Loud & clear: from Venice to Berlin & Los Angeles, Barbara Kruger's typographic art is alarming as ever
From Los Angeles through Berlin or a new installation included in “The Milk of Dreams” La Biennale di Venezia, Barbara Kruger’s typographic art is destined to reveal the structuring power of text and image again, always relevant, always alerting.
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face ‒ forever.” This sentence, borrowed from George Orwell’s defining example of dystopian fiction aka 1984, is at the center of the brand new text installation created by Barbara Kruger for Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. Titled “Bitte Lachen / Please Cry” this is Kruger’s first institutional solo exhibition in Berlin.
The American conceptual artist has developed the site-specific text installation for the Neue Nationalgalerie’s upper-level exhibition hall, making use of the entire space as her work seeks to engage visitors in public discussion about political and social topics.
In this expansive work of art, Kruger combines her own texts with quotes by three authors ‒ George Orwell, James Baldwin, and Walter Benjamin ‒ whose writings each address major political issues: the violence of totalitarian states, the mechanisms behind societal discrimination, and the dangers of biased historiography. Through the stark graphic impact of her texts, reduced to just three colors (black, white, and red), Kruger succeeds in introducing her own artistic language into Mies van der Rohe’s iconic and rather massive building.
Aside from the topicality of the texts and their subject matter, the invitation extended to Barbara Kruger to develop this work also pays homage to her outstanding artistic contributions, whose feminist and political approaches have strongly influenced the art of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
A time to revisit Barbara Kruger’s past, present and Futura times
Orwell’s nightmarish vision of a totalitarian state originated from Orwell, directly following the Second World War. The statement was intended as a reckoning and reflection on the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany. In his novel 1984, Orwell issued a universal and timeless warning to society to question and critisise any form of state violence and control. By citing this well-known quote, Kruger “recalls the universal dangers that can arise at any time from repressive structures and nations. Given the current war in Europe, this warning about violence brought about by a totalitarian state seems all the more prescient.”
The literary quotes are accompanied by short texts written by the artist that have been adopted from social media news. They address visitors directly and refer to the discrepancies between self-perception and self-alienation, for instance, “Please cry” or “Is that all there is?”. In contrast to Mies van der Rohe’s classical and austere architecture, Kruger employs her own distinctive aesthetic while fundamentally questioning the consumer-oriented, uncritical ways of life that characterize many of today’s societies. The special exhibition runs through 28.08.2022 at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie.
Barbara Kruger’s new installation is included in “The Milk of Dreams” La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Cecilia Alemani.
The installation is an environment comprising text-printed vinyl and a three-channel video component that confronts the viewer with the ironically disembodied voice that is characteristic of her practice. The installation, on view through November 27, 2022, directly addresses the viewer (“YOUR FEAR,” “YOUR TOUCH,”) with imploring phrases (“PLEASE CARE,” “PLEASE MOURN”), in both English and Italian, creating an immersive reflection on visibility, insecurity, and grievance.
Last but not least, “Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.” now on view at LACMA is a major exhibition devoted to the work of Kruger not to be missed.
Spanning four decades, this exhibition is the largest and most comprehensive presentation of Kruger’s work in 20 years; it spans her single-channel videos from the 1980s to digital productions of the last two decades, and includes large-scale vinyl room wraps, multichannel video installations, and audio soundscapes throughout LACMA’s campus.
“As an active consumer and vigilant viewer of popular culture, Kruger grapples with the accelerated ways pictures and words instantaneously flow through media. How they are simultaneously played and re-played informs her most recent video works, which are an exhibition highlight. Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is a visually compelling gathering of groundbreaking artwork that is resonant, courageous, and crucial.”
Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is on view through July 17, 2022.
Tags/ typography, exhibition, barbara kruger, berlin, museum, text art, biennale, george orwell, lacma
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