Hamburg. The first thing that strikes visitors when they walk into the Deichtorhalle is a series of trendy, gaudily coloured photographs entitled »Blumen und Pilze« (»Flowers and Mushrooms«, 1997/1998), hung directly facing the entrance and flaunting themselves aggressively at viewers; these are large-format, double exposures of a grandiose triviality, which certainly accommodate the general public’s artistic preferences, which can obviously also be said of the entire exhibition, to judge by the guest-book. It is full of hymns of praise, school pupils describe the exhibition as being »koool«, stress that they definitely want to come back or compare the artists with popular caricaturists and satirists. In more general terms, it is striking to note how many of the approaches favoured by Fischli and Weiss have become standard components of pop culture – cuteness, teddy bear costumes etc., references to bears and rats, for example, are all to be found in the realm of popular culture in videos, stage performances and album covers –, indeed the ironic-brooding work of the two Swiss artists is easily accessible and apparently meets with a broad consensus.
These observations alone make the retrospective »Fragen & Blumen« (»Questions & Flowers«), organised in cooperation with Tate Modern, London, and Kunsthaus Zürich, well worth a visit, although of course it actually has rather more to offer than merely pop culture references and presents a comprehensive overview of work by the two artists for the first time. The hall was completely revamped for this show; the exhibition architecture was specially redesigned by Fischli and Weiss, with rooms entwined in labyrinthine meanderings, alternately artificially darkened and illuminated to give visitors a chance to set off on an entertaining, varied tour through rooms structured around various themes and presenting large-format film and video projections, photo series and sculptures. A total of 25 ensembles are on display, including early works such as the 1979 sausage series, the »Rat and Bear« films from the 1980s, photo series like »Airports« (1987–2006), the clay sculptures »Plötzlich diese Übersicht« (»Suddenly This Overview« 1981/2006) and continuing right up to new works such as »Fotografias« (2004/2005). To a large extent the design of the rooms prescribes the route to be taken through the exhibition: e.g. there is a clear entrance and exit to the room in which »Lauf der Dinge« (»The Way Things Go« 1986–1987) is showing together with a video by Patrick Frey (1985/2006), depicting the genesis of an early version of »Lauf der Dinge«. The film by Fischli and Weiss and the video documenting the production process, are projected from two sides onto a screening surface in the middle of the room and visitors going round the exhibition have no option but to enter the room on the side of the screen where the film is being shown and only then can they move on to the making-of video, »Lauf der Dinge: In der Werkstatt«. In a temporally ordered sequence the viewer is presented initially with the illusion of a smooth, uninterrupted continuity of absurd cause-and-effect mechanisms, the way things purportedly go, only to find the illusion being retracted again immediately, as the course of the work plus the tricks deployed are revealed, along with a glimpse of how strenuous and lengthy this process was. This of course in the first instance satisfies the recipient’s curiosity, responding to the immediate need for information, the pressing question that comes to mind when viewing the film: »How does it work?«. However it is also possible to read this as an auto-ironic reflection on the over-the-top use of the tools of fairground conjurors evident in »Lauf der Dinge«. This ironic relativisation of the illusionist method becomes apparent in particular in the film and photographic works: the one-hour »Kanalvideo« from 1992, a tracking shot through a seemingly infinite pipe system, which has an almost hypnotic effect when seen as a large-scale projection and unleashes all kinds of oceanic feelings, proves to be a medley of footage recorded by a probe that regularly scans the waste water ducts of Zurich for monitoring purposes. A similar strategy can also be seen in the presentation of the slide archive »Sichtbare Welt« (»Visible World« (1987–2000), which comprises around 3,000 photographs taken by Fischli and Weiss on various journeys. At first glance the slides, laid out on 15 light tables, really do convey the impression that the »whole world« is portrayed here. At second glance however this »world« proves to be composed of frequently reproduced postcard motifs showing the sphinx, animals in the Serengeti, the skyline of New York and suchlike, a succession of interchangeable tourist destinations.
Some of the artworks were reworked especially for the exhibition tour, such as the clay figure ensemble »Plötzlich diese Übersicht« (1981/2006), depicting important and insignificant events from human history. Immediately adjacent to this, with deft strategic positioning, we find the film »The Point of Least Resistance« (1981), in which the rat and the bear are pulling out all the stops for this »overview«.
A successful, if somewhat dirigiste presentation, wonderful entertainment and a show with great mass culture impact – for the time being, that would be a fair brief summary of »Questions & Flowers«.
Translated by Helen Ferguson