The artist Erich Reusch, represented by the Berlin gallery ‘kajetan Berlin | Raum für Kunst’, can currently be seen in a one-man show in the Museum unter Tage Bochum, a section of the Situation Kunst Foundation (for Max Imdahl). On display there are paintings, photographs, objects, sculptures and drawings by the artist, who died in December 2019 and who had partly accompanied the conception of the exhibition.
Image above: Erich Reusch, Untitled, 1965/Variant 2019, steel, wood, acrylic, epoxy varnish, 222 x 410 x 170 cm, on loan from private property
Erich Reusch would have turned 95 this year. To mark the occasion, the Situation Kunst Foundation is dedicating an exhibition to him that spans the arc from his earliest reliefs to his most recent, predominantly explosively colorful paintings. After Erich Reusch had initially actively accompanied the conception of the exhibition with his own intensity and creative power, he died on December 29th, 2019, after a long illness. Since then, it has been and still is a major concern of the Foundation Situation Kunst to realize the exhibition as much as possible in his spirit and thus to keep his impressive work in consciousness.
Reusch, who had studied both architecture and sculpture, left the studio at an early age in search of an engagement with the everyday world. His works for public space are difficult to categorize: they structure the space with plastic elements, with irritating sound frequencies, laser or ultrasound, or, as at the Forum of the Ruhr University Bochum, they create their own microclimatic zones through more audible than visible watercourses. Although addressed with all senses, the human being is not the focus here, but is often found relativized and challenged to rethink the familiar and one’s own existence. It is a matter of sounding out distances, of making interspatial references visible, of artistically overcoming physical boundaries. These frequently site-specific works, which in addition to the experiments mentioned above also include designs for an Auschwitz Memorial or for the redesign of the Memorial to German Resistance in the Bendlerblock in Berlin, exceed the possibilities of museum presentation.
Most people will be familiar with Erich Reusch’s electrostatic objects created from Plexiglas and soot since the 1970s, which are represented in the exhibition in characteristic variations. They create a visible but inaccessible space, are objects in themselves and yet, in their translucent presence, they also redefine the entire environment. Due to the changing electrostatic charge, these works are in a constant process of change, the soot on the interior walls is set in motion, creating ever new formations.
The exhibition comprises around 55 works, including loans from the Adolf Luther Foundation Krefeld, the Museum DKM Duisburg, the art collections of the Ruhr University Bochum, among others. Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Peter Raue Collection and other private collections.
A catalogue with contributions by Karen van den Berg, Alexander von Berswordt, Norbert Lammert and Maria Spiegel has been published for the exhibition: 146 p., 93 illustrations.
Foundation Situation Kunst + Museum unter Tage
The Foundation Situation Kunst was founded on April 25th, 2005. In the course of 2005, it erected an extension to the existing Situation Kunst project, which was opened to the public as part of the art collections of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum on September 6, 2006. The presentation, designed as a permanent exhibition, was conceived and realized by Alexander and Silke von Berswordt-Wallrabe, based on donations from their private collection and donations from artists such as François Morellet and Lee Ufan as well as the Archivio Gianni Colombo. The expansion project was made possible by numerous endowments and donations from private individuals and companies in Germany and abroad; it was realized without any use of public funds.
The Museum unter Tage (MuT) was opened in November 2015 and was built underground on the main axis of Haus Weitmar’s castle park, protecting the landscape. It fulfils two essential functions: One third (approx. 500 square metres) of the exhibition space is used for temporary exhibitions, which are developed in cooperation with various RUB institutes and, if possible, are sent on tour from here to other museums throughout Germany and Europe. Two thirds (approx. 1,000 square metres) of the exhibition space are used to permanently present parts of the collection of world views. This comprises around 350 works of landscape art since the 15th century, from classical oil paintings to room-filling video-sound installations. In an exhibition series starting in Bochum, this collection has already been shown in several German and international museums (including Kiel, Wiesbaden, Chemnitz, Cottbus, Maastricht).
If you are interested and have questions about works, please contact the gallery kajetan Berlin:
kajetan Berlin | Raum für Kunst
Gneisenaustraße 33 (factory building, 1st courtyard)
10961 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Tel. +49 (0)176 57 79 26 51
info@kajetan.berlin
Wednesday – Friday 2 – 7 pm, Saturday, 12 – 4 pm and by arrangement
+++ KEEP IN MIND > stay safe wear masks +++
Exhibition: Erich Reusch: grenzenlos. Artworks 1951-2019
WHEN?
May 6th, 2020 – August 23rd, 2020
Opening hours: Wed – Fri: 2 – 6 pm, Sat + Sun: 12 – 6 pm
WHERE?
Museum unter Tage
Situation Kunst (for Max Imdahl)
Nevelstraße 29c (in the park area of Haus Weitmar)
44795 Bochum
Germany
+49 (0)234 3228523
 can be seen until 23.8.2020 in the museum underground Bochum in a museum solo exhibition.){kind=link}