HANNE DARBOVEN and CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE
exhibition view at Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, 2017
behind: HANNE DARBOVEN, Wunschkonzert, 1984
front: CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE, Vierkantrohre Serie DW, 1967
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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HANNE DARBOVEN and CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE
exhibition view at Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, 2017
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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HANNE DARBOVEN and CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE
exhibition view at Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, 2017
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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HANNE DARBOVEN, Wunschkonzert, 1984
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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HANNE DARBOVEN and CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE
exhibition view at Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, 2017
behind: HANNE DARBOVEN, Wunschkonzert, 1984
front: CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE, Vierkantrohre Serie DW, 1967
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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HANNE DARBOVEN and CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE
exhibition view at Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, 2017
behind: HANNE DARBOVEN, Wunschkonzert, 1984
front: CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE, Vierkantrohre Serie DW, 1967
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE, Vierkantrohre Serie DW, 1967
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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HANNE DARBOVEN and CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE
exhibition view at Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, 2017
behind: HANNE DARBOVEN, Wunschkonzert, 1984
front: CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE, Vierkantrohre Serie DW, 1967
image courtesy of the artists and Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

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The images above are actually showing a reenactment of an exhibition that took place in 1967 at the Konrad Fischer Galerie located at that period in Düsseldorf. The show in the sixties presented the work of CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE (1930-1985) with four modules from the series Vierkantrohre Serie and DW (1967) as well as the 120 drawings Konstruktionen (1966-1967) by HANNE DARBOVEN (1941-2009).

Fifty years later the pieces are not exactly the same as they were. Nor the location. The walls are still occupied with DARBOVEN‘s work but this time with the major composition entitled Wunschkonzert Opus 17A und B, Opus 18A und B (1984) as well as the work 42/100 Ein Jahrhundert ABC (2002).

Wunschkonzert (1984) is divided into four parts: Opus 17A and B, and Opus 18 A and B. Each opus is comprised of 36 poems, structured vertically in rows of 7. Every poem comprises of six pages including a title page on which a greeting card (for the occasion of a Christian confirmation) has been collaged. Eventually the work consists of 1009 pages of uniform size. The title refers to the Sunday afternoon musical request programme of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk radio station where felicitations are transmitted also.

“The work 42/100 Ein Jahrhundert ABC (2002), comprising 72 panels, is arranged in three parts. According to her own notation and calculation system which she developed in the late 60s, HANNE DARBOVEN uses various graphical representations to depict the timespan of the 20th century”. *

As for the Vierkantrohre Serie (1967) as well as the DW (1968) by POSENENSKE, this body of work has been conceived with the idea that the curators or buyers can arbitrarily assemble and change the installation. The number of unit parts incorporated in each iteration of the work is not defined, meaning that they can be fashioned to fit a space, or continued indefinitely.

I make series
because I do not want to make individual pieces for individuals,
in order to have elements combinable within a system,
in order to make something that is repeatable, objective,
and because it is economical.
The series can be prototypes for mass-production.
…
They are less and less recognisable as ‘works of art.’
The objects are intended to represent anything other than what they are.

– CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE, ‘Statement’, Art International, no.5, May 1968, p.50

Someone has to reenact this exhibition in 2067.  Meanwhile HANNE DARBOVEN CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE is on view at Konrad Fischer Galerie in Berlin until February 25, 2017.

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*press release

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