An important part of the future Kurt Schwitters in England Foundation’s work will involve promoting new scholarship and public access to Schwitters work and ideas via a range of; exhibitions, conferences, artists’ commissions, on-line/websites, publications and DVD/film projects. Some of this work has already been in development over the last couple of years, commencing with MERZLAND - the Schwitters conference at Tate Britain in 2004. A coordinated propramme of Schwitters and related Merzbau art research, exhibitions, conferences and publications are currently being prepared for submission to various funders for support.
Planned Future exhibitions and publications projects (2009 – 2012):
Kurt Schwitters in England (1940 – 48) a survey exhibition and catalogue documenting for the first time all of Schwitters artistic and literary output, during his last years living in England and on Isle of Man. This woud include a reprint/facsimile of the pioneering 1958 Gabberoccus publication ‘Kurt Schwitters in England’
Schwitters Sculptures and 3D works – proposed touring exhibition and publication
(Currently under development)
The Merz Barn – touring exhibition and publication documenting the history, iconography an development of Schitters’ last Merzbau project; the Elterwater Merz Barn
The URSONATE unplugged – International concert programme, exhibition, conference and Radio/CD/audio arts project documenting and celebrating all of Schwitters’ sound works, poetry performances and theatre/dance works, including several hundred contemporary artists, musicians composers and performers who have also been influenced by Schwitters and his work.
Links to Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate performed by Jaap Blonk:
Ursonate (YouTube)
Ursonate (BBC Radio3)
Two major exhibitions projects are also being proposed for late 2012, to conincide with the planned opening of the restored Merz Barn and site at Cylinders in Elterwater.
1. ArtBarns II (2011 – 12)
ArtBarns II is being proposed as an experiment in development of some more socially response and environmentally sustainable curatorial models for trans regional international art events.
Poster of first ArtBarns exhibition in 1999
Modeled on the successful 1999 ArtBarns project, the ArtBarns II art commissions would be developed through close consultation with the host farmer, rural community and/or urban centre partner or organisation. Each artists’ projects or commission brief would be written up and costed out in some detail and well before hand. These would then be advertised regionally and internationally, and offered to a mix of invited leading international, European and northern region artists, architects and designers, etc.
ArtBarns II projects should ideally be developed on site with the host partner and with a minimum of three to six months development period. The theme or subject of the various art projects would either be based around new art and architecture installations as a tribute to Kurt Schwitters, and/or aimed at interpreting some aspects of his pioneering Merzbau projects. Some of the ArtBarns II rural art projects would also be developed through artist - farmer collaborations and aimed at addressing creative and imaginative solutions to some rural social, economic or environmental issues, or other problems currently being experienced by farming and upland rural communities in the region.
ARTBARNS II: After Kurt Schwitters; artist farmer collaborations in rural Cumbria
Chris Drury's Art barn proposal (Preliminary design for Wool Chamber)
Artists will be encouraged to collaborate with local hill farmers and rural communities to frame new creative interpretations and imaginative responses to issues concerning rural social, environmental and economic sustainability. Other artists might choose to produce art works inside the barns mainly as a tribute to Schwitters and the Merz Barn, and in terms of media may involve installations, video projections, public art works, sculptures, etc., for display on farms and in selected farm barns.
ArtBarns II; proposed art research and curatorial structure. The proposed ArtBarns II commissions on upland farms in 2011 will most likely be developed under one or more of the follow headings or strands:
1. Barns as new rural art galleries and farming cultural communications centres
2. Barns as exhibition spaces in which artists address key rural and farming issues
3. Farms as places for new art and architecture collaborations and experimentation
4. Tributes to Schwitters Merz Barn, and/or interpreting the Merzbau in new ways
5. Field Art - art and cultivation and farm based art and sustainability projects
6. Creative rural economy; promoting arts based rural tourism & alternative land uses
A full set of curatorial guidelines and more detailed projects information for artists will be available in early 2010.
2. MERZBAU International survey exhibition
Great North Museum:Hancock (2012)
A proposal for major international Merzbau survey exhibition and publication is also being considered for the Hancock Museum in Newcastle in 2012, in association with Tyne and Wear Museums. The exhibition would aim to present for the first time extensive documentation and full-scale architectural re-constructions of all four* of Schwitters’ Merzbau projects. Leading architects and artists may also be commissioned to produce new artworks and large scale architectural installations in honour of Schwitters, or aimed at re- interpreting the Merzbauten in some new and creative ways.
The Hannover Merzbau (1923 – 33)
Proposal to develop an international exhibitions, publication and art conservation project aimed at promoting new scholarly research and public understanding about Schwitters’ pioneering Merzbau projects, and also documenting their continuing legacy and contemporary influences. The project also forms part of an international effort to document, restore and conserve the surviving elements of Schwitters’ Merzbau projects in Cumbria; The Merz barn, and the Schwittershytta located on the island of Hjertoya in western Norway. The exhibition would open initially at the Hancock Museum and at the Hatton Art Gallery in Newcastle in June 2012, and may later tour to other venues.
In basic terms the key elements of the 2012 Merzbau exhibition project include:
(1) Research programme.
Consolidation of a new body of art historical research and scholarship aimed at widening public understanding about the importance of Schwitters’ Merzbauten works and their evolution as a single critical project or oeuvre. Including a re-view of the structural and stylistic evolution of the Merzbauten in the context of the development of early modernist art and architecture, and also documenting their ongoing influence and contribution to contemporary art and architecture;
(2) Conservation strategy.
Coordination of an international art conservation programme and supporting research effort (involving partners based in Britain, Norway, Germany, USA) to work collaboratively on the documentation and restoration of the two surviving Merzbau projects in Elterwater (England), and Hjertoya (Norway);
(3) Exhibition and publication.
Production of a major international touring exhibition and publication documenting, the iconographical, stylistic and critical development and contemporary legacy of all four of Schwitters’ Merzbau projects; Hannover (1923-33), Lysaker (1937-39), Hjertoya (1934-39), and the Merz Barn, Elterwater Cumbria (1947);
(4) International conference.
Organisation of a conference to coincide with the exhibition opening in 2012, focused on new study of Schwitters’ Merzbauten, sculptures and other art works, and documenting their influence on contemporary artists and architects.
Kurt Schwitters conference Tate Britain, 2004
2012 Merzbau exhibition curatorial structure
These are being developed though a series of international seminars and workshops planned over the next two years, commencing with the MERZDORF project at the Royal College of Art London in May 2009.
Kurt Schwitters/Merzbau international research network.
To sustain and support this relatively high level of research related exhibitions and publications work it is proposed to set up an international Kurt Schwitters research network. This may also help form the basis of an AHRC resrearch network bid later on. This will be led initially by Dr Dorothea Dietrich, Head of Academic Studies Corcoran School of Art and Design Washington DC, and who has been recently appointed the 2009 Senior Research Fellow at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds.
Dorothea Dietrich, International Expert on Kurt Schwitters will lead the research network.
Research internships for artists and curators
The project would be designed as a unique pedagogy experiment and advanced arts research and training opportunity aimed at involving younger curators, art historians, architects and artists in the Merzbau project. Internships could be set up in some of the various specialist research areas of the project; curatorial, art history research, art restoration and studio practice. Students would also be encouraged to develop new research projects and exhibitions about Schwitters.
Spadeadam, UNITED KINGDOM