"Das Abteil/Compartment", 2009 – 2010
Zollamt MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt
Commission. Solo exhibition.
Exhibition book with an introduction by Susanne Gaensheimer and an essay by Ranjit Hoskote.
Description of works:
- Four sculptures with references related to the year 1927: "Hombres Pelearon JL Borges", "Kabinett der Abstrakten", "Gernsback Continuum W. Gibson", "Décor a Conquest". Painted wood, magnets, variable dimensions.
- Three Paintings: "A Ship/A Ship", 144 x 114 cm, "Nude Descending/ Displacement", 144 x 179 cm, "Untitled", 144 x 94 cm. Acrylic paint on plexiglass.
- A series of collages as a graphic system of references going back to the year 1927:
- "Dream City", "City Lights", "Verein für Raumschiffahrt", "Das Neue Frankfurt",
- "National Society for German Culture", "Cap Arcona", "Departement des Aigles 1927", "Zollamt/Displacement". Paper, dimensions variable.
- Artifacts: series in bronze, zinc, cardboard. Variable dimensions.
- Signalisation of the heraldic with the year 1927 inscribed on the Zollamt facade.
"Zinny + Maidagan's appeal to the past is rooted neither in documentary zeal, as I have said, nor art-historical nostalgia, nor even simply in the productive desire to generate a richly hybrid genealogy for the transcultural selves that they are. Rather, I propose that their need to excavate the past springs from a Benjaminesque political need to grasp a vital set of memories just as they are about to disappear, because they so acutely illuminate the present in a moment of great danger. For the radiance of the utopian ideas of the 1920s concealed an underlying darkness of spirit." (The Irresistible Call of the Future, Ranjit Hokote 2010.)
Photos by Axel Schneider
