Wälzende, 1926 Bronze
Alreadymade II (installation)
Barbara Visser
Sparring partner exhibition
Documentation + text design
08.02.2024 – 12.05.2024 Kunsthaus Zürich
Documentation + text design
08.02.2024 – 12.05.2024 Kunsthaus Zürich
‘Fountain’, a urinal that was declared to be a work of art in 1917, is perhaps the best-known conceptual object of the 20th century. Signed ‘R. Mutt’, it was submitted anonymously to an exhibition by the Society of Independent Artists in New York; since then, everyday objects can be ‘readymades’ and qualify as art too. Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) claimed authorship of the work. However, there are rumours that it was not he who masterminded it but rather the Dada artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874–1927).
The film ‘Alreadymade’ (2023), which forms the basis for Visser’s site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zürich, is an alternative whodunnit that explores the boundaries between genuine and fake. ‘Fountain’ is the starting point of the artist and film-maker’s investigation into the speculation surrounding Duchamp’s authorship. Adopting the readymade approach, she produces the work from existing material: found film footage from which she creates her own moving images, employing new technologies such as motion capture and meta-human modelling. The result is not an art-historical documentation; rather, the mix of existing and newly created material serves as a reflection on such fundamental questions as ‘what is reality, and what is fake?’ Who is the author? What is an original and what is a copy?
The film ‘Alreadymade’ (2023), which forms the basis for Visser’s site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zürich, is an alternative whodunnit that explores the boundaries between genuine and fake. ‘Fountain’ is the starting point of the artist and film-maker’s investigation into the speculation surrounding Duchamp’s authorship. Adopting the readymade approach, she produces the work from existing material: found film footage from which she creates her own moving images, employing new technologies such as motion capture and meta-human modelling. The result is not an art-historical documentation; rather, the mix of existing and newly created material serves as a reflection on such fundamental questions as ‘what is reality, and what is fake?’ Who is the author? What is an original and what is a copy?
Barbara asked me to be her sparring partner for this exhibition and give shape to parts of it. Working closely together we discussed the installation and I became responsible for the time line of Von Freytag-Loringhoven her life with all the ambiguity surrounding it, the sketches of Djuna Barnes her ideas of the biography she would never write of Von Freytag-Loringhoven and helped on multiple parts consisting of the graphic design within the exhibition; such as the ‘do not touch’ items + a reader consisting of all the writing of Von Freytag-Loringhoven. I also assisted Barbara during the installation of the exhibition in Kunsthaus Zürich.
Kunsthaus Zürich is the first museum where this new work was shown. It will also be shown in Germany and possibly in the Netherlands.
barbaravisser.net
kunsthaus.ch