MEYER*KAINER curated by Eva Birkenstock
„STRAWFIRES“
www.meyerkainer.com
Curator(s):
Artist(s):
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Agnes Scherer More
Agnes Scherer (born in 1985, Germany) lives and works in Salzburg and Berlin. She studied painting at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf with Peter Doig and Enrico David. Scherer’s work develops unique forms of presentation which bring together paintings and handmade artifacts, generating large-scale and holistic installations. Scherer thus creates complex pictorial work that resists immediate objectification and commodification, instead demanding from viewers a heightened level of focus and engagement. Throughout her artistic practice, she interrogates power relations and their underlying psychologies. Drawing from analyses of art history, anthropology, and cultural history, Scherer subverts artistic strategies that originally served the consolidation of power. Using anachronisms and representation of universally known symbols, her work often illustrates the uncanny ways in which historical systems, economies, and societal roles are reflected in the present. Selected solo shows include 'Woe and Awe' at Sadie Coles HQ, London (2024); 'Savoir Vivre' at ChertLüdde, Berlin (2024); 'Ein seltsames Spiel' at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2023); 'Casper a la mode', PAGE (NYC) at Bel Ami, Los Angeles (2023); 'Savoir Vivre' at Heidelberger Kunstverein (2023); 'A thousand times yes' at Sans titre, Paris (2022); 'Fancies' at PAGE (NYC), New York (2022); 'The Notebook Simulations' at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf (2021); 'My refuge, my treasure, without body, without measure' at ChertLüdde, Berlin (2021); 'Coeurs Simples' at Sans titre, Paris (2020); 'ORLANDO TUSSAUD' at Philipp Haverkampf, Berlin (2019). Agnes Scherer's first operetta "Cupid and the Animals", was awarded the Nigel Greenwood Art Prize in 2015 and performed in, among other places, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2017) and TRAMPS in New York (2018). In 2019, her second elaborate work within this format, "The Teacher", was presented by Kinderhook & Caracas in Berlin, at Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2020) and recently in Italy for the festival ART CITY Bologna (2023). Also in 2020, Scherer presented the first part of her third operetta project "The Salty Testament" at 1646 in The Hague. The artist’s narrative installation "The Very Hungry" at the Berlin project space Horse & Pony was granted the Berlin Art Prize (2019). Agnes Scherer’s works are featured in the permanent collections of important institutions and museums, including FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims; Sigg Art Foundation; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; KOLUMBA Museum, Cologne and Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster in Aachen.
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In her exhibitions and stage productions, Salzburg-based artist Agnes Scherer merges sculpture, painting, drawing, music, and performance to create multilayered object theatres. For "Curated by: Untold Narratives," she revisits the 'archive' of her own artistic practice to expand and recontextualize a piece about Marie Antoinette originally created in 2019. This scenographic installation, composed of painterly and sculptural elements, uses events from the life of the iconic French queen as a pretext to explore the ongoing revival of feudal structures. Scherer portrays Marie Antoinette both at the guillotine and amidst her yearning for a pastoral life. Her paintings feature the „Hameau de la Reine“, a fully functional farm village, recently restored by Dior, which the queen had constructed in the gardens of Versailles in 1783 to playfully explore a rustic lifestyle together with selected guests.
In contrast to glorifying perspectives on the French Revolution, "Strawfires" offers an ambiguous portrait of these events. The title refers on the one hand to the recurring overwriting of revolutionary agendas by neo-feudal demands for power, privilege, and profit maximization, which extends into the present day. On the other hand, the title refers to a socially romantic desire for a fairer existence within the broader societal context, a desire that is only casually flirted with through the facades of simple lifestyles, detox rituals, or regular retreats to remote 'cabins' for mental and physical cleansing.
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