17. November 2008

Rules of Hospitality, Trottoir at The Hex

 

It is normal to react with anger when you get tricked. If, as in Kant’s example, the singing of the nightingale is merely a farmer’s boy whistling through a cane, the delight ends immediately.

 

Sebastian Reuss’ reconstruction of The Hex in Hamburg takes this end as its starting point. What you see from 9-11.30 via Skype can not be real. It is not about the intended tricking of the viewer, but about reality, and our difficulty in coming to terms with it. Sebastian Reuss practices an innocent form of appropriation: he is not stealing, but duplicating. The Skype transmission irritates interpretation and identification of the object. You understand immediately you are watching a model by comparing it with the real, London Hex.

 

What a happy coincidence to find the 3 Sisters Pub! This Saturday evening three sisters arrive at the Hamburg model of The Hex to get ready for a party. They will parody what we have done in London in preparation for the opening: they will install an exhibition by hanging pictures by Matthias Deutsch, decorate a bathrobe with letters spelling The Hex as Nicole Messenlehner did, they will drink alcohol, have conversations, and receive guests. Eventually they will push the parody so far that they begin to play the roles of artist, gallerist, and curator; and laugh about it… But the visitor in London sees both constructions at once. Two unmade beds on the floor, hint at the youth hostel dream, of minimal needs and maximal experience travelling through the world with a big entourage.

 

Matthias Deutsch behaves less conspicuously by displaying a series of collages, comfortably taking on the role of ‘the artist’. As a wandering traveller he discovered the rooms above the 3 Sisters Pub and thereby created the possibility of the exhibition to expand.

 

The rules of hospitality, the subject of the work by Nicole Messenlehner, suggest high comfort, luxury interiors and a certain power of a hotel accessory. Continue to imagine the hotel guest naked; otherwise, wearing the logo of the hotel, she turns into a simple clothes rack. By bringing the robe to The Hex, Nicole switches the roles of guest and host: assuming a power normally confined to the hotel manager.

 

London, 15th November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

LONDON

 

Saturday, 15. November 2008

18:00 Uhr

 

We are pleased to present Trottoir at the Hex

Please join us at the opening this Saturday 15th 6-9 PM. The exhibition will be open by appointment only.

 

following the rules of hospitality

cast in no order of appearance:

 

camera operator: dominik friebel

audio engineering: wolfgang kriener

special effects: gustav mechlenburg

post production: nora sdun

set furnishing: mathias deutsch

set dresser: nicole messenlehner

unit manager: sebastian reuss

production secretary: eva schwab

 

 

The Hex / 27 Sandgate House / Pembury Road / E5 8JH London / 02071654699

 

The Hex ist ein Projekt in einer Wohnung, organisiert von Maria Zahle und Jason Dungan. Die Projekte beginnen stets mit einer Einladung an einzelne Künstler, die daraufhin frei entscheiden wen sie wie und vor allem was dann in den Räumen gezeigt wird.

 

Die Arbeit "continental breakfast" von Nicole Messenlehner besteht aus einem bestickten Morgenmantel. Das aufgestickte Logo zeigt eine schwarze Katze und den Namen der Galerie, The Hex. Die typische Hauskleidung, der Morgenmantel, bleibt dem Besucher zumeist verborgen. Hier wird er zum Ausstellungsstück in einer Privatwohnung. Die Stickerei verweist auf Bade- und Morgenmäntel, die in manchen Hotels zu Verfügung gestellt werden und Exklusivität versprechen, Trottoir ist schließlich zu Gast und wir sind sehr stolz.

 

Es ist die Richtige Kleidung um sich die Collagen des Hausmantelkönigs Mathias Deutsch anzusehen, Betitelungen sind für die Papierwerke weder vorgesehen noch nötig. Der Mantel wärmt auch vor dem Schrecken der Situationen welche Sebastian Reuss und Dominik Friebel anrichten werden.

 

Gustav Mechlenburg beschäftig sich derweil damit das alles nach München zu beamen, der schlechteren Bildqualität wegen via SKYPE. Wer in München sein sollte begebe sich also zur Lothringer 13.

(Nora Sdun)