With this POLKE POST we invite you to visit the exhibition in Amstelveen (NL). The Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst is showing Polke vs. Blaudzun. Muziek van onbekende herkomst (Polke vs. Blaudzun. Music of an Unknown Source) until 5 April. Sigmar Polke’s 40 large-format gouaches on view were created in 1996 especially for ifa (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) and have since been travelling the world as a touring exhibition. But the project in Amstelveen is more than just a mere presentation of the works; it has an experimental character and proves once again that Sigmar Polke continues to inspire contemporary artists to this day. In this case, the musician and composer Blaudzun embarked on a musical quest, which the Dutchman describes as follows:
"There was a lot of freedom in this project; as a composer and musician I was really forced to venture off my own beaten track. Sometimes I felt more like a gardener, who mostly has to create the space for plants, in this case the sounds, to do their thing."
The result is the album Music of an Unknown Source, containing nine songs, which can be streamed via Spotify. In the exhibition, his compositions can be heard and thus enter into direct dialogue with the exhibits. The two artists are united by the complexity and richness of form in their art.
In an interview conducted by Sacha Bronwasser (which can be found in its full length here), BLAUDZUN describes his enthusiasm for Sigmar Polke’s work and his approach to it:
Polke Post 5 - Ausstellung in Amstelveen: POLKE x BLAUDZUN. Music of an Unknown Source. Interview with Nina Bingel (ifa)
POLKE POST 5
POLKE x BLAUDZUN. Music of an Unknown Source
In an interview conducted by Sacha Bronwasser (which can be found in its full length here), BLAUDZUN describes his enthusiasm for Sigmar Polke’s work and his approach to it:
"You never really know what Polke was looking for. Sometimes his work is satirical; sometimes it is poetic. Often it is quite conceptual. And then there are those titles, which are very beautiful but do not necessarily clarify anything. They might be quotes from a TV show, headlines, sentences he heard on the street. I work very intuitively myself and I knew immediately: I am not going to explain this work, I won’t clarify it. But if it can be a dialogue between me and Polke’s work, then I’m in. (…) In a picture or in real life, there is a world of difference. For example: I hadn’t chosen gouache number 28, despite the beautiful, strange title that speaks of ‘birds complaining about the moonrise’. But nothing resonated with the image, that is, until I was standing right in front of it. When you are face-to-face with the real thing... the texture of that work is very special. There is a strange silver layer over it, so that you can somehow see the reflection of the moon in that title." [Sigmar Polke, The Blackness when the Moon is Rising, the Cries of the Night-Birds, Complaining about Being Disturbed, can be found in the picture gallery on the museum website]
On the occasion of this exciting artistic encounter we asked NINA BINGEL (Deputy Head of the Art Department of ifa) some questions:
The concept of ifa touring exhibitions has existed for around 50 years. It is an extraordinary politico-cultural format of exhibitions curated for travel. How are these exhibitions developed?
Together with curators, an expert advisory board, and internally, we think about which topics and artists might be relevant for an international audience. Then we create the exhibition and offer it to museums worldwide. The tours usually run for at least five years, but normally much longer. The exhibition with works by Sigmar Polke has been on tour since 1997 and is still in demand.
For several years now, you have been inviting local curators to engage with the artworks in your exhibitions, giving rise to co-creations and synergy effects. How does this work? Can you talk about the result of the collaboration with curator Eric Wie (Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst)?
In this case, Eric Wie approached us with the idea of inviting the composer and musician Blaudzun to react musically to the works of Sigmar Polke. Blaudzun had already dealt musically with Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun in 2018. In other projects in the past, we had invited local artists to become part of the ifa exhibitions along with the curators of the partner museums. In our current, new projects, we try to develop the exhibitions together with the curators of the partner museums from the very beginning and to jointly shape their genesis.
In your view, what particularly distinguishes Polke's work Music of an Unknown Source? What, in your opinion, is the fascinating aspect that explains the international success of this touring exhibition?
To my mind, Sigmar Polke’s work is characterized by a confusing variety of pictorial information and forms of expression. The 40 works on paper shown here give insight into Sigmar Polke’s incredible and varied repertoire of artistic forms of expression. The works range from linear figurations or figurations broken down into dot grids, to ornaments, to completely nonrepresentational impulsive colour expressions. We are generally accustomed to identifying artistic individualities by their unmistakable hallmarks, but Polke’s work always has many faces and signatures. I can imagine that the success is due to the fact that these differing modes of expression fascinate, amaze, inspire and absorb visitors.
The titles of Polke's gouaches have a special status and character. What has your experience been with the international reception of these awkward and not easily accessible German titles?
As far as I can judge at all, the titles, which are always translated into the respective national language, are just as unsettling at international exhibition venues as they are for audiences in Germany. The expectation to learn more about the work through the title is not met. The titles pose riddles rather than solving them. After an initial perplexed facial expression, you can often observe a sudden smile or grin on visitors’ faces. They discover the ironic character of his works and the hidden messages.
Where will ifa’s Sigmar Polke touring exhibition be shown next? Can you tell us anything about that yet?
We plan to show the exhibition next in Pristina (Kosovo) in the middle of the year. There is very little cooperation between German museums and museums in this region, so these museums are seizing the opportunity offered by ifa to show the work of an important and pioneering artist who is considered to be one of the most experimental representatives of his generation.
Thank you very much, Nina Bingel!