www.nurr.net
Die 1989 in Dresden gegründete Künstlergruppe BEWEGUNG NURR
(Alekos Hofstetter / Christian Steuer / Lokiev Stoof) präsentiert sich im
zwölften Jahr ihres Bestehens bei ABEL - Raum für Neue Kunst mit einer
Ausstellung, in der die Relation zwischen dem Kunstbegriff und der Identität
des Künstlerkollektivs in Form einer ausgeprägten Selbststilisierung debattiert
wird. Der C-Print Concorde verweist auf die von der BEWEGUNG NURR gegenwärtig
geführten Diskussion um den Zusammenbruch von Systemen und dem "Scheitern
auf hohem Niveau". In einer digitalen Fotobearbeitung sieht man das verdreifachte
Prestige-Flugzeug, dessen Triebwerke bereits Feuer gefangen haben. Der Concorde
gegenüber zeigt ein C-Print die Ursache des Absturzes. Die Autoaggressivität und
deren Nichtüberwindung, sind das verbindende Element des bei ABEL gezeigten
aktuellen Werkkomplexes: "Concorde 4590...ihr habt Flammen, ihr habt Flammen hinter euch !" – "Zu spät..."
Lokiev Stoof erhielt für die BEWEGUNG NURR, das Senatsstipendium 2001.
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Propelled by fiery plumes of exhaust, three Concorde jets take off from the
runway in a burst of acceleration. With their noses pointing in the same
direction and wings aligned, the three jets have been optically fused into a
single machine – a triplicate symbol of supersonic speed, technical mastery,
and progress. Here the three-man German artist group BEWEGUNG NURR (Alekos Hofstetter,
Christian Steuer and Lokiev Stoof) have chosen the planes as stand-ins for their own
intended lift-off. However, as the title Disastrous Takeover I (High Noon) indicates,
disaster looms, and economic forces are at play. The exact nature of the immanent
threat initially remains unclear, and the playful malapropism of the titles –
typical of BEWEGUNG NURR – suggests that an ill-considered business deal, i.e.
the takeover and not the takeoff, is the problem. However, Kausalnexus [Causal Nexus]
another image in the series underscores the ambiguous blend of bad business and
technical malfunction; it depicts the metal part that unleashed the terrible Concorde
crash in Paris in 2000, which ultimately led to the grounding of the world’s fastest
passenger jets once and for all.
High Noon is not a quasi reenactment of sensationalized collective trauma à la
Christoph Draeger. Instead, it is an example of BEWEGUNG NURR’s willingness to
parody themselves within the context of capitalistic mores, such as competition
and display of wealth. Pairing manifestations of power, capitalism, and the global
economy with references to human failing or even outright disaster is a consistent
strategy in the work of the group, which has taken on issues from AIDS, to corporate
identity, global mobility, advertising strategies, and value creation. When the
group places themselves in the center of the scene, they do so with self-deprecating
silliness. As in Disastrous Takeover, they often make issue of their own ambitions and
experiences on the market and the market of art. Ranging from photographs of the group
members in various scenarios to animal representatives or objects in triplicate, the
self-portraits essentially drawn on the nexus of individual and collective failure.
The group assumes both the part of the individual and the guise of a corporate identity,
but these are shifting roles that neither clearly argue for safety in numbers nor
propagate the survival of the fittest. With a touch of tragic-comedy the portraits
are a travesty of ordinary ambition, in which the superficial but effective mechanisms
of power are juxtaposed with human weakness.
Laura Schleussner