The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place

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The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place
Installation View, The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place, 2010 at Zabludowicz Collection, London. Photo: Thierry Bal
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About

176 Zabludowicz Collection are pleased to present an exhibition of works from the Zabludowicz Collection guest curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers.
As part of the Zabludowicz Collection's curatorial residency, Anna-Catharina Gebbers was given complete freedom to create an exhibition from the over 2,000 works in the Zabludowicz Collection. The result is a dramatic contrast to former presentations of works from the Collection.

With over 200 works exhibited, The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place will be the largest ever showcase of works from the Zabludowicz Collection. Anna-Catharina Gebbers invites us into a salon-style exhibition, a format which emphasises the deliberately overwhelming amount of contemporary works of art including painting, photography, sculpture and video.

Inspired by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges' short story 'The Library of Babel' (1941) where inhabitants of an infinite library search for the absolute interpretation of the information around them, The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place encourages the visitor to embark on a similar quest for meaning.

While Anna-Catharina Gebbers generously empowers the visitors to draw their own conclusions from the Collection, seemingly incongruous works belie carefully disguised threads of meaning waiting to be uncovered and interpreted.

Anna-Catharina Gebbers on the exhibition:
'The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place questions my role as it places every visitor in the role of curator; the sheer number of works forces the visitor to chose which works will receive attention. I am interested in how these decisions are made.'

The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive public programme where invited professionals and visitors alike are offered the chance to become Guides, conducing tours for the public. Discussing how and why our attention and perception is guided and exposing different ways of creating meaning within the exhibition.

There will be an accompanying series of lectures and panel discussions with experts including scientists and theorists from backgrounds as wide-ranging as neurology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, linguistics and literature; plus an illustrated publication with specially commissioned texts designed by Joff + Ollie.

Anna-Catharina Gebbers is a curator and writer based in Berlin. Since 2004 she has curated some 50 exhibitions with over 300 artists. Gebbers also acts as editor for several cultural magazines and is the author of books about artists including Thomas Scheibitz, Paloma Varga Weisz and Thomas Schütte. Her non-profit project space ANNA-CATHARINA GEBBERS | BIBLIOTHEKSWOHNUNG in Berlin presents transdisciplinary collaborations with artists, curators, cultural activists and other institutions.

In and Out of Place, is the umbrella title for exhibitions and events associated with Anna-Catharina Gebbers's guest curatorship with the Zabludowicz Collection. The title is borrowed from an essay about Louise Lawler written by Andrea Fraser. The exhibition is the culmination of the residency and features the work of 167 artists:

Rita Ackermann / Mark Alexander / Guy Allott / Helene Appel / Nobuyoshi Araki / Hope Atherton / Jimmy Baker / Uta Barth / Christiane Baumgartner / Luca Bertolo / Richard Billingham / Steve Bishop / John Bock / Martin Boyce / Robert Buck / David Burrows / Gillian Carnegie / Helen Chadwick / Spartacus Chetwynd / Colin Chillag and David Quan / Ross Chisholm / Larry Clark / Oliver Clegg / Dan Colen and Nate Lowman / Mat Collishaw / Gregory Crewdson / Russell Crotty / Aaron Curry / Sean Dack / José Damasceno / Gerald Davis / Kate Davis / Amie Dicke / Kim Dingle / Tomory Dodge / Giles Eldridge / Tracey Emin / Saul Fletcher / Richard Forster / Helen Frik / Tom Früchtl / Marcius Galan / Anna Galtarossa and Daniel Gonzalez / Ryan Gander / Anna Gaskell / Adrian Ghenie / Sebastian Gögel / Nan Goldin / Melissa Gordon / Andrew Grassie / Anthony Green / Brian Griffiths / Andreas Gursky / Wade Guyton / Falk Haberkorn / Neil Hamon / Anne Hardy / Alexander Heim / Uwe Henneken / Candida Höfer / Craigie Horsfield / Barnaby Hosking / Matthew Houlding / Thomas Houseago / Lora Hristova / Graham Hudson / Thomas Hylander / Takaaki Izumi / Noel Jabbour / Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson / Sven Johne / Juneau Projects / Steffen Junghans / Tillman Kaiser / Mary Kelly / Rachel Kneebone / Terence Koh / Paul Kooiker / Skafte Kuhn / Friedrich Kunath / Alicja Kwade / Dr Lakra / Jim Lambie / Luisa Lambri / Michael Landy / Louise Lawler / Edgar Leciejewski / Glenn Ligon / Nathan Mabry / Fabian Marti / Eline McGeorge / Melissa McGill / Josephine Meckseper / Deborah Mesa-Pelly / Tracey Moffatt / Gareth Moore / Vik Muniz / Matthew Musgrave / Tomoko Nagai / Yoshitomo Nara / Mike Nelson / Ben Nicholson / David Noonan / Rupert Norfolk / Arnold Odermatt / Albert Oehlen / David O'Kane / Gosha Ostretsov / Silke Otto-Knapp / Djordje Ozbolt / Adrian Paci / Nam June Paik / Bradley Peters / Paul Pfeiffer / Jack Pierson / Lari Pittman / Richard Prince / R.H. Quaytman / Marc Quinn / Timm Rautert / Clare Richardson / Gerhard Richter / Damien Roach / Kirstine Roepstorff / Peter Rostovsky / Michal Rovner / Luke Rudolf / Jason Salavon / Michael Samuels / Oskar Schmidt / George Shaw / Jim Shaw / Dan Shaw-Town / Cindy Sherman / Pablo Siquier / Florian Slotawa / Melanie Smith / Jill Spector / Christopher Stevens / Dirk Stewen / Hiroshi Sugimoto / David Thorpe / Tim Trantenroth / Kon Trubkovich / Keith Tyson / Francis Upritchard / Sara VanDerBeek / Adriana Varejão / Chris Verene / Banks Violette / Sophie von Hellermann / Christian Ward / Matthias Weischer / Paloma Varga Weisz / Nicole Wermers / Kehinde Wiley / Simon Willems / Rebecca Wilton / Masao Yamamoto / George Young / Lisa Yuskavage / Tobias Zielony / Alex Zika / Jakub Julian Ziolkowski

Previously, as part of In and Out of Place:

V-Effekt / In and Out of Place
22 to 27 September 2009
Bibliothekswohnung, Berlin
Susanne Bürner, Tereza Buskova,
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Neil Hamon
and Susanne M. Winterling

An offsite exhibition of moving image works to coincide with the art forum berlin international art show and art berlin contemporary (abc)
The moving image works in V-Effekt thematise cultural and historical narratives and take their inspiration from various existing aesthetic contexts. Art historical references, found footage or traditional rituals act as initiators which, during the creative process, are subjected to certain shifts that obscure the source and reveal a more complex critical situation than first expected. In a process that may be compared to the Brechtian V-effect, the viewer's attention is drawn to a particular mode of narration used in the work, instead of to the obvious (and sometimes illusory) content of the work. Through this effect, a collection of historical facts and the ways in which they have been interpreted become the central subjects of the works. History and its narration form a collection of sorts, that undergoes changing orders of meaning and is staged in various ways to show that what we believe to be true is in fact always a subjective, formed selection.

www.bibliothekswohnung.com

Zabludowicz Collection collaborates with guest curators and artists, enabling them to realize projects with the Zabludowicz Collection and the exhibition space at 176 Prince of Wales Road, London. In August 2008 Catharina Gebbers and Zabludowicz Collection invited about 120 artists to be part of Krautcho Club / In and Out of Place, a collection based project exhibited both in Berlin and London. The final exhibition of Gebbers's residency will be held at 176 from 25 February to 9 May 2010.

The Krautcho Club / In and Out of Place was the first joint exhibition project between 176 and their guest curator Anna-Catharina Gebbers and took place in Berlin and London in 2008.

Artists include: allsopp&weir, Markus Amm, Reza Aramesh, Julieta Aranda, Sue de Beer, Tjorg Douglas Beer, Nina Beier & Marie Lund, Olivia Berckemeyer, Michael Beutler, boyleandshaw, Ulla von Brandenburg, Candice Breitz, Laura Buckley, Susanne Bürner, Ruth Claxton, Michael Conrads, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Björn Dahlem, Amie Dicke, Graham Dolphin, Hannah Dougherty, Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez, Tracey Emin, Haris Epaminonda, Doug Fishbone, Ian Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Ryan Gander, Ludovica Gioscia, Andreas Golder, Brian Griffiths, Eva Grubinger, Beate Gütschow, Alban Hajdinaj, Neil Hamon, Eberhard Havekost, Mathilde ter Heijne, Alexander Heim, Jeppe Hein, Sophie von Hellermann, Uwe Henneken, Gregor Hildebrandt, Myriam Holme, Andreas Hofer, Karl Holmqvist, Olaf Holzapfel, Judith Hopf, Julia Horstmann, Graham Hudson, Volker Hueller, James Ireland, Lisa Junghanß, John Kleckner, Gustav Kluge, Rachel Kneebone, Daniel Knorr, Karsten Konrad, Alicja Kwade, Tonico Lemos Auad, Kris Martin, Eline McGeorge, Isa Melsheimer, Mark Melvin, Alexej Meschtschanow, Frank Nitsche, PaulMart, Julia Pfeiffer, Bettina Pousttchi, Henrieke Ribbe, Damien Roach, Kirstine Roepstorff, Pamela Rosenkranz, Karin Ruggaber, Yorgos Sapountzis, Dawn Scarfe, Thomas Scheibitz, Hanna Schwarz, Norbert Schwontkowski, Daniel Silver, Andreas Slominski, Florian Slotawa, Peter Stauss, Dirk Stewen, Matt Stokes, Jack Strange, Katja Strunz, Mark Titchner, Charlie Tweed, Malte Urbschat, Paloma Varga Weisz, Corinne Wasmuht, Nicole Wermers, Claudia Wieser, Susanne Winterling, Johannes Wohnseifer, Haegue Yang

Invited by Anna-Catharina Gebbers and 176 Zabludowicz Collection, London

30 August 2008 // 11 September - 14 December 2008

30 August 2008 FORGOTTEN BAR PROJECT, Berlin Schönleinstr. 28, 10967 Berlin Kreuzberg, Germanywww.galerieimregierungsviertel.org
11 September - 14 December 2008 at 176, in the foyer during Material Presence

Anna-Catharina Gebbers and the curators at 176 have invited a selection of artists to lend a drinking glass they own to a bar in Berlin where it will be exhibited it on a glass shelf for one evening on 30 August 2008. Only a name on the bottom of each glass will reveal the identity of its selector and owner and turn the everyday object into a rarified artifact. To access the names of the lenders visitors have to step or bow down under the shelf and crane their necks. After being displayed in Berlin, the entire collection will be transported to London and installed in the café at 176, where it will be displayed concurrently with Material Presence a large scale exhibition of sculpture and installation from the Zabludowicz collection, including work by Laura Buckley, Myriam Holme, Graham Hudson, James Ireland, Alexej Meschtschanow, Katja Strunz and Mark Titchner, which runs at 176 from 11 September to 14 December 2008.

'Glass' is the name for both a material and an object; as such it carries connotations of value, cultural significance and aesthetic experience. The Krautcho Club / In and out of place contextualizes the glasses by the exhibition's concept and display mechanisms, which in turn incarnate basic modes of collecting and exhibition, and engage with themes of the readymade and site-specificity. The artists' contributions display a multitude of responses to and interpretations of the invitation they received. Different concepts of collecting, display, material, value, content and space come together through a simple exhibition conceit.

Forgotten Bar Project is a temporary not-for-profit gallery housed in a Berlin bar. It is running a daily changing exhibition program during summer 2008. 176 is a not-for-profit project space run by the Zabludowicz Collection and housed in a deconsecrated 19th-century Methodist Chapel in north London.

The title The Krautcho Club / In and out of Place combines an ironic reference to a well known London media/art world members club with the process of contextualisation launched in a 'forgotten' German bar.

For more information on Anna-Catharina Gebbers and her past projects please visit www.acgebbers.com