Proposal for a class at the Barnes by Kerstin Fuchs, March 2014

excerpt

 

“In all Barnes courses, students debate, exchange ideas, and engage in the discovery of new ways of seeing and thinking.”

 

1. The experimental performance class is a workshop that creates performance assemblages based on gallery rooms at the Barnes.

 

The goal is to develop small ‘ensembles’ in response to the‘ensembles’ of art works shown in the gallery.

 

2. Building upon the educational ideas of Alfred C. Barnes , the methodology of the experimental performance class is to identify certain aspects of the paintings and objects in the Barnes Collection (motifs and elements of the works themselves, biographical details of the artists, the zeitgeist, etc.), which become the starting point for gathering associated materials (texts, musical works, physical movements, images, historical events, concepts, etc.) towards developing performances. Taking on Barnes’ idea of creating room assemblages of art and objects in order to emphasize certain characteristics, the class would focus on only one gallery room at a time, paying close attention to the particular hanging, combinations and relationships of the exhibited pieces.

 

“Combining art and craft, and objects spanning various cultures and time periods, Barnes sought to demonstrate the continuity of artistic tradition and the universal impulse for creative expression. [...] He strove for harmony in the display of his collection in his Gallery, arranging and rearranging the works in 'ensembles' (...).”

in Yinka Shonibare Magic Ladders catalog

 

"The [new] Petersburg or salon-style hanging combines art with personal memories and trophies. The Petersburg hanging is a calculated understatement. The intention is to integrate the art work into daily life, to bring it down from it's pedestal into the world teeming life! (...) The gentrified middle-class wants to shore up it's roots; it is longing for identity, origin and stability."

 

3. The following is an example of a thought process (not a set lesson plan) of an assemblage
of musical associations and material deriving from works in the Barnes Foundations’ Collection.
Tiger Pelt, Elephant Tusk and Palm Tree: Exoticism then and now.
Taking the jungle scenes of Henri Rousseau as a starting point, we could look at:
the music and writings of Karl May,
the Verger poems by Rainer Maria Rilke and their settings by Paul Hindemith,
as well as
a European Volkslied written in the 19th century,
a Pennsylvanian Dutch song with movements, and
a piece by the composer Scott Joplin.

 

“ Only with the enlightened and romantic enchantment of nature and nation can the Volkslied be found/ invented.

And so, one can also read the idea of the Volkslied as a response to the crisis of the time, to gladden the people with something which was believed to be lost. But that seemingly original and natural thing, into which one withdraws while singing, was already something highly artificial at that time.”

(Michael Fischer in an article of the magazine Die Zeit 2010)