Charlotte Posenenske (German and English Edition)

"Against a rigid and authoritarian art. "Dies alles, Herzchen, wird einmal dir gehören"―"All these, little darling, will one day be yours"―was the motto of a legendary event held in Frankfurt in 1967: Charlotte Posenenske (1930–1985) had her corrugatedcardboard square tubing arranged in perpetually changing structures. In memory of the internationally renowned conceptual artist, a similar performance was staged at Kunsthalle Lingen, Germany, on November 20, 2010. As the opening act, the Frankfurtbased artist Michael Reiter (b. Munich, 1952) presented his performance "Swinging Geometry": a protagonist moves three squares made of slender black carbon tubes that are connected to each other by a nylon thread and suspended from numerous nails scattered across the wall, creating forever new shapes. Reiter’s deceptively simple work addresses several aspects that have been, and still are, crucial to art: the variable work of art was an invention of the 1960s, created by artists who attacked what they felt was the authoritarian closure and rigor of the work. Art, like society and the individual itself, was supposed to be open to change through the active participation of the audience, who would thus contribute to the creative process. This "changeability" of art is a concern that unites the two artists whose diverse performances the present book documents. With essays by Meike Behm, director, Kunsthalle Lingen, and Burkhard Brunn, director, Estate of Charlotte Posenenske."