km 500.5

Exhibition of the 2011 Grant Recipients of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate
and the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral

11/5–5/8/2012

The fifth edi­ti­on of the “km 500” se­ries re­vol­ves pri­ma­ri­ly around the the­me of sculp­tu­re and the bo­dy – as ob­ject, room in­stal­la­ti­on, re­li­ef or mo­bi­le, in art­works ran­ging from ve­hi­cles of im­plied ac­tion to ephe­me­ral ap­pa­ri­ti­ons of the sculp­tures­que in pain­ting, col­la­ge, pho­to­gra­phy and vi­deo art. Wi­t­hin this con­text, the mu­tu­al ex­clu­si­vi­ties bet­ween rea­li­ty and fic­tion, bet­ween the do­cu­men­ta­ry and the ima­gi­na­ry are sus­pen­ded again and again, sty­lis­tic ca­te­go­ries are trans­cen­ded, and for­mer­ly ri­gid gen­re boun­da­ries flui­di­zed. Whe­ther in the form of a con­struc­ted bo­dy, three-di­men­sio­nal fi­gu­re in space, sta­ging or il­lu­si­on, plas­ti­ci­ty is dis­tinct­ly ma­ni­fest as a prin­ciple in ne­ar­ly all of the works shown.

Four­teen ar­tists from fi­ve coun­tries we­re in­vi­ted to ta­ke part in this ye­ar’s ex­hi­bi­ti­on at Rhi­ne ki­lo­met­re 500 – the lo­ca­ti­on of the Kunst­hal­le Mainz. He­re they are now pre­sen­ting a selec­tion of the re­sults of their la­test ar­tis­tic en­dea­vours, which emer­ged du­ring their stays at the ar­tists’ re­si­den­ces Schloss Bal­mo­ral and Schloss Wie­pers­dorf and in Lon­don, Pa­ris and Seo­ul and sub­se­quent­ly un­der­went fur­ther de­ve­lop­ment. The­se works be­ar testi­mo­ny to a li­vely ar­tis­tic dis­cour­se in which en­coun­ters with for­eign pla­ces are as per­ceiva­ble as the va­ried cul­tu­ral back­grounds of the par­ti­ci­pants in a glo­bal­ly ope­ra­ting art world.

The se­ries “km 500” is a co­ope­ra­ti­ve un­der­ta­king of the Kunst­hoch­schu­le Mainz, the Mi­nis­te­ri­um für Bil­dung, Wis­sen­schaft, Wei­ter­bil­dung und Kul­tur, and the ar­tists’ re­si­dence Schloss Bal­mo­ral, Stif­tung Rhein­land-Pfalz für Kul­tur.