Sixth exhibition accompanying the presentation of the nail relief "Weißer Schrei" by Günther Uecker in the State Library, free admission
The diptych "Gespalten" by Günther Uecker shows a field of nails divided over its entire height. It opens wide to the side and creates the impression of a lifted theater curtain. The motif was used to advertise Uecker's stage designs in 1987. The nailed surfaces of the still curtained stage become a prologue to the transition into the world of the imaginary. Uecker's works for stage and music are a challenging part of his oeuvre, representing reflection and turmoil in one. In its new exhibition "Theaterarbeiten. Stage and music in the work of Günther Uecker".
From 17.10. to 06.12.2024, texts, pictures and posters provide information about Uecker's designs, including for Beethoven's opera "Leonore" ("Fidelio"), performed in Bremen in 1974, and for the Wagner productions of "Parsifal" in Stuttgart in 1976 and "Lohengrin" in Bayreuth in 1979. The three projects outline a specific field of the artist's work and are located at an intersection of his various creative areas.
The artist's formal language is unmistakable, such as his use of light and dark to create spatial and temporal levels. We encounter familiar motifs such as the "Table of Expulsion", a "White Forest" of dust-bright trunks, wandering shadows, injured surfaces, hidden wounds and nails. "What I'm trying to do here is to break up this opera space [...] in its conventional functionality," says Uecker, countering the "frontal views" of the theater stage with sculptural forms. Programmatically, he calls them stage sculptures. They are intended to give space to scenic art and, according to Uecker's aim, make the "deep psychological complexes" of music and language visible.
Uecker's theater works stand alone in his oeuvre and were the result of a close collaboration with the directors Nikolaus Lehnhoff and, in particular, Götz Friedrich. At the same time, they have a number of intersections with sculptural, graphic, kinetic, conceptual, experimental and even acoustic works. The exhibition picks up on this in a library-specific way. The title motif is the "Optical Score Budapest" from 2012, a large-format three-part lithograph modeled on the style of musical notation and representing Uecker's exploration of writing and signs as information carriers. This approach includes, as here, the use of the lithograph as an original graphic book cover (see photo).
Further examples of the cross-section are, in addition to the opera genre, Uecker's scenic interpretation of the St. Matthew Passion in 1999 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a ballet for Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 (Düsseldorf) in 1970 and, finally, Uecker's so-called "Terrororchester" consisting of light, movement and noise machines. The content of the latter is connected to the student unrest at the end of the 1960s.
But the production of the St. Matthew Passion also takes up contemporary events with the Bosnian war and shows the choirs in shot-up house constructions "like singing walls of lamentation". The pictorial signs created at the same time for the story "Sarajevo 96" by Rostock-born author Ingrid Bachér (2001) interweave the theme with the exhibition venue in a bibliophile and regional way. A pictorial portrait of Uecker by Rostock photographer Hans Pölkow, taken during rehearsals in the backstage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, is also able to do this.
Just as Uecker sees his Terrororchester as an homage to John Cage, there are also these cross-references and resonances from contemporaries to himself. This is demonstrated by several compositions inspired by Uecker and dedicated to him, including Gordon Kampe's "Sieben weiße Bilder" (2006) and "Stücke für Schlagwerk" by Robyn Schulkowsky (1985). The sphere of influence of all these interrelationships also results from collaborations and actions by the artist, such as the "Program for a piano nailed by Günther Uecker" (1968), whose schedule is perhaps the most unusual exhibit in the selection.
The exhibition "Theaterarbeiten. Stage and Music in the Work of Günther Uecker" can be seen from 17.10. to 06.12.2024. It accompanies the presentation of the nail relief "Weißer Schrei", on loan from HypoVereinsbank, Member of UniCredit and the Staatliches Museum Schwerin. A visit is possible during opening hours. Admission is free.
