Contemporary Perspectives on Walter Benjamin at the Bauhaus Museum Weimar

Moving between image, word, time and space, three installations by contemporary artists will be presented in succession from 12 March to 31 October 2022 as part of the annual project "Translating the World. Contemporary Perspectives on Walter Benjamin" at the Bauhaus Museum Weimar. As the second part of the exhibition series, the installation "Evaders" by Ori Gersht will open on 10 June 2022 at 6 pm. It consists of the two-channel video "Evaders" from 2009 as well as six large-format photographs, all of which are linked to the theme of flight in the context of history, the present and the future.

"Evaders" refers to the last journey of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin through the Pyrenees in 1940. At that time, the border mountains offered both an escape route from Nazi-occupied France and a way for communists to flee the fascist Franco regime in Spain. Those who made these journeys were called "fugitives" ("evaders").  Benjamin wanted to travel from his exile in France to Spain in order to reach Portugal. From there he intended to emigrate to the USA. Tragically, Benjamin was denied entry to Spain and committed suicide as a result. In the video, these events are symbolised by the bad weather conditions and poor visibility faced by the video's protagonist, actor Clive Russel, as well as the ominous scenery. The ominous, deserted scenery also defines the six photographs, which also show the theme of catastrophe through the example of the landscape.

Ori Gersht was born in Israel in 1967 and has lived in London for over 30 years. Throughout his career, his work has dealt with the relationships between history, memory and landscape. Gersht approaches this challenge not only through his choice of images, but by exploring the technical limits of photography and questioning its claim to truth. Viewers are visually seduced before being confronted with darker and more complex themes that present an obsessive tension between beauty and violence.

The annual project "Translating the World. Contemporary Perspectives on Walter Benjamin" is the Bauhaus Museum Weimar's contribution to the Klassik Stiftung Weimar's theme year "Language". It presents three internationally active artists who deal with Walter Benjamin's "Angel of History". Esther Shalev-Gerz, Paris, dedicates an imaginary house in Weimar to Walter Benjamin and addresses the self-image of the city of Weimar (12 March to 16 May), Ori Gersht, London, takes Benjamin's escape route on the Ruta Líster as a starting point for a film on the subject of migration (11 June to 1 August), and Aura Rosenberg, Berlin/New York, points to the danger of the destruction of cultural and civil achievements in an animated film (27 August to 31 October). In addition, students from the Bauhaus University Weimar will develop performative works on site in a translation lab, based on Walter Benjamin's reflections. (1 May to 18 July).

On Friday, 10 June, the Bauhaus Museum Weimar will be open from 6 to 9 pm on the occasion of the exhibition opening. Dr. Annette Ludwig, Director of the Museums of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, will welcome the visitors. The introduction will be given by curator Dr. Katharina Henkel. Admission to the opening is free of charge.

The exhibition is a cooperation with the Kunstfest Weimar and the MFA programme "Art in Public Space and New Artistic Strategies" at the Bauhaus University Weimar.

Photo: "Evaders" © Ori Gersht

Exhibition dates
Translating the World. Contemporary Perspectives on Walter Benjamin
12 March to 31 October 2022
Tue-Sun 9.30am-6pm
Bauhaus Museum Weimar | Balcony (1st floor) and special exhibition area (3rd floor)
Stéphane-Hessel-Platz 1 | 99423 Weimar

Part 1 | 12 March to 16 May
Esther Shalev-Gerz
Inseparable Angels. An Imaginary House for Walter Benjamin

Part 2 | 11 June to 1 August
Ori Gersht
Evaders

Part 3 | 27 August to 31 October
Aura Rosenberg
Angel of History

Part 4 | 1 May to 18 July
LOst iN TRANSLATION
A translation lab of the MFA programme "Art in Public Space and New Artistic Strategies" at the Bauhaus University Weimar, directed by Prof. Danica Dakić, Ina Weise, Lea Wittich and Jirka Reichmann.

Catalogue
Klassik Stiftung Weimar (ed.): Translating the World. Contemporary Perspectives on Walter Benjamin, with contributions by Ulrike Bestgen, Boris Buden, Danica Dakić, Katharina Henkel, Marius Hoppe and the artists*, Weimar 2022, 120 pages, 65 illustrations | ISBN 978-3-7443-0420-7