Overview
With Ulla von Brandenburg (born 1974 in Karlsruhe, lives in Paris), the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst is showing one of the most versatile installation artists of her generation. Von Brandenburg transforms exhibition spaces into colorful dream worlds with the help of large-format fabrics, expansive installations, intimate objects, mysterious films, playful collages, silhouettes, watercolors, and performances. Into sensual spaces of experience, in which the visitors become actors. For von Brandenburg, sheer reception is not enough. Rather, the viewers become part of the spatial arrangements of the works, which change permanently as they pass through them.
With Ulla von Brandenburg (born 1974 in Karlsruhe, lives in Paris), the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst is showing one of the most versatile installation artists of her generation. Von Brandenburg transforms exhibition spaces into colorful dream worlds with the help of large-format fabrics, expansive installations, intimate objects, mysterious films, playful collages, silhouettes, watercolors, and performances. Into sensual spaces of experience, in which the visitors become actors. For von Brandenburg, sheer reception is not enough. Rather, the viewers become part of the spatial arrangements of the works, which change permanently as they pass through them.
A magical narrative for Bremen
The exhibition Eine Landschaft ohne Blau, wie ungefähr (a quotation from Goethe's Tafeln zur Farben-Lehre und deren Erklärung) is conceived especially for the rooms of the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst. A sequence of new curtain and quilt formations forms the setting into which the artist feeds some of her recent films, complemented by multifaceted watercolors and objects that are both enigmatic and narrative.
In terms of content, the various elements of the exhibition revolve around the themes of dance, movement, and the history of expressionist dance. Here, dance and its history become a symbol for human community and, in the work of Ulla von Brandenburg, they pose a representative question about the possibilities of social togetherness - especially in times in which pandemics, hate speech, or increasing right-wing pressure in many parts of our society make interaction between us difficult, if not impossible.
Eine Landschaft ohne Blau, wie ungefähr thereby brings together three different projects in a new constellation - at their core they include the films Le Milieu est bleu (made in 2020 for the Palais du Tokyo Paris), Blaue und Gelbe Schatten (made in 2021 for the Georg Kolbe Museum Berlin) and a new film that is being developed especially for the exhibition in Bremen. All three films are accompanied by watercolors and objects and presented in atmospherically charged surroundings through curtain constellations defined by different colors. The basis for the latest film being created in Bremen is a performance that will be recorded in the setting of the exhibition and performed live at the opening.
For the first time on this scale in Germany
Eine Landschaft ohne Blau, wie ungefähr at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art is the first exhibition in Germany to present the work of the internationally renowned Ulla von Brandenburg on such a scale-for northern Germany, moreover, it is the artist's first museum exhibition.
During the exhibition, a bilingual catalog will be published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König (German, English), with texts by Chantal Pontbriand and Janneke de Vries as well as a conversation between Ulla von Brandenburg and the choreographer Loïc Touzé.
Curated by Janneke de Vries
