Untitled (angst essen seele auf, frankfurter allgemeine, september 15, 2008), 2010
Photo: Jens Ziehe, 2017 | Courtesy the artist | neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Collection
Canvas, newspaper, acrylic
58,5 x 82 x 3.7 cm (framed)
Angst essen seele auf. Fear eats the soul. These words first appeared in Rirkrit Tiravanija’s work in 1994, as the title for a work installed in Esther Schipper’s first gallery space in Cologne: a bar serving beer and cola to attending guests. Functioning, interactive, and to this extent, immaterial, the bar was a prime example of the kind of work for which Tiravanija is most well known. The phrase has since reappeared variously in his practice in both its original German and translated English, in print, on t-shirts, on bank notes, newspapers, and as further exhibition titles. The deployment of the phrase in each of these works is a reference to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1974 classic, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, a film which explores the relationship between a German cleaner and Moroccan mechanic, and the forms of xenophobia and racism which surround them in post-war West Germany, following their first encounter over the drinks selected for Tiravanija’s 1994 show. In its different artistic placements in Tiravanija’s practice, the phrase Fear Eats the Soul is a call to re-examine those themes in various contemporary moments, whilst doubly pointing to other forms of fear which circulate in a globalised, financially precarious, and rapidly evolving world.
Such is their role in this 2010 work by Tiravanija, in which the words are printed in large, screaming capitals over the front and back pages of an edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, dated September 15, 2008: the day which marked the beginning of the global financial crisis with the declared bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers at midnight. The act of textual appropriation is a lesser-examined, but important element in Tiravanija’s practice who, following the publishing of Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics in 2002, became known as emblematic of the terms and ideas set out in that theory. However, as Liz Linden writes, “in Tiravanija’s work with text, his longstanding engagement with appropriation is made plain, not only because found language has for so long served as a cornerstone of his practice, but also because the way he uses appropriated language underscores broader political operations of his work that are often concealed in the rhetoric of relationality.”[1] Tiravanija has applied the words angst essen seele auf over multiple pages of contemporary newspapers as a way of procuring new meaning, depending on the headlines which operate as their canvas, or the significance of the stories’ particular dates. In this way, Tiravanija deals not just “conviviality,” as he does in his relational installations and sculptures, but with translation, globalization, politics and finance through his application of found language in works with decisively material fears and concerns.
— Elsa Gray
[1] Liz Linden, “Appropriated Text and Subjectivity in the Work of Rirkrit Tiravanija,” in Third Text 30:3-4, 159-172, 2016.
58,5 x 82 x 3.7 cm (framed)
Angst essen seele auf. Fear eats the soul. These words first appeared in Rirkrit Tiravanija’s work in 1994, as the title for a work installed in Esther Schipper’s first gallery space in Cologne: a bar serving beer and cola to attending guests. Functioning, interactive, and to this extent, immaterial, the bar was a prime example of the kind of work for which Tiravanija is most well known. The phrase has since reappeared variously in his practice in both its original German and translated English, in print, on t-shirts, on bank notes, newspapers, and as further exhibition titles. The deployment of the phrase in each of these works is a reference to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1974 classic, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, a film which explores the relationship between a German cleaner and Moroccan mechanic, and the forms of xenophobia and racism which surround them in post-war West Germany, following their first encounter over the drinks selected for Tiravanija’s 1994 show. In its different artistic placements in Tiravanija’s practice, the phrase Fear Eats the Soul is a call to re-examine those themes in various contemporary moments, whilst doubly pointing to other forms of fear which circulate in a globalised, financially precarious, and rapidly evolving world.
Such is their role in this 2010 work by Tiravanija, in which the words are printed in large, screaming capitals over the front and back pages of an edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, dated September 15, 2008: the day which marked the beginning of the global financial crisis with the declared bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers at midnight. The act of textual appropriation is a lesser-examined, but important element in Tiravanija’s practice who, following the publishing of Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics in 2002, became known as emblematic of the terms and ideas set out in that theory. However, as Liz Linden writes, “in Tiravanija’s work with text, his longstanding engagement with appropriation is made plain, not only because found language has for so long served as a cornerstone of his practice, but also because the way he uses appropriated language underscores broader political operations of his work that are often concealed in the rhetoric of relationality.”[1] Tiravanija has applied the words angst essen seele auf over multiple pages of contemporary newspapers as a way of procuring new meaning, depending on the headlines which operate as their canvas, or the significance of the stories’ particular dates. In this way, Tiravanija deals not just “conviviality,” as he does in his relational installations and sculptures, but with translation, globalization, politics and finance through his application of found language in works with decisively material fears and concerns.
— Elsa Gray
[1] Liz Linden, “Appropriated Text and Subjectivity in the Work of Rirkrit Tiravanija,” in Third Text 30:3-4, 159-172, 2016.
Rirkrit Tiravanija is residing in New York, Berlin, Chiang Mai, and Lamma Island, Hong Kong. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installations often take the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing music; architecture or structures for living and socializing are a core element in his work.
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.