Masks are one of the richest and most controversial stories in the world. In the interaction between showing and veiling, masks are also very topical in contemporary society and culture. International group show MASK. In Present-Day Art at the Aargauer Kunsthaus explores the problem in 160 current works of art.
In the MASK exhibition contemporary artists are interested in the subject of social, cultural, political and symbolic implications. In the interplay between showing and veiling and in a society where legitimate self-presentation is a measure of personal success, the mask is once again a highly topical topic today.
Masks, physical and symbolic masks, are omnipresent, both in the real world and in the virtual world. We encounter forms of masking as a means of subverting socially standardized gender roles. But we also meet them in social media where, with just a few clicks of the mouse, the original image is transformed in seconds. We wear masks to enter a role; they allow us to change into a new self. In the media, masks sometimes appear as a dark symbol of the turbulent global situation. We see masked protesters, occupy Wallstreet activists with typical Guy Fawkes masks, hooded terrorists and soldiers in protective masks.
Thirty-six artists from twelve countries address a subject that is fascinating in both concept and object of analysis and evaluation from a today's perspective.
About 160 works are exhibited, most of them created in the last decade in a variety of media, including photography, painting, installation, sculpture and video. Artists are interested in the field of self-expression and self-expression in the field of self-expression. different identities.
Approaches to the subject vary widely. Some artists reinterpret the nature of the mask. In her series Nomads (2007/2008) Laura Lima (1971 Governador Valadares, BR) presents masks whose faces in the exhibition are hung on the wall, but can also be worn. When a person wears one, the effect is quite surreal and inherently liberating. Because instead of looking at a face, we look into a (pictorial) space, perhaps the vision of a mental landscape.
However, masks created by artists are often not meant to be worn. This article is based on Sabian Baumann (1962, Zug, CH) – or on the dimensions. Thus, Amanda Ross-Ho (Chicago, 1975, USA) creates huge and inflated interpretations of cosmetic masks.
Strictly speaking, a mask fulfills its original function only when it is worn and takes the place of the human face. A whole series of artists deals with the various forms of masking. Gillian Wearing (born 1963 in Birmingham, UK) and Douglas Gordon (born 1966 in Glasgow, UK) is a reflection on the (own) transient. They ask big philosophical questions like “Who am I?” and “What makes me who I am today?” At the same time, the intersection of self-portrait and mask is evident in them. In her work Monster (1996/1997) Wearing elaborately produces silicon in the self-portrait Monster (1996/1997).
John Stezaker (1949 Worcester, UK) is also interested in the mechanisms of veiling and hiding in his collages. In Mask [Film Portrait Collage] CLXXIII (2014), he is a post-mortem director. In portraits of professional film stars, actors present a perfect facade, an impersonal mask whose masking in Stezaker's work ironically seems to reveal potential psychological abysses.
Maskings break the habit of reading a key to people's nature. This can be an irritating and sometimes even threatening effect, as, for example, in the performance of Sislej Xhafa (1970, Peja, KO), which involves orchestras. The Balaclavas Worn by Musicians An Expert's Guide to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. In collaboration with the Argovia Philharmonic, the piece Again and Again (2000-2019) will be performed on MASCHERA day in Aarau. The artist determines the position of the performance in response to the context he finds; the work is further developed in Aarau.
The topicality of the subject is particularly evident where the artists use masks as a central motif in the virtual world. Social media offers a huge playing field and testing ground for masking and manipulating identities. Susanne Weirich (1962 Unna, DE) arranges the selfie films of an online community into a tableau vivant in her multimedia installation Global Charcoal Challenge (2018). Olaf Breuning (1970 Schaffhausen, CH) focuses on the most concise way of visualizing an emotional state, the emoji, in his digitally compiled wallpaper-mounted collage Emojis (2014).
Finally, the artists refer to the cultural history of the mask. The textile wall piece World Mask (2014) by Christoph Hefti (1967, Lausanne, CH) is an eclectic ride through various cultural spheres and types of masks that serve ritual, spiritual or carnival purposes. References by Simon Starling (1967 Epsom, UK) point to Japanese Noh masks among others. The video Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima) (2010-2011) shows a mask sculpting creating masks in his workshop, which we encounter as original artifacts in Starling's installation. Based on a 1964th-century stage play about false and double identities, it develops a narrative revolving around Henry Moore's 1966-1970 nuclear sculpture Nuclear Power. Kader Attia's (XNUMX Dugny, FR) collages also offer a contemporary and critical look at how people deal with mask traditions. The artist provocatively juxtaposes historical photographs of mutilated soldiers' faces with anthropological mask objects.
Cover image: Gauri Gill, Untitled, from Acts of Appearance, 2015-ongoing
Pigmentdruck on Archivpapier, 40.6 x 61 cm
Courtesy Gauri Gill
© Gauri Gill
