Search results for ""author friedhelm mennekes""

Temporality and age are inherent in every object and creature and, depending on one's outlook, may transcend to infinity. How can this be imagined? What goes beyond it? Swiss filmmaker Christoph Schaub sets out for a personal journey through time and space. He starts in his childhood, when his fascination with sacred buildings began, and also his wondering about beginnings and ends. In dialogue with architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, and Alvaro Siza, artists James Turell and Cristina Iglesias, and musician Jojo Mayer, Schaub explores the magic of sacred spaces, a term that for him represents much more than just churches. Architecture of Infinity traces spirituality in architecture and fine arts as well as in nature, and even over and above the limits of thought. The lightly floating camera immerses the viewer in somnambulistic images, taking him on a sensual and sensing journey through vast spaces, guiding his eye towards the star-spangled sky's infinity and the depths of the ocean. Past and present, primeval times and light years, it is all there. The running time of the film is 85 minutes, and the DVD is accompanied by a 32-page booklet with text in English and German.

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A collection of materials and essays contextualizing a performance by Christiansen and Nørgaard in homage to Joseph Beuys. Joseph Beuys performed one of his most radical pieces, the action Manressa, on December 15, 1966, at the Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf. He was accompanied by the Danish artists Henning Christiansen and Bjørn Nørgaard, who, in 1994, created Manresa Hauptbahnhof (Manresa, Central Station), a new performance in homage to the original. The performance was carried out in Manresa, the city that both gave the name to the original action and was where Saint Ignatius Loyola had the revelations that led him to write his Spiritual Exercises, which Beuys considered essential reading. This book brings together all the material related to the 1994 performance—including images, scripts, and preparatory drawings—as well as a selection of critical texts that situate the action within its European context. In one essay, Friedhelm Mennekes analyses the action by delving into its spiritual meaning, exploring the symbolism of the objects employed. In another, Pilar Parcerias uses the metaphor of the central station to discover the city of reference and redraw the map of Europe with unexpected connections between Manresa and Copenhagen. In the final essay, Peter van der Meijden contextualizes the two performances, which represented a meeting place for different artistic personalities working on the cutting edge in creating a new form of art.

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The Italian goldsmith of the “Paduan School” Giampaolo Babetto is famous for his jewellery – geometrically distinct shapes arranged into refined entities of extraordinary perfection and beauty. However, the artist’s wide-ranging spectrum also includes furniture design, silverwork, sculptures, liturgical utensils, and architecture; even his design drawings possess an autonomous character and artistic value. In addition to Christian iconography, his sources of inspiration include the fresco cycles of Renaissance artist Jacopo da Pontormo but also echo Minimalism, Neoplasticism, Neoconstructivism, and “arte programmata/cinetica.” The Entity of Being presents the first overarching survey of the virtuoso Babetto. The comprehensive catalogue section is complemented by four contributions that provide exciting insights into the work of this universal artist. Text in English, German and Italian.

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The first performances by Joseph Beuys were a radical turning point for twentieth-century art. Beuys saw art as a transformative action that is both personal and communal, and his expanded artistic practice engaged spirituality, personal mythology, political structures, and symbolic materials. For Manresa, one of his legendary performance actions, which took place on December 15, 1966 in Düsseldorf, he collaborated with the Danish artists Henning Christiansen and Bjørn Nørgaard. This book presents never-before-seen materials from the performance, including texts, images, scripts, and preparatory drawings, alongside contributions from scholars and critics that offer further insight. Friedhelm Mennekes, an art critic and Jesuit priest, analyses Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s imprint on Beuys’s work while elucidating its spiritual complexity, looking beyond the popular vision of the artist as shaman. Pilar Parcerisas examines Beuys’s spiritual geography, explaining the importance the town of Manresa within it and also laying out the physical and mystical coordinates of Eurasia, a site that was always present in Beuys’s work. Klaus-D. Pohl addresses the paradoxical union between Beuys’s mysticism and the neo-Dadaists of Fluxus. Beuys’s collaborator Bjørn Nørgaard recalls his time working with the German artist and reflects on the paths he opened up. Finally, art historian Harald Szeemann considers the possibility of liberating politics through spirituality.

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