BETTINA POUSTTCHI. FRAMEWORK
The SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE will present a new work by German-Iranian artist Bettina Pousttchi specifically designed for the exterior of the SCHIRN. Similar to her well-received installation Echo (2009--10) in Berlin--where she resurrected the just demolished Palast der Republik (the former East German parliament building) in the form of a monumental photo installation applied to the facade of the Temporäre Kunsthalle (Temporary Art Hall)--her Frankfurt piece will likewise cover a large portion of the building facade. Via her subject Pousttchi actively engages with the SCHIRN's architecture and its historical and urban context. Serving as a basis of the work are the artist's own photographs, which she adapts and manipulates. In their interlinking of architecture, sculpture, and photography Pousttchi's monumental photo installations broaden the traditional understanding of photography. They examine the question of how to approach urban space and memory while at the same time exploring the temporal dimension of architecture.
CATALOG
In her works Bettina Pousttchi (born 1971) reflects on the urban and social changes that mark our times. Her photographs, films, sculptures and installations enable us to experience these fundamental changes to the urban fabric. The spectacular site-specific interventions with which Bettina Pousttchi makes public spaces and buildings the objects of her works are the logical continuation of the artist's artistic investigation of urban space. Bettina Pousttchi became known to a wider audience with her monumental site-specific photo installation Echo on Schlossplatz in Berlin (2009-2010). This catalog illustrates her recent installation Framework, commissioned by Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, and gives a comprehensive survey of the artist´s oeuvre - including photography, sculpture, and video of the last ten years.