DIAGRAMS
curated by Thomas Thiel
Bielefelder Kunstverein
im Waldhof
Welle 61 - Bielefeld
November 10, 2012–January 27, 2013
Ruth Buchanan, Gerhard Dirmoser, Nikolaus Gansterer, Philipp Hamann, Luis Jacob, Eva Kotátková, Michael Najjar, Alexandre Singh, Marcus Steinweg and Jorinde Voigt.
From November 10, 2012 to January 27, 2013, the Bielefelder Kunstverein presents the thematic group exhibition Diagrams. The background of Diagrams is a growing plethora of digital data and a world becoming ever more complex in the wake of globalisation, and that is precisely why this form of graphic display is increasingly gaining in significance. In this process, infographics like diagrams, graphs of stock markets or schematic drawings do not just serve display purposes but establish relations, communicate insights and convey arguments pictorially. One crucial task is presenting, organising and imparting knowledge.
In the realm of art, diagrams are not a completely new phenomenon, yet, over the last ten years, it has been possible to discern a growing interest in this sort of image. The reasons for this lie in the increasing closeness of art and science, the increasing development of an extended notion of images, in engaging with abstract forms of representation in art history and in recognising diagrams as analytical instruments for establishing theories. Diagrams are not understood just as illustrations any more, but as independent visual forms. The conjunction of image, text and spatial-graphic organisation makes a form of visual thinking possible and provides a very particular potential for insight.
The exhibition Diagrams at Bielefelder Kunstverein inquires into the way these sketched developments affect the worlds of images and the strategies of visualisation in art. Ten artists were chosen for the exhibition as examples and are represented by various display models and forms of presentation. Numerous commissioned works, such as drawings, collages, photographs and videos are being presented, but there are also spatially extensive objects and installations. The works exhibited at Bielefelder Kunstverein make relations to diagrams, examples of cartography, notations and other graphic models visible.
Alongside diagram’s aesthetic impact and creative aspect, how they convey artistic processes of working and thinking plays a vital role in the exhibition. The formal structure of diagrams here serves the artists as the point of departure for arrays and narratives based on images. Their actual function—directly conveying information—is, however, undermined, mostly in favour of a particular, open form of knowledge.
