Philipp Gufler
Projection on the Crisis
2014, 36’19”, 16:9
28 May – 15 June 2015
Synopsis
Consisting of three parts – a video installation, a screen print naming the authors of the filmed objects and a book published by HAMMANN & VONMIER – Projection on the Crisis provides a kaleidoscopic view of the beginning of the AIDS crisis in Munich in the 1980s. The video transfers the spectator into a classical white cube gallery setting, where Gufler presents documents collected from the archive Forum Homosexualität München e.V. in chronological order and complements them with recent works by artist friends. The exhibition was conceived for the filming, a film set that was never open to the public, thus the exhibition remains as a purely virtual space. The artist’s playful handling of different levels of representation can be understood as a comment on the problematic relationship between homosexuality and history. The posters, art works, newspapers and TV footage, which can be found partly in the accompanying book, are captured by a fluid camera motion and reveal a discussion about sexuality, love, morality and death quite similar to those we have today. The infamous Peter Gauweiler (former Bavarian State Secretary) and the then Bavarian Minister of Education, Hans Zehetmair, answer the emergence of the AIDS epidemic with the most drastic and shocking proposals; the prevention of the disease is not at the forefront of Gauweiler’s Maßnahmenkatalog and Zehetmair’s rhetoric, instead the exclusion and ultimately the extinction of the “germ carrier,” ie the homosexuals, takes centre stage. Gufler opposes these homophobic resentments with the emancipatory battle cries of Munich’s gay and lesbian movement and, thus, draws an oscillating image of Munich and at the same time German history.
Participants: Maximiliane Baumgartner, Adrian Djukic, Gursoy Dogtas, Florian Gass, Albert Knoll, Dr. med. Hans Jäger, Stephan Janitzky, Richard John Jones, Simon Leahy, Stefanie Hammann, Maria Mier, Mirja Reuter, Lisa Schairer, Barbara Spiller and Guido Vael.
Text: Nicholas Maniu
“The exhibition was never public, I installed it only for filming. I wanted to highlight the moment of staging history, how history has to be reproduced and is restaged all the time, fragile and liquid in its meaning. What stories are excluded? By asking why this part of recent German history is so rarely known outside a gay and lesbian scene I wanted to ask more general questions on representation and power. I included archive materials in the timeline which are reflecting, e.g. my mirrors, to make our camera and me filming and guiding the viewer through the exhibition visible.” Philipp Gufler in conversation with Carroll/FletcherOnscreen.
Bio
The artist Philipp Gufler (1989) lives in Munich. His work spans a variety of media (prints, performances, video and more). He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Academy of Design Karlsruhe, and the University of Amsterdam. His work has been shown at “Loop” in Barcelona, Kunstverein München, “Videonale15” at Kunstmuseum Bonn and in the galleries Françoise Heitsch in Munich and Sassa Trülzsch in Berlin. Since April 2013, Gufler has been conducting research in the archives of Forum Homosexualität München e.V. and since October 2014 he is part of the committee at Lothringer13Florida, an artist-run space by the city of Munich.
Filmography
2014: “Interview with Erich Haas” (w/ Liane Klingler), 24 Min., HD, Sound, Farbe
2014: “Projection on the Crisis (Gauweilereien in Munich)”, 36 Min., HD, Sound, Farbe
2014: “Portraiture as Crisis”, 9 Min, HD, Sound, Farbe
2012: “Eingebildete Männlichkeit”, 23 Min, Videoinstallation, HD, Sound, Farbe
2012: “Next year in Bad Tölz” (w/ Maxi Baumgartner, Florian Gass, Mirja Reuter, Max Schmidtlein and Lisa Schaierer), 9 Min, Videoinstallation, HD, Sound, Farbe
2011: “Ritual of Farewell”, 6 Min, Super 8 Digital Transfer, Farbe,
2010: “Pfaueninseln” (w/ Salong), 30 Min, Farbe, Sound,
Solo Exhibitions
2014: “Zirkeltraum”, Françoise Heitsch, Munich
2014: “Gauweilereien”, Schwules Museum*, Berlin
2013: “42”, Galerie Sassa Trülzsch, Berlin
2012: “Quecksilberwand”, Wolff Verlag, Berlin
2012: “Eingebildete Männlichkeit”, Akademie Galerie, Munich
Awards
2012: Recipient of the city of Augsburg art award
2014: Award by the Academy of Fine Arts Munich foundation for “Projection on the Crisis“
2014: Recipient of the Bayernwerke art award for “Projection on the Crisis”
2015: Recipient of the art award by the bavarian state
2015-2017: scholarship at De Ateliers, Amsterdam (NL)
Links
Philipp’s website here.
Philipp’s videonale.15 page here.
Here’s the Forum Homosexualität München e.V. where Philipp has been researching.
Philipp’s pages at Francoise Heitsch here.
And an interview (in German) here.
You can find more about the publication at Hammann & VonMier’s website here (it’s worth €14 and more!).
