smow blog compact: Konstantin Grcic. Abbildungen @ Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Since 1994 the so-called Bielefeld Conspiracy has contended that the German city of Bielefeld doesn’t exist.
A central component of the theory is formed by three questions:

Have you ever been to Bielefeld?
Do you know anyone who has ever been to Bielefeld?
Do you know anyone from Bielefeld?

If you respond, as you invariably will, with a straight “No” to all three questions…. how do you know for certain Bielefeld exists?

To the three standard questions, one could also add “Do you know anyone who has ever been to an exhibition preview in Bielefeld?”

We were supposed to attend the preview of the exhibition Konstantin Grcic Abbildungen at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld; but were thwarted in our endeavours by a chain events one could almost describe as “conspiratorial”

A state of affairs which makes you think……

Taking the “pedestal” as its central theme Abbildungen presents both works by Konstantin Grcic and objects chosen by him from the Kunsthalle Bielefeld collection and which set juxtaposed aim to initiate a dialogue between the functional and the decorative and thus explore the differences, similarities and inter-dependencies.

When we spoke with Konstantin Grcic ahead of the opening of his exhibition Panorama at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig we spent a lot of the time talking about the Bielefeld show. Or rather Konstantin Grcic did, enthused as he was by the project, the atmosphere of Philip Johnson’s Kunsthalle pavilion, and the possibilities opened by the chance to stage “a design exhibition without having to maintain a design language” He also reiterated on several occasions that just because he was exhibiting in an art museum didn’t mean he was an artist, however, “in an exhibition one must explain design, but not art, art exists for itself, that is a privilege art has and a privilege that I am momentarily taking advantage of.”

Which made us all the keener to view Abbildungen. Which we still intend to. Assuming that is Bielefeld, and the Kunsthalle, actually exist……..

Konstantin Grcic Abbildungen runs at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Artur-Ladebeck-Straße 5, 33602 Bielefeld until Sunday July 3rd.

Full details can be found at www.kunsthalle-bielefeld.de

*We do realise the fact that Konstantin Grcic had already been to Bielefeld when we spoke to him in Leipzig means that we can answer “Yes” to one of the questions, and thus negate the conspiratorial element. But that would have spoiled the narrative. And in any case, and as regular readers will be well aware, Berlin based designer, and smow Blog regular, Birgit Severin is originally from Bielefeld, and so even before we knew that Konstantin Grcic would be exhibiting in Bielefeld, we could answer “Yes” to one question……

Konstantin Grcic. Abbildungen @ Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Photo Wolfgang Günzel, Courtesy of Kunsthalle Bielefeld)

Konstantin Grcic. Abbildungen @ Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Photo Wolfgang Günzel, Courtesy of Kunsthalle Bielefeld)