Gavoi, Municipal Museum
As part of the Prelude of the “Island of Stories” Literary Festival
Until July 1, 2018
On the occasion of the 15th edition of the “Island of Stories Literary Festival” in Gavoi, the MAN is pleased to present, in the renovated spaces of the municipal museum, the exhibition 100 Years by Hans Peter Feldmann, one of the most celebrated German artists of his generation. The project is curated by Luigi Fassi and Alberto Salvadori.
Feldmann’s work, since its beginnings in the 1960s, has focused on exploring the potential of individual and collective memories that the artist has continued to collect and preserve as a personal archive in the form of found images, postcards, magazine clippings, posters and photos taken by himself. Each of these elements, categorized by Feldmann according to his own personal system, testifies to the preservation of memory as an act of ideal homage to the cycle of life and its unrepeatable diversity. Recurring themes in his production are the reflection on the notion of time and the investigation into the value of the work of art with respect to the concepts of uniqueness and reproducibility.
In the work 100 Years (2001) Feldmann photographed 101 people from the circle of his family, friends and acquaintances, from the age of 8 months to 100 years. Each photo thus corresponds to a specific year of life, from early childhood to old age. Collecting in ascending chronological order the photographic testimonies of one hundred different individuals and unraveling female and male faces in succession, 100 Years constructs a passionate serial portrait of human life through time, a choral homage to humanity that harmoniously unites the dimensions of the past, present and future.
We thank the Enea Righi Collection of Bologna for the loan of the work.
Hans Peter Feldmann (1941) lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Among the most recent exhibitions: MoMA, New York, 2017; Serpentine Gallery, London, 2012; Venice Biennale, Venice, 2009; Museo Nacional Centro De Art Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2011; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2010; MoMA PS1, New York, 2005. His work was featured at Documenta 5, 1972 and Documenta 6, 1976.
