solo
Art Forum Berlin, 2004
It’s a strange-looking quote by Willy Brandt, emblazoned meter-high and -wide on the mezzanine floor of Berlin’s BER airport: “If I were to say what is most important to me next to peace, my answer would be: freedom.“ The European history of freedom from the 15th century to the present day is a fundamental leitmotif in my work. The Haus am Lützowplatz, established by Willy Brandt, offers me the opportunity to ask questions about the impact of freedom, so tenuous, now. (ZIERVOGEL)
The artist has conceived new, site-specific works in response to the institution’s architectural conditions and history, which, when combined with older works, transform the Haus am Lützowplatz into an expansive installation. The exhibition will feature a three-part self-portrait: Parcours – as if, 2023 / Das Erste, 2000 and D:N:A (Der Kaktus hat recht: Nec spe nec metu: Archivieren aller Arbeiten) -Portrait, 2022-2023 / Südjapanisches Selbstportrait, 2023.
Exactly in 1500, Albrecht Dürer in his painting Selbstbildnis im Pelzrock, idealized and individualized (signature). Through this filtered selfie, he virtually emancipated the fine arts from pure craftsmanship: We are on the verge of creating a real AI (Fake It Till You Make It) that will completely change the self-image in the mirror of artistic activity. Machine learning currently still uses the superimposition of countless photos to produce its own images – but computer technology will very soon be much more cross-creative and powerful to completely cover artistic expression (for humans) and in the process make it obsolete.
ZIERVOGEL’s works in the exhibition Wir sollen wie Hunde sein is not meant to be a cry for help or a fortress for the analog and the controlled digital – but an unabashed push towards inevitable development in focus of man’s artistic activity in the 21st century.
Opening: Thursday, March 30, 2023, 7 p.m.
Artist talk: Saturday, April 1, 2023, 4 p.m.
Exhibition Talks: Dr. Marc Wellmann in dialogue with Dr. Harald Falckenberg, Saturday, April 22, 2023, 4 p.m.
and Marlene A. Schenk, Thursday, May 11, 2023, 7 p.m.
Haus am Lützowplatz
Fördererkreis Kulturzentrum Berlin e.V.
Lützowplatz 9
10785 Berlin
works
archive, 2000-2020, Sprengel Museum Hannover, 2020
The Sprengel Museum Hannover has been appointed custodian of Ralf Ziervogel’s archive, spanning his works between 2000 and 2020, including drawings, publications, films, photos, negatives, documents, certificates, correspondences and a digital archive of 2.5 TB data volume. The organized analogue and digital collection has been curated by the artist himself and handed over to the museum.
Kurt-Schwitters-Platz 1
30169 Hannover, Deutschland
group
invitation card, 2019
Group exhibition SCHLUSS by Ralf Ziervogel with Sonja Alhäuser, Carl Andre, Kenneth Anger, Lothar Baumgarten, Joseph Beuys, Bibiana Beglau, Sebastian Blasius, Andrey Bogush, Nine Budde, Jonas Burgert, David Chipperfield, John Cena, Aldo Cristofaro, Lars Dittrich, Jan Eilhardt, Olafur Eliasson, Six Friedrich, e. Gabriel, Andrej Golder, Gregor Hildebrandt, Michael Holzberger, Rebecca Horn, Andy Hope 1930, Hustensaft Jüngling, Alexander Kluge, Philipp Kremer, Alicja Kwade, Frank Künster, Brock Lesnar, Via Lewandowsky, Lucy Liu, Rosa Loy, Medikamenten Manfred, Ana Mendieta, Jonathan Meese, Katja Novitskova, Neo Rauch, Daniel Richter, Katharina Sieverding, Wolfgang Tillmans, Christian Sauer, Michael Schultz, Christoph Schlingensief, Gregor Schneider, Christian Schulte, John Squire, Jorinde Voigt, Franz Erhard Walther, Andy Warhol, Ai Wei Wei, Kanye West, Ran Zhang.
Opening: Friday, 6 December 2019, 19:00 – 24:00
Running: 7 December – 12 January 2020
SCHAU FENSTER
Raum für Kunst
Lobeckstr. 30-35
10969 Berlin
solo
poster, 2018
From 29 September 2018 to 17 March 2019, the Deichtorhallen Hamburg will present RALF ZIERVOGEL: AS IF at the Falckenberg Collection, the largest solo exhibition by the Berlin-based artist, who is best known for his oversized, often drastic drawings. Conceived in close collaboration with Ralf Ziervogel (*1975), the show presents some 130 works across four floors, including large and small-scale drawings, videos, and installations.
Sensational subjects are spread across Ralf Ziervogel’s sheets of paper spanning up to ten meters in length: without preliminary sketches, ink drawings depict palm-sized figures in extreme physical situations: they are bound, entangled, and knotted. These are delicate, complex drawings that show predominantly human bodies forming monochrome, ornamental webs. In Ziervogel’s works, bodies become split beings that reflect all conceivable metamorphoses of human existence while also encountering its limits.
Ziervogel has been working on a series of body prints since 2014: composed of fragmentary impressions in black gouache, the result is a new dynamic body on sheets of paper up to five meters long. Every movement, every impression and smear on the paper is accompanied by handwritten texts composed by the artist, which stretch across the black impressions like a spider’s web, forming a second level of the works. The new works seem more abstract and reduced to a minimalist formal language that simultaneously suggests movement and calm.
The consistency of the subject matter results in three-dimensional works that are developed over the course of years or even decades. They are Ziervogel’s utopias, crafted as sculptures or installations. Enormous buildings and small test facilities demonstrate how an idea can be implemented with all the means available today. Key works in this regard are also the videos from between 2001 and 2004, which can be understood as short, affective descriptions of emotions and a system of reference.
Ralf Ziervogel’s works have been shown at the art and architecture exhibitions of the Venice Biennale as well as the Kunsthalle Wien, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Fort Worth, Texas, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Deste Foundation in Athens, la maison rouge in Paris, and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, among other venues.
Opening: Friday, 28 September 2018, 19:00 – 24:00
Running: 29 September 2018 – 27 January 2019, extended until 17 March 2019