TILO SCHULZ <> FRANCESCO HAYEZ
from May 7 2015 to October 25 2015
Espace Louis Vuitton, Venezia
The Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia presents its fifth exhibition entitled Tilo Schulz <> Francesco Hayez curated by Eva Kraus. The German artist Tilo Schulz is exhibiting during the 56th International Art Exhibition at Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia
Hayez lunettes has been restored with the support of Louis Vuitton
He has created a new room installation, which makes reference to the recently restored lunettes of Francesco Hayez (1791-1882) from the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. These art-pieces are now jointly presented for the first time thanks to the partnership between Louis Vuitton and the MUVE Foundation.
The lunettes were painted by Francesco Hayez in 1819. The young painter was entrusted by the Chamber of Commerce of Venice to fresco two rooms on the ground floor of Palazzo Ducale which were to house the Stock Exchange. The two cycles of frescos were distributed in fourteen lunettes. Five large ones in the riva Donada room representing the Four Continents and nine smaller lunettes in the riva Barbarigo room with figures of Nereids and Tritons, the protective divinities whom to entrust the success of merchant trades by sea to.
These were painted nearly two centuries ago and hark back to a time when Venice was the centre of the world for worldwide trade. They were mounted as architectural arches under the ceiling, the position of which and also the meaningful content, rendered the human being small in the face of the wider world opening up around them. After the first recently completed restauration, these will now be shown in dialogue with a contemporary position.
Tilo Schulz responds with an installation, which undertakes a spatial as well as painterly response to the historic paintings. Two rotating round discs float parallel to each other in the space, symbolising the orbis terrarum. They rotate slowly around their own axis and are two metres in diameter. One side is a dark mirror, the other, an evolving painting of many layers of colour. The artist calls it metaphoric painting, insofar as their abstract, dynamic surfaces of furrows and rips, and also the smooth surfaces and light areas in between, tell of unevenness and splendour which make up our world.
In connection with the 56th International Art Exhibition, curated by Okwui Enwezor’s this year, which takes place under the title “All the World’s Futures”, Tilo Schulz poses similar questions, which were posited as curatorial guidelines for the Biennale: how do artists reflect on our world today, what sort of image is revealed? In particular he makes reference to the discourse of Enwezor, which tries to get to the bottom of a duality, today’s “state of things” in contrast to the “appearance of things”.
The artist finds a reflexive solution in his spatial installation, which can be perceived as multi-layered by the visitor. On the one hand the historic allegory confronts the metaphoric interpretation of our world today; on the other hand, it could be claimed, that everything is reflected in its interior. Not only the historic and the current view of the world, but also oneself is reflected and is inevitably connected with the particular surrounding space and its context. As a visitor, we become a part of this total world view, the centre of which is oneself.
The presentation of the lunettes was made possible after meticulous restoration work funded by Louis Vuitton as part of its partnership with the Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia (MUVE).
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TILO SCHULTZ (1972-)
Tilo Schulz was born in 1972 in Leipzig and is a self-taught artist, writer and curator. He lives and works in Berlin. He has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since the early 1990s.
Schulz‘ works were shown in key exhibitions such as Manifesta2 in Luxembourg, After the Wall at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, German Open at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, deutschemalereizweitausenddrei at the Kunstverein Frankfurt, Repeat Performance at Artist Space in New York and 50 Jahre documenta (50 Years of documenta) at the Fridericianum in Kassel.
In recent years Schulz was to be seen in comprehensive international solo exhibitions; amongst others at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Kunstverein Hannover, The Model in Sligo, Secession in Vienna and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Leipzig.
Alongside his exhibition activity as an artist Tilo Schulz has curated a number of international group shows since 1996.
FRANCESCO HAYEZ (1791-1882)
Francesco Hayez was born in Venice on 11th February to parents Chiara Torcella from Murano and Giovanni Hayez from Valenciennes, France. In 1812 he won first place in the competitive painting examination at the Brera Academy in Milan. After having painted the lunette frescoes in the Chiaramonti loggia in the Vatican Museums, Hayez married Vincenza Scaccia and returned to Venice where, until 1820, he was largely occupied with decorating private mansions, the Palazzo Reale and the Stock Exchange chambers [locali della Borsa] at the Doge’s Palace In 1833 he began the monumental painting Crusaders Thirsting near Jerusalem for the Palazzo Reale in Turin. He finished the painting in 1850. In 1837 he travelled to Vienna to present Emperor Ferdinand I with his plans to fresco the arched ceiling of the Hall of the Caryatids in the Royal Palace of Milan, a project which he then carried out in 1838. In 1844 he was in Naples and Palermo preparing to paint The Sicilian Vespers which he completed in 1846. In 1855 some of his works were sent to the Universal Exhibition in Paris. In 1858 he made a second trip to Munich, his first visit there being in 1837. The Kiss, which was destined to become his most famous work, was displayed in Brera in 1859.
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INFORMATIONS
Francesco Hayez <> Tilo Schulz
Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia, Calle del Ridotto 1353, 30124 Venice
From May 7th to October 25th 2015
Free entrance. Open from Mondays to Saturdays (10:00 am to 7:30 pm ) and on Sundays (10:30 am to 7:30 pm)