Exhibition
Ulrike Ottinger: Floating Food
Wed, Sep 7–Sun, Oct 30, 2011
It’s an exhibition that transforms the entire Haus der Kulturen der Welt into a cosmos of imagery. Ulrike Ottinger, the filmmaker, photographer and collector of worlds, is arranging a comprehensive collage covering four decades of her creative work: “Water and food are elementary necessities for humanity. So where should we even begin to understand these things that meander through all areas of our physical and psychological lives? It has always been my artistic principle to adapt myself to these things, and to join the flow of their nature and their primordial conditions.“
Her copious exhibition runs the gamut from antiquity to modernity, along waterways and through fictitious and real worlds: it begins in the foyer, where a water basin, based on the Cisterna Basilica in Istanbul, playfully alludes to maritime trade between Asia and Europe. By presenting sequences from her films such as “Taiga“, “Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia“ or “China: Die Künste – Der Alltag“ (“China: The Arts, The People”), Ulrike Ottinger lends plasticity to the triad of water, food and ritual. Still and moving images take us on a journey through cookshops, harbors, markets and temples, to the Mongolian slaughter ritual and Mexican sacrificial altars.
Her allegorical installations project landscapes full of sensuality, with mythical creatures and figures from an artist who will be honored with the Hannah Höch Prize this year.
Ulrike Ottinger, born in Constance, has earned international renown, mainly with her films. She worked as freelance artist in Paris from 1962 to 1968, exhibiting in the Salon de la Jeune Peinture, among others, and attending lectures on art history, religious sciences and ethnology under Claude Lévi-Strauss, Louis Althusser and Pierre Bourdieu at the Sorbonne. From the very beginning of her artistic career, Ulrike Ottinger also specialized in photography. Her work has been exhibited at major art shows such as the Biennale di Venezia, documenta and the Berlin Biennale. She has also had individual exhibitions and retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.
„Floating Food“ is part of the Asia-Pacific Weeks 2011.
The Asia-Pacific Weeks are kindly supported by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin. The Haus der Kulturen der Welt is responsible for conceiving and coordinating the cultural program of the Asia-Pacific-Weeks Berlin 2011.
The exhibition „Floating Food“ and the world première of “Unter Schnee” (“Under Snow”) are funded by
