ART CLASH

6 x 26 min.
ZDF kultur/ DEF media 2011

Two people meet at an art exhibition and start talking. They are brought together as a blind date – each person chose the same exhibition from a list of current events without knowing who their conversational partner would be. At first, all they have in common is an interest in the art on display.

Almost everyone knows the feeling of embarrassment when the objects at an art opening fail to elicit any ideas and one is at a total loss for words – “interesting” is the innocuous term of choice to mask one’s insecurity. Even art professionals often find themselves in situations where the art doesn’t speak to them. A vague comment is the usual way to buy time while the mind races through its data banks, trying to come up with connections, comparisons, judgments.

In a very different approach, Art Clash would like to reveal the thought processes, the search for meaning and the attempts to integrate an art work into a larger context—efforts that even well experienced viewers are struggling with. Contemporary art is becoming increasingly enigmatic at the very time when interest in the subject continues to rise dramatically. Most of us rely on some kind of esthetic compass to guide us through preferences and dislikes, emotional resonance or lack of interest. However, expressing these often not yet fully verbal notions takes confidence.

Birgit Minichmayr and Jim Rakete met at the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg at the exhibition „Rollenbilder Rollenspiele“

Elke Heidenreich and Julia Franck at the Kunstsammlung NRW in Düsseldorf at: „Die andere Seite des Mondes“

Herlinde Koelbl und Ulrike Haage at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen /Basel at the Exhibition „Louise Bourgeois“

Anne Will und Ulrich Matthes at the Neuen Nationalgalerie Berlin at the exhibition „TARYN SIMON: A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters“

VALIE EXPORT and Bastian Trost at Kunsthaus Bregenz where they explore the exhibition: „VALIE EXPORT ARCHIV“

Susanne Lothar und Hans Zimmer saw together: „GERHARD RICHTER: PANORAMA” @ Tate Modern London"