The Bochum Art Museum was founded in 1960 under the name "Städtische Kunstgalerie" (Municipal Art Gallery). Since then, the art museum has developed into an important center for contemporary art. Its collections and exhibitions reflect the dynamism and diversity of the contemporary art scene and attract art lovers from all over the world.
I found various installations in the exhibition in the new museum building.
First, I discovered the film EM CASA, by Dias & Riedweg. I don't want to write anything about it, as the museum's accompanying notes explain everything under the heading "How to live like this?" and I don't think any more words are needed. Just this: it's worth taking the time to let the works sink in.
The self-portrait in the film EM CASA (AT HOME) (4:23 min, 2021) was conceived, performed, filmed, and edited by the artist duo Dias & Riedweg in the house they have lived in for two decades in the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. As in many of their works, the theme of otherness or the concept of "the other" takes center stage. Here, it plays out in the solitude of quarantine during the Covid pandemic. The artists decided to duplicate their own images in twin videos and stage two pantomimes. In one room, several Mauricio Dias or Walter Riedwegs are presented and "play" simple, typical situations of confinement that have afflicted the whole world. The self becomes a sum of many others, many Mauricios, many Walters, but also everyone else, individually and collectively in the shared experience of quarantine. The visual repetition and accumulation of the artists in the videos eliminates any
Inspired by its namesake, the goddess Hygeia from Greek mythology—the personification of health and the element of water—artist Irene Fernández Arcas' multimedia installation, Hygeia's Cave—Collective Regeneration Temple, welcomes visitors to collective care. For the spacious exhibition room with its seven-meter-high ceiling on the first floor, the artist has created an impressive and collective space for relaxation. Hundreds of meters of fabric painted by her and dyed using the blueprinting process hang delicately from the ceiling. An oversized, walk-in tent serves as a temple. Inside, film and sound works can be seen and heard, for which she invited other artists to collaborate. The element of water and its healing power are central to the installation and symbolize life—a never-ending flow of water promises tranquility, but also constant change.
At the other end of the room, a spherical shape breathes in for four minutes and out for four minutes. Slovakian conceptual artist Stano Filko is known for his installations in public spaces, with which he resisted the monumental representation of the socialist regime in his homeland, the former Czechoslovakia. Filko turned to cosmic space in his art. The large balloon Breathing: The Celebration of Air (Dýchanie – oslava vzduchu, 1970) is considered a key work in Filko's cosmic consciousness. Air circulates inside, causing the round shape to constantly expand and contract. The artist connects the breathing of the human body with the pulsation of the universe.
