Imi Knoebel, Projektion 7 8 (Detail), 1972, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt

Kunstmuseum Luzern Museum of Art Lucerne, Switzerland Exhibition & Catalogue PROJECTION. CHAN, EXPORT, FISCHLI/WEISS, GANDER, GILLICK, GRAHAM, KNOEBEL, PARKER, STREULI Kunstmuseum Luzern Museum of Art Lucerne Europaplatz 1 – 6002 Luzern 41 41 226 78 00 info@kunstmuseumluzern.ch http://www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch Exhibition dates: 9 September – 26 November 2006

The exhibition takes up a stimulating topic in art since the 1960s. The
art of projection that predated cinema – e.g. the magic lantern – and
the slide presentation in science and education has developed into an
autonomous, experimentally inclined medium, especially in conceptual
and performance art. The slide projection, in contrast to the film or
video projection, is, as a still image, well suited to reflecting on
the fundamental components of the immaterial appearance of the
projected image. When a slide image is cast on the opposite wall by
means of a projector, the literal meaning of the Latin root proiectio –
“throw off” or “throw away” – is made plain. At the same time, the cast
image as the draft of an idea takes up one central aspect of the
exhibition: metaphors for the powers of the imagination.

In addition to slide projections that as a “precinematic medium” played
a crucial role in redefining the gallery space in the 1960s, this
studio exhibition also includes works such as Son et lumière (Le rayon vert) (Sound and light [The green ray],1990) by Peter Fischli and David Weiss and 1st Light (2005)
by the American artist Paul Chan. This rather playful but no less
reflective approach to the theme of light projection is contrasted with
the conceptual approach of both Dan Graham (Project for Slide Projector, 1966/2005) and his much younger colleague Ryan Gander. Two other works with slides, Exhaled Blanket (1996) by Cornelia Parker and Pain in a Building/ Schmerz in einem Gebäude/Douleur dans un immeuble (1999)
by Liam Gillick, intervene in the way they are projected into the room
– diagonally and brushing up against the side wall, respectively.
Big-city life is shown from another side in Beat Streuli’s double
projection New York 91/93 II (1993). An excursus on the performative aspect of “expanded cinema” leads to VALIE EXPORT’s action Cutting (1967–68)
where she also used a slide and which takes up the theme of cut and
projection on different levels. One central element of the exhibition
are three early works by Imi Knoebel from the 1970s, which have rarely
been seen in the original; they use the media of photography, slides,
and video to come to terms with light projection and the “images” that
result from it. The photographic images of light forms projected in
dark exterior and interior spaces establish a relationship between real
space and projected space, whereas the images in light – or, more
correctly, the retouched originals on glass slides – take up the cast
image in a way specific to their respective media and thus make the
immaterial image their theme, as does the pure white pictorial field of
the work Projektionsbildgrösse (Projection image size) does, opening up in its rigid structure the pure space of the imagination.

The exhibition Projektion. Chan, EXPORT, Fischli/Weiss, Gander, Gillick, Graham, Knoebel, Parker, Streuli takes
up where the endeavors of those few exhibiting institutions that have
explicitly devoted themselves to projection (usually to the static
image and slide projection) left off. It is also an appeal for more
detailed investigation of the slide projection as an independent medium
with its own properties distinct from those of film and the photograph.
Able to offer only a focused historical survey of such a broad subject,
this studio exhibition addresses projection in the sense of an idea proiectionis.

Works by
Paul Chan (USA, *1973), VALIE EXPORT (A, *1940), Peter Fischli (CH,
*1952)/David Weiss (CH, *1946), Ryan Gander (GB, *1976), Liam Gillick
(GB, *1964), Dan Graham (USA, *1942 ), Imi Knoebel (D, *1940), Cornelia
Parker (GB, *1956), Beat Streuli (CH, *1957)

The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Art Lucerne and will
travel to Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz/Austria (29 Sept 2007 – 13
January 2008).

Curator: Susanne Neubauer
Curatorial Assistant: Annamira Jochim
The exhibition is supported by British Council

Press officer: Doris Bucher
Tel. 41 41 226 78 11
doris.bucher@kunstmuseumluzern.ch