der Legende nach

The exhibition der Legende nach (according to legend) presents works from the two collections of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen alongside selected contemporary positions. The starting point is an exploration of various forms of notation.

Generally speaking, a notation is a system composed of signs and symbols. It can identify, describe, or depict, and it can serve as a tool for transmission or a vehicle for information.The clarity, legibility, and thus functionality of a notation require the structuring of the content and the use of agreed-upon signs, which, however, are never entirely neutral or representative. In view of these limitations, the question arises as to what extent sequences, gestures, and ideas can be documented and reproduced at all. What does it mean to regard something as repeatable, and which opportunities or restrictions does such an assumption entail? In der Legende nach, this indeterminacy is given space: here, intended or unplanned errors and supposed losses in a translation are understood as possibilities that mark the limits of systems and test the potential for constructive change.

The exhibition brings together works that engage with formal and structural systems, appropriate or actively subvert them, and develop individual signatures or vocabularies in the process. The artists direct performances, manipulate reproductions, or address questions of documentation on a technical level. Others attempt to make movements and impressions tangible, and to open up new perspectives through transforming familiar objects into materials or formats that initially appear unrelated. In this respect, the notation in der Legende nach is employed as a conceptual filter: as a means for reflecting on non-linear processes of production and interpretation, and for revealing less obvious connections between works from different media, contexts, and periods.

Curators
Clara Maria Blasius
Paula Thomaka 

The exhibition is a collaboration between MGKSiegen and Residence NRW⁺, a fellowship program run by the Kunsthalle Münster for artists and curators residencenrw.de