JIMMIE DURHAM
HERE AT THE CENTER
Neuer Berliner
Kunstverein
Chausseestrasse 128/129 - Berlin
5/6/2015 - 6/8/2015
The artist, poet and activist Jimmie Durham (b. 1940 in the US, living
in Berlin) began to work as a sculptor in 1964, when at the same time, since the
early 1960s, he was politically active in the American civil rights movement. In
1973, he graduated in Fine Art in Geneva and returned to the United States. In
the 1970s, he was a co-founder and chairman of the International Indian Treaty
Council at the United Nations, where his work, among others, led to the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Durham became internationally
known in the 1980s with objects and sculptures that were made from materials
such as stones, animal skulls and bones, carved wood, and ironically related to
Euro-centric notions of “Indian art”. In 1987, Durham left the United States,
first settled in Mexico and since 1994 in Europe. Among other places he lived in
Dublin, Marseilles, Rome and Berlin and ever since observed the political
developments of the European Union. The relationship between history and
environment, architecture and monumentality, and a critical attitude towards
political structures of power and narratives of national identity are often at
the center of his artistic and literary work. In sculptures, film and video
works, drawings and texts Durham describes behaviors and norms of coexistence in
different cultures and societies.
The exhibition at Neuer Berliner
Kunstverein titled Here at the Center presents videos, drawings and sculptures
that have been created between 1995 and 2015 in the light of Durham’s
exploration of the Eurasian continent and the complex geopolitical and social
fabric of Europe. In a large number of his works Durham particularly deals with
the history of Europe and its impact on the world, for example in the video
installation Still Life with Architectural Elements (2000), the sculpture
Eurasia, a Scent (1997) and the series of collages 1948 (2012). Alongside other
video works, including those created in cooperation with Maria Thereza Alves,
Heimat (2000) and Grunewald (2006), there are three new sculptures by Jimmie
Durham on show, French Anatomy (2015), Not All Questions Have Reasonable
Meanings (2015) and The Weight of All Flesh (2015). With the exhibition comes a
publication by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne (2015), the
artist’s book In Europe, which for the first time brings together as a series
the portraits of Jimmie Durham at different locations in Europe. The photographs
highlight the prosaicness of the concept of Europe and its use in different
textual and contextual forms.
Jimmie Durham (b. 1940 in the US, living
in Berlin) is an artist, poet, essayist and political activist. He graduated in
Fine Art in 1973 at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva. His work has been
presented in numerous international exhibitions, including, most recently:
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2014; 2003; 1993); Venice Biennale
(2015; 2005; 2003; 2001; 1999); Museo Madre, Naples (2013; 2008); MuHKA – Museum
of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2012); Swiss Institute, New York (2012);
Documenta, Kassel (2012; 1992); 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010); Centre Pompidou,
Paris (2010); Kunsthalle Bern (2010); Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris
(2009); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2006). Among his publications are: Waiting To Be
Interrupted, Selected Writings 1993–2012, Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2014; Poems
That Do Not Go Together, Berlin and London: Wiens Verlag and Edition Hansjörg
Mayer, 2012; A Matter of Life and Death and Singing, Works 1964–2012, Zurich:
JRP Ringier, 2012; Pierres Rejetées, Paris: Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de
Paris, 2009; The Second Particle Wave Theory, Banff: Banff Centre Press, 2006;
Jimmie Durham, Milan: Edizione Charta, 2004; Stoneheart, Kitakyushu: Center for
Contemporary Art CCA Kitakyushu, 2001; Between the Furniture and the Building
(Between a Rock and a Hard Place), Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther
König, 1999; Der Verführer und der Steinerne Gast, Vienna: Springer, 1996;
Jimmie Durham, London: Phaidon Press, 1995; A Certain Lack of Coherence:
Writings on Art and Cultural Politics, London: Kala Press, 1993; Columbus Day,
Albuquerque: West End Press, 1983.
Image: Jimmie Durham, The Meat of
Jesus (2012), Ausstellungsansicht Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, 2015, Foto: Jens
Ziehe
