In Bad Tölz there is also a Dixiklo Kunst
Created: 08/20/2022, 2:00 p.m
By: Felicitas Bogner
Florian Hüttner in front of the "open library" by Michael Clegg and Martin Guttmann.
An exchange cupboard with books by and about Thomas Mann.
The artists receive a photo of the cabinet every day to follow the development.
© Arndt Pröhl
"Death in Venice" is the name of the exhibition currently on view in the former Alpamare car park on Tölzer Seppstrasse.
The exhibits also include a Dixiklo.
Florian Hüttner explains the background.
Bad Tölz - What do a dixitoilet, an open library and darkened lanterns have in common?
At first glance, rather little.
But these objects are part of the exhibition of the Gallery for Landscape Art (GFLK) called "Death in Venice", which can be visited in Bad Tölz until the end of August.
During a walk around the exhibition site, Florian Hüttner from the GFLK, who is responsible for the conception, describes his thoughts and those of the artists on the project.
The title of the exhibition refers to Thomas Mann's novella of the same name
The title of the exhibition refers to the novella of the same name written by Thomas Mann in Bad Tölz in 1911/12.
The character, the writer Gustav von Aschenbach, encounters several messengers of death in the course of the story.
“Both the novella and the theme of death are among the parameters I gave the artists.
I had no further influence on what they made of it,” explains Hüttner.
Shards from the vernissage are now also part of the exhibition
The derelict parking lot of the former Alpamare on Seppstraße serves as the stage for the – admittedly not quite conventional – exhibition.
“I find places like this fascinating.
It's deserted and then not, as you can see from the broken glass," says Hüttner.
Moreover, he associates this savagery with death.
The exhibition can be recognized by a small sign at the main entrance to the foyer.
Hüttner goes past it and left in the direction of the parking lot.
On the small path overgrown by plants, he pushes broken glass together with his foot.
"A bottle broke here at the opening, I left it that way on purpose, and the shards have been part of the exhibition ever since," he says.
The artist associates the blue sun with the transience of resources
One of the participating artists is Philipp Gufler.
A nearly two-meter-long screen-printed cloth hangs from him over the parking lot.
It's wrapped by the wind.
"The work is called Transience Delusion." A smaller cloth with a picture of King Ludwig II is also on display in the lobby.
"The artist includes many deceased homosexual men in his works," explains Hüttner.
also read
Dispute in Bad Tölz: dog owner slaps 25-year-olds
Unknown person keeps stealing candles from Tölzer's grave
Eleven posters by Katharina Sieverding hang in the derelict parking lot of the former Alpamare on Seppstrasse.
© Karl Bock
The former advertising billboards are decorated with pictures and photo prints by the artist Katharina Sieverding with eleven different motifs.
From a NASA image of the sun at midnight to documentary photos of Chinese military morning training.
The artist associates the blue sun with the transience of resources.
Hüttner cannot give any precise answers to the question of a more precise classification of the various motifs in the overarching theme of the exhibition.
For him, however, it was particularly noteworthy that the artist insisted on not cutting out the billboards, which were overgrown with plants, for the exhibition.
"So you see very little of two plants," emphasizes Hüttner.
The bushes as a toilet - that is also an exciting aspect for Hüttner
One thing, however, you can see in all its glory: in the middle of the parking lot there is a Dixiklo and yes, that too is part of the exhibition.
If you open the door, you see sketches of a composting facility, fenced in by a chicken coop.
Nils Norman's installation is intended to express Mann's fascination with digestion.
"It's paradoxical, because the composting plant with the chicken coop stands for something natural and the whole thing is hanging in a chemical toilet." While Hüttner is standing in front of the blue toilet building, a man is relieving himself in the bushes a few meters behind him.
He's the only, well, visitor during the walk.
"I also find it an exciting aspect that someone comes here and uses the bushes as a toilet," says Hüttner.
Kulturfonds Bayern supports the art project
This situation digested, it goes on: You can see the project by Nana Petzet when you look up.
She uses parking lot lanterns for a biological study.
The street lighting bulbs have been darkened to varying degrees by the artist.
An assistant to Petzet captures nocturnal insects that fly into the light and preserves them in alcohol for the artist to examine the dead insects.
The laboratory is part of the exhibition and, like a Sieverding poster and the cloth printed with King Ludwig, is located in the lobby, which can only be entered via a side entrance.
Hüttner cannot say how well attended the exhibition has been so far.
“Although the exhibition has opening hours, it can – with the exception of the foyer – also be visited at other times of the day and night.” In any case, the number of visitors does not play a decisive role for Hüttner.
In his eyes, that too is an artistic expression and part of his project, which is incidentally funded by the Bavarian Culture Fund and Anton Hoefter with Jodquellen AG.
You can find more current news from the region around Bad Tölz at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.
