Philip Gufler
The Responsive Body
The video installation The Responsive Body (2019) by Philipp Gufler shows a collective performance in the museum of the Fondation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence, France.
The performance artists in the video are Diogo da Cruz, Johanna Gonschorek, Richard John Jones, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Louwrien Wijers and Philipp Gufler. In order to grasp and process the paintings and texts by Victor Vasarely, who inscribes Op Art deeply into his own DNA, the artists intended to formulate the impact of the works physically. The optical effects of the large-scale images affect those present, the act of seeing triggers extreme reactions in the body. Sensory overload leads to dizziness – similar to that suffered by the author Stendhal, who, during a visit to Santa Croce, experienced a nervous seizure in Florence in 1871. During this performance, the Stendhal syndrome in front of Vasarely’s paintings constitutes a double-figure: through dizziness the impotence of the receiving attendees is revealed as well as the power the images hold over their senses. Gufler’s video deals with essential themes, which are intrinsic to Vasarely’s art and its reception: control over patterns and the act of seeing, the repetition of reproductions, the power over reception as well as narcissism and self-adulation.
In response to and invitation from Philipp Gufler, following their appearances in his video installation The Responsive Body, Louwrien Wijers and the Publik Univeral Frxnd have created a new performance work entitled Not Yet that explores their relationship and the a series of paintings by Wijers.
Bio
Philipp Gufler (Germany/The Netherlands) spans various media in his practice, including performances, silkscreen prints on fabric and mirrors, artist books and video installations. For the video installation Projection on the Crisis (2014), he began researching into the self-organised archive Forum Queeres Archiv München, of which Gufler has since become an active member. Philipp Gufler studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and attended artist residencies De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2015-2017), Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Maine, USA (2019) and Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2021).
Recent solo exhibitions include: Autoerotismus, Kevin Space, Vienna (2020), It is getting alive, BQ, Berlin (2020); I’m in love with a statue, Françoise Heitsch, Munich (2019); Pleasure Pain, Marwan, Amsterdam (2019); I Wanna Give You Devotion, Platform, Munich (2017); and Setz dein Ich in Anführungsstriche, Kunstverein Göttingen (2016). Recent group exhibitions include: Identity Not Proven. New Acquisitions in the Federal Collection, Buneskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany (2022), Exzentrische 80er: Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen, Rabe Perplexum und Kompliz*innen aus dem Jetzt, Lothringer13, Munich and Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin (2022), To Be Seen, NS Dokuzentrum, Munich (2022), Biennale für Freiburg 1, Freiburg, Germany (2021), Sweat, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021); Andere Geschiedenis volgens Dirjke Kuik en Philipp Gufler, Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2020); Love and Ethnology, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2019); Maskulinitäten, Kunstverein Düsseldorf (2019); Paranoid House, Vleeshal, Middelburg (2018) ; and Bei Cosy, Rongwrong, Amsterdam (2017). Artist books include: Projection on the Crisis (2014/2021), I Wanna Give You Devotion (2017), Quilt #01-#30 (2020), Lana Kaiser(2020) and Indirect Contact (2017).
@koteklippi
