Spanning six decades, the multimedia oeuvre of Rebecca Horn (b. 1944, Germany) deals with the theme of existence, and the blurring of boundaries between nature and culture, technology and biological capital, and the human and the non-human. Whether one describes the artist as an inventor, director, author, composer, or poet, she sees herself first and foremost as a choreographer. Horn describes her artistic practice as carefully calculated relationships of space, light, physicality, sound, and rhythm, which come together to form an ensemble. In her performative, sculptural, and film works, the acts of becoming a machine, becoming an animal, or becoming the Earth present life as a visible, tangible, and audible existence that can be experienced through the body.
The exhibition “Rebecca Horn” is focused on performativity, from the artist’s earliest works to her most recent productions. Horn uses the idea of incorporation to create corporeal interconnectedness, from the first works on paper in the 1960s and the early performances and films of the 1970s, through to the mechanical sculptures of the 1980s, and the spacial installations of the 1990s to the present. Virtuously interwoven references to literature, art history, and film run throughout her body of work. Horn’s practice is a lifelong and topical exploration in the decentralisation of humanity.
The exhibition is supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. The catalogue is published by Spector Books.
Curated by Jana Baumann with Radia Soukni.
For their annual support of our programme we thank our shareholders, the Free State of Bavaria and the Gesellschaft der Freunde Haus der Kunst e.V. We further thank our major supporter, the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung for their generous commitment to our work, as well as Ulli and Uwe Kai-Stiftung. For the kind support of the exhibition we thank Kultustiftung des Bundes.
