The German pavilion on the Biennale site in Venice is seen as a challenge. The building, which was redesigned by the Nazis, provokes a dispute. The artist Maria Eichhorn is working on it.
Maria Eichhorn will design the German Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, which has been postponed by a year due to the corona. The Berlin-based artist often surprises and amazes with her work.
In an interview with the German Press Agency in Berlin, she says what moves her in preparation for Venice.
Question: After several other biennials and two participations in Venice: What is special about designing the German Pavilion for you?
Answer: There are differences to other biennials, in this case in Venice the exchange with the curator, with Yilmaz Dziewior, is more intensive compared to the group exhibitions, where you are part of a larger context, the individual contribution is absorbed in the totality of all contributions . This time my work is more in the focus of the public and the media. But if we look not just at the individual pavilion, but at the entire biennale, all of the national contributions, my contribution is receded and is one of many.
Question: The concept of the Biennale is repeatedly called into question on many levels and in different ways. Does the pavilion system do justice to contemporary art?
Answer: Even if art is shown in national pavilions, art as I understand it remains international and cosmopolitan, anarchic, resistant, political and polemical, fragmentary, critical and independent of it. It is only a temporary phase of showing in these pavilions and these contexts. Art remains independent of it.
Question: As an artist with German citizenship, you will design the German pavilion. What do terms like nation mean for you as an artist?
Answer: Over 21 million people from almost 200 countries live in Germany today, and every fourth person has a history of immigration or immigration. People from all over the world live in almost every country. From my point of view, concepts like nation are disappearing more and more.
Question: The past of the pavilion and its Nazi-influenced architecture have already been thematized in very different ways. How does this affect your approach?
Answer: It is interesting to see how different artists have dealt with the pavilion, which aspects have emerged and connections have become clear. All of these previous artistic works naturally have an impact on future contributions, including mine. But I assume that artists each have their own language and develop their own forms and content. Time, for example, also plays a major role. Rather, it is developing away from the architecture of the pavilion. What is shown has to do with the respective artistic practice. In this respect, they are all very different, you don’t have to set yourself apart, you just do the work you’ve been doing for decades.
Question: In your work you also deal with German history. To what extent does the pavilion act as an amplifier?
Answer: My work is primarily concerned with the present. So how do we deal with the aftermath of our history today? The pavilion is of course also part of history and we are influenced by it today, whether we like it or not. But you don’t have to deal with the pavilion. Whereby artists have repeatedly expressed themselves site-specific with their contributions. It is interesting that this pavilion is so location-based. But there were also contributions that distanced themselves from it, or distanced themselves from it.
Question: The documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale are considered to be the most important exhibitions for contemporary art. What is the difference between the two events for you as a participating artist?
Answer: The documenta only takes place every five years, so there is a lot more time to develop new works. There is more attention from the professional audience. And then there is also a closer exchange with artist colleagues. The social, the communal, is pretty strong. In the weeks leading up to the opening, all the artists are in Kassel, we meet often, go out to eat, and friendships are made. Venice is much more focused on the art market. Galleries and collectors finance artistic contributions and artists without commercial support go into debt. But there are of course exceptions, the Biennale can also have critical, political dimensions, despite the dominance of the art market. What is common to both exhibitions is the international, artists from all over the world take part and visitors come from almost all over the world.
Question: In what way does Venice, with its very own charm and overflowing history, influence your work?
Answer: Venice has a magnetic attraction that you can hardly avoid. I really like the city. But I do not overlook the effects that Venice is having under control: global, neoliberal economic policy, rents that are increasing indefinitely, Venetians that are being displaced and a social fabric that is falling apart. In Venice I always see both sides, this unbelievable charm and this mass tourism, which is extremely tough on people and destroys the sensitive ecological balance in the lagoon.
Question: Your work often extends over longer periods of time, some projects also develop more in the mind of the viewer. What role does this effect of your work play in the creation process?
Answer: The accessibility of my work is very important to me, especially at these large exhibitions. That is why I always try to incorporate several access levels to make it easier for visitors to see the work. I always try to give them the freedom of choice to be active or passive about my work. Everyone can connect their own thoughts to it, can do something different with it, bring their own background, their own thoughts and experiences.
Question: How is the pandemic affecting your work?
Answer: There is certainly an influence, which influence I can hardly put into words. The worldwide changes, everything that has happened since the beginning of the pandemic, cannot be without influence, on every person, in this respect also on artistic work and also on mine.
About the person: The Bamberg born artist Maria Eichhorn (59) lives and works in Berlin. She is designing the German Pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennale, which has been postponed by one year to 2022 due to the corona. Your work has received numerous awards. For documenta 11 in Kassel in 2002 she founded a stock corporation whose company capital of 50,000 euros could not be increased, but was exhibited as a work of art in cash. At documenta 14 in 2017, she researched the expropriation of Jewish property. To do this, she stocked a floor-to-ceiling shelf with illegally acquired books.