sk at kuenstlerhaus stuttgart

Susanne Kriemann: Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory

12. Dezember 2009 - 7. Februar 2010

Künstlerhaus Stuttgart presents two solo exhibitions of Susanne Kriemann and Oscar Tuazon. Both artists, in different ways, deal with the social function of architecture. Each artist has created new work for the exhibition directly related to specific aspects of the architectural history of Stuttgart.

Susanne Kriemann’s work “Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory” reflects her interest in historical moments, in which utopian models become visible and then collapse. What often remain from such departures are, since the onset of Modernism, photographic or filmic images. In her work, shown for the first time at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Susanne Kriemann combines her own photographs with archive material. In a series of photos and a slide installation, she connects the reception history of the modernist model estate Weisshofseidlung (1927) in Stuttgart with an enormous archaeological site in Syria to associatively examine the relationship of present and past. The exhibition of Susanne Kriemann is a co-production with the exhibition space ‘Kiosk’ in Gent, where it will be on display in early 2010. At the end of the exhibition, an artist book will be published.

In her photographic projects, Susanne Kriemann follows a research-oriented approach. Starting from observations usually related to the location of the exhibition, the projects follow specific motives through historical layers and over geographical or social domains. The subject of photography plays a significant role in the artist’s work. Not only a tool for making visible, the images themselves are always simultaneously scrutinized by the artist. Through references to the history of photography, the way that images are used to construct our view of the world becomes a central theme of her work.

An important figure in the exhibition in Stuttgart is Agatha Christie, who in addition to her work as a detective story author acted as photographer during the archaeological excursions she went on with her husband, Max Mallowan. Her experiences in the Middle East then served as inspiration for many of her novels, such as “Murder on the Orient Express”. Conversely, the Weissenhofsiedlung, which still exists today, has a sort of parallel existence within architectural history as a series of photographs that are unlike the building complex’s current appearance.

Susanne Kriemann (*1972) studied at the Kunstakademie in Stuttgart and at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, she lives in Rotterdam and Berlin. Recently she had solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, in the Galerie Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam and at Uqbar Berlin (all 2009). Her work was also included in group exhibitions at the Ursula Blickle Stiftung in Kraichtal, “Berlin89/09″ at the Berlinische Galerie, at the Fotomuseum Rotterdam, and she participated in the 5th Berlin Biennial. In 2009, a monograph “One Time One Million” was published by Roma Publications, Amsterdam.