“Kai Althoff”, Michael Werner GalleryPhoto: © Yair Oelbaum
Kai Althoff at the MoMA MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) presents ‘Kai Althoff: and then leave me to the common swifts (und dann überlasst mich den Mauerseglern)’. September 18, 2016 – January 22, 2017]]>
Source: MoMA (Museum of Modern Art)
On the occasion of Kai Althoff: and then leave me to the common swifts (und dann überlasst mich den Mauerseglern), the artist provides the following statement:
“The Museum of Modern Art granted me all freedom in using the gallery’s space and the Museum’s profound resources to present my work in the manner that I deem appropriate at this time of its existence and my life. I am very thankful for this, for even if I strain and press myself to come to a conclusion regarding the past, a lot of the things—and many call this work—I made up until today, I cannot defend or think of it as something people need to see or bother with. These were often just done for myself in the very first place.
Yet to leave it to others to put them in order and arrange them for display and consumption as a somewhat logical consequence deriving from this lack of my own ability to analyze and emotionally realize their gravity feels impossible and wrong; I am still alive, and this is an institution with a history that one cannot forego naïvely, though it may mean nothing much to me. Thus I feel I have to just show it in the manner that my mere self tells me to now. I have to look at things I have fabricated earlier in life, and I will give in to my immediate reaction emotionally and handle them accordingly, when deciding what to do with them now. This is why my gratitude for the above mentioned freedom from the institution is so huge.”
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