Auerbach & Darboven & Kassel

Expert Talk with Prof. Dr. Dietmar Rübel

"Hanne Darboven: Schreiben zwischen den Dingen"

Thursday, January 11, 2024, 7 pm

Rotunde of the Fridericianum

With an introduction by Luise von Nobbe (Curatorial Department, Fridericianum) and Julius Lehmann (Research Associate, documenta archiv)

No registration required. Admission is free.

Language: German

Tauba Auerbach's exhibition TIDE inspires imaginative trains of thought in relation to the work of four-time documenta participant Hanne Darboven. For instance, Auerbach's group of works Ligature Drawings (2016–), staged site-specifically in Kassel, is reminiscent of Darboven's conceptual works on graph paper such as Kontrabasssolo, Opus 45 (1998–2000). This cycle, comprising almost 4,000 sheets, spanned the entire rotunda of the Fridericianum when it was presented at documenta 11 (2002).

Hanne Darboven (1941–2009) ranks among the outstanding artists of the 20th century. She was an attentive observer of her time and the historical development of society, culture, politics, and science. Together with artist friends, she founded Conceptual Art in the 1960s. Her pivotal contribution was the development of unique methods of representing time: days, months, years or even a century are transformed into a seemingly boundless, yet rational system of calendars, scriptural drawings, musical notations, and columns of numbers.

Dietmar Rübel's lecture will focus on the works presented as part of documenta, in particular the artist's little-known filmic oeuvre. The talk will also center on the specific location of Hanne Darboven's artistic practice: a complex of buildings in the south of Hamburg. From 1969 until the end of her life in 2009, the artist lived on a historic 17th-century farmstead, expanding the existing buildings through additions, conversions, and extensions to create a unique ensemble. The estate's five houses boasting over 30 rooms served as a place to live and work, as well as storage for her ever-growing collection and a venue for presenting works of art.

Biography

Prof. Dr. Dietmar Rübel works as an art historian, curator, and author. He holds the Chair of History and Theory of Art at Munich's fine art academy Akademie der Bildenden Künste and prior to that was Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at Dresden's fine art university Hochschule für Bildende Künste from 2009 to 2017. After studying art history, political science, and literary and film studies in Hamburg and Zurich, he was a research assistant at the universities of Hamburg and Marburg. His work focuses on modern and contemporary art, the relationship between art theory and artistic practice, materiality and things, the history and theory of sculpture, subculture, film, and media art as well as the theory and practice of exhibitions. He also works as an exhibition organizer and has been a guest curator at the MAK in Vienna, the Akademie der Künste and Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, the Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden as well as the Hamburg and the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle.