Simply Video. Moving Pictures from the Kunsthalle Bremen

Nearly 50 years ago artists began to experiment with video cameras and monitors for the first time. Meanwhile contemporary art is inconceivable without the medium of video. Based on a selection of sculptural and extensive video installations from the eminent collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart organized its first large special exhibition exclusively devoted to the options explored by the moving image.

The earliest work in the exhibition stemmed from the video pioneer Peter Campus. Diana Thater, an American artist, transformed the core space in the heart of a cube with the multi-projection artwork “Delphine” into a multi-level aquarium. Created especially for the exhibition in Stuttgart, the Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer orchestrated a captivating and mysterious cosmos of images using his animations and wall paintings. Additional exhibits included works of the South-African draftsman William Kentridge, the American Jon Kessler, as well as the young German artists Ulla von Brandenburg, Bjørn Melhus, Astrid Nippoldt, and Clemens von Wedemeyer.

Because of construction and renovation works, the Kunsthalle Bremen was closed to the public for two years. During this period its extensive collection was a “noble guest” at the disposal of various German museums. The Kunstmuseum Stuttgart chose to “invite” Bremen’s outstanding media art collection.