KINO, 1997

installation

At the beginning of cinema’s history, its technology stood at the center of interest. The program of the first presentation of the Lumière brothers in the Grand Café in Paris (1895) was titled “Le cinématographe.” The title of the films which were being shown, the sujets actuels, appeared on the lower edge of the poster. A century later, Friedl installed four massive capital letters which formed the word KINO on the roof of the documenta Halle—competing with the typography of the neighboring Staatstheater. In contrast to the Grand Café, no films were shown in the documenta Halle. It was the venue for “100 days,” the conceptual heart of documenta X, a gigantic lecture and discussion event. Friedl updated the aura of cinema, by the glowing red illumination of neon letters against the night sky. Enthroning the discourse factory, they conjured up the transcendental dimension of theory. KINO articulates institutional critique as affirmation and vice versa. The red characters clarify how things work, and the lights show that it works.

Peter Friedl, KINO, 1997, Aluminum, neon, plexi glass, steel, 151 x 40 x 500 cm, Installation view: documenta X, Kassel, Photo: Dieter Schwerdtle

Aluminum, neon, plexi glass, steel
151 x 40 x 500 cm
Installation views: documenta X, Kassel, Photos: Werner Maschmann, Dieter Schwerdtle

INDEX:

Add Tags

Peter Friedl

**The Dramatist (Black Hamlet, Crazy Henry, Giulia, Toussaint), 2013**

Biography

Peter Friedl is a classic of contemporary art. The three-time documenta participant, born in 1960, can be considered a notorious participant in discourse - because his work has always understood how to address major themes in such a way that they found and find new forms away from the canon and mainstream. Forms that run counter to power and domination, subvert them, escape them.... and confront them in the process. Friedl takes away from history - for example colonialism or modernity, its paradigms and institutions - the power to define what is connected and how, and with an almost innocent-seeming aesthetic he tells a different story about humans and historical actions than we are used to and may find opportune. Peter Friedl provokes that which dominates us, including our own thinking. Throughout the years he his work has been displayed in meaningful solo exhibitions, most recently Teatro Popular (KOW Berlin, 2023), Report 1964-2022 (KW Berlin 2022) and No Prey, No Pay (Guido Costa Projects Turin, 2021) and major group exhibitions such as Life, Without Buildings, Gta exhibitions (ETH Zurich 2022), Das Auto rosi aber (KOW Berlin 2022) and Komunikazion - Inkomunikazio (Tabakalera, Centre for Contemporary Art, San Sebastian 2021).

Full Biography

Exhibitions at KOW