more than twenty solo albums and has performed all around the world over the past forty years. His work has been exhibited internationally at public and private institutions including: the Venice Biennale; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Kunsthalle, Basel; the Long Beach Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Stedelijk Museum
Amsterdam; Documenta 8, Kassel; the Walker Art center, Minneapolis; the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal; and Wiels, Brussels. In 2014, he participated in the Whitney Biennial and performed with Simone Forti at MoMA, New York, and at the Louvre, Paris. The exhibition is co-commissioned by Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and Kunsthalle Wien, and curated by Luca Lo Pinto, together with Witte de With curator Samuel Saelemakers. A new catalogue, co-published by Witte de With Publishers and Sternberg Press (on behalf of Kunsthalle Wien), will accompany the exhibition. About Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art is an international public institution with Rotterdam as its home base. Established in 1990, Witte de With explores developments in contemporary art worldwide. Witte de With has been commenting on the social and political predicament since its inception through the presentation of curated exhibitions, symposia, live events, educational programs, and a bold publishing arm. Contact Witte de With For press requests or for further information, please contact Adelheid Smit via press@wdw.nl or call +31 10 411 01 44.