greater form X MdbK
Since last year, the MdbK has been cooperating with the artist group greater form and kids from Leipzig-Grünau.
greaterform x MdbK
As a guest in Leipzig-Grünau
In autumn 2022, the artist group greater form was a guest at the museum with the expansive, multimedia installation Der Albtraumvorhersager (The Nightmare Predictor). In 2023, greater form is now inviting the MdbK to Leipzig-Grünau. MdbK staff, the kids and the artists' group will meet regularly under the motto Gastgeben (Hosting). The focus is on dialogue and joint artistic practice between people of different ages, expertise, ways of thinking and working, and realities of life.
Small, socially committed initiatives and projects of art and cultural education - whether in rural areas or in urban peripheries - often lack recognition and long-term financial security. However, they reach people who make up a large part of society but are severely underrepresented in artistic and cultural life. In contrast, large, established cultural institutions have general recognition, great discursive power and secure resources, but at the same time face the challenge of having to make internal structures more flexible and democratic, to reflect self-critically on traditional approaches and to reach a more diverse audience. How can these two worlds meet, support and learn from each other? This will be the topic of Gastgeben.
The Exhibition
gastgeben. greater form x MdbK
10.11.-8.12.23, each Wednesday to Friday 2 - 6 p.m.
Opening: 9.11.23, 6 p.m.
This year, the museum was the guest of greater form and the kids from Grünau. Together, they artistically explored the question of what all participants have in common. At the beginning of the project, the museum brought guest gifts, for example a photograph by Evelyn Richter, a picture by Andreas Gursky and an advertising space on the Leipzig Cotton Mill. The gifts provided important inspiration for the creative work. A lot was tried out on the topic of hosting. Staff from the MdbK also visited the kids again and again in the project space of greater form in Grünau, while the kids and greater form visited the museum several times. In the course of the year, all participants got to know each other better and many artworks, performances and actions in public space were created.
At the end of the project, an interactive exhibition was realised in the Allee-Center Leipzig. Fourteen stations show events and results from the past months. At some of the stations, visitors can continue to work, eat, chill, build, play and dream during the exhibition. The mobile exhibition architecture is alive and can be repositioned in the space at any time. During opening hours, the kids invite you to participate in performances.
Location: Allee-Center Leipzig, 1st floor shop, Ludwigsburger Str. 9, 04209 Leipzig-Grünau
Public guided tours with greater form and art mediator Hermine Brietzel on 15.11. and 06.12., 5 pm each. Followed by a picnic in the exhibition.
Der Albtraumvorhersager (The Nightmare Predictor)
2022, greater form and the kids have dedicated themselves to the big questions of the future. What ideas and wishes, what worries and fears, what questions and demands do the kids have about their own future? It was not surprising that in times like these, the desire for a nightmare predictor arose, which provided the energy for the most diverse aesthetic-artistic discussions in the course of the year. Together, greater form and the young artists went into the absurd world of (night)dreams, into confusing labyrinths and into slimy, glittering stalactite caves inhabited by eerie creatures. Here, personal and collective fears and crises could be confronted with the joy of experimentation and the expression of desire in exploding forms and colours. Over several months, group and individual works were created that were connected to the central collective work - the nightmare predictor that had become real. The question about the form of the exhibition was answered by the kids like this: "You can't find your way around in a nightmare - that's why we need a labyrinth!" The visitors were invited to explore this labyrinth, to get lost in it - and maybe even to find it again.
greater form
greater form operates between art, activism and education. Their concerns are the self-determined participation of children and young people in cultural life and the equal artistic collaboration of kids and adults. Since 2015, the group has been realising projects in the large housing estate Leipzig-Grünau as well as exhibitions in Leipzig and the surrounding area. Since 2019, greater form has been running its own project space in Grünau. Here, they do artistic research together with the kids and young people on topics that come from the kids' life worlds (origin, poverty, violence, friendship, love, etc.) and are set in relation to the topics and experiences of the adults. greater form is currently Mirko Gust, Rami Hariri, Philipp Rödel, Lina Ruske, Silke Schetelig and Christina Weidenbach, as well as the kids who want it. Alina, Alisha, Antonia, Antonio, Babi, Christine, Daniel, Daniella, Eileen, Elisa, Emily, Emma, Erik, Fine, Florian, Isa, Jasmin, Jacqueline, Karolina, Laura, Lilli, Leni, Lennard, Leon, Lucas, Max, Maike, May, Mia, Mia, Moritz, Natalie, Omei, Oskar, Pascal, Raven, Rayan, Saša, Sudari, Suriana, Valeria, Zoe and many more participated in the exhibition.
https://www.instagram.com/greaterform/
