FLATZ SOMETHING WRONG WITH PHYSICAL SCULPTURE

The performance artist, sculptor, stage designer, musician and poet FLATZ is one of the most uncompromising contemporary artistic personalities. A retrospective exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne focuses on the central subject of his work: the body.

The performances, sculptures and multimedia spatial installations by FLATZ (*1952) are radical and designed to provoke. The artist often uses his own body – especially in order to lend expression to human vulnerability and counteract the general public’s indifference.

In 1979, the then 27-year-old FLATZ posed naked as a living dartboard. Spectators were allowed to throw darts at him, with the prospect of a DM 500 cash prize for a hit. The eleventh throw from a member of the audience hit and wounded the artist; the performance was then over. On New Year’s Eve 1990/91, FLATZ had himself hung upside down between two steel plates in Tbilisi, Georgia, where he was swung like the clapper of a bell and struck the metal loudly – for a whole five minutes until he fell unconscious. This was followed by Johann Strauss’ waltz ‘The Blue Danube’ that lasted twice as long and was danced to by a festively dressed couple. The Austrian-born artist became known to an international art public in 1992 with his installation ‘Bodycheck’ for documenta IX in Kassel. The work comprised 90 black punchbags suspended from the ceiling, each one corresponding to the artist’s body weight. In order to cross the room, documenta visitors had to battle their way between the bags with some difficulty. FLATZ called these ‘Physical Sculptures’ like a number of his other works. His ‘Physical Sculptures’ evoke a direct interaction between the work and the viewer – physically or psychologically.

With selected works from the late 1970s to the present day, the exhibition is devoted to FLATZ’s radical concept of the body that, in an unmistakable way, repeatedly addresses the sensitive and fragile as well.

This aspect is explicitly referenced in a self-portrait created in 1997, the title of which ‘Something Wrong with Physical Sculpture’ is also the name of the exhibition.

Curator: Bernhart Schwenk