Spanning six decades, the multimedia oeuvre of Rebecca Horn (b. 1944, Germany) deals with the theme of existence, and the blurring of boundaries between nature and culture, technology and biological capital, and the human and the non-human. Whether one describes the artist as an inventor, director, author, composer, or poet, she sees herself first and foremost as a choreographer. Horn describes her artistic practice as carefully calculated relationships of space, light, physicality, sound, and rhythm, which come together to form an ensemble. In her performative, sculptural, and film works, the acts of becoming a machine, becoming an animal, or becoming the Earth present life as a visible, tangible, and audible existence that can be experienced through the body.
The exhibition “Rebecca Horn” traces the performative, that is, choreographic, aspects of the artist’s work for the first time. Horn repeatedly invokes the language of dance as a medium and catalyst for her artistic thinking. Early on, she created visionary symbols for the interconnectedness of bodies and technology. She has developed this theme from her first works on paper in the 1960s, through the early performances and films of the 1970s, the mechanical sculptures of the 1980s, and the expansive installations of the 1990s, up to the present day.
The artist makes networks of human and non-human actors visible, questioning the position of humans as one of many species. Virtuously interwoven references to the history of literature, art, and film run through her entire oeuvre. Horn’s work is a lifelong, significant exploration of the progressive decentering of the human being within a cosmic whole.
Curated by Jana Baumann with Radia Soukni.
