Philipp Gufler, Longing for Sodom

Saturday, October 30, 2021, 6 p.m.
FILM SCREENINGS + READINGS
Free admission
Language: German

Artist Philipp Gufler (*1989 in Augsburg, lives in Amsterdam) presents a program specially composed for this evening and that encompasses films, video works and the reading of texts created by, with or about the personalities to whom he has dedicated individual works from his ongoing Quilt series. The selection includes, amongst others the filmic testament of Fassbinder actor Kurt Raab, Sehnsucht nach Sodom (1989, directed by Hanno Baethe, Hans Hirschmüller, Kurt Raab) who died of AIDS, and the documentary film Nicht Mann, nicht Frau, nur Rabe (1984, directed by Katja Raganelli, Konrad Wickler) about Munich-based performance and media artist:in Rabe Perplexum. Gufler further presents his own video works Becoming-Rabe (2016) and Lana Kaiser (2020), and, through the presentation of videos excerpts and the reading of texts, will give an insight into the lives of stage artist, sex worker, and trans activist Kirsten Nilsson and artist Kriwet, who had a solo exhibition at WKV in 1975.

The evening will be moderated by Viktor Neumann, co-curator of the exhibition Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead: Techniques of Becoming.

The Württembergischer Kunstverein is excited to present a substantial selection of his Quilts (2013–ongoing), as of today a series of 45 multilayered textile works, each dedicated to one or more historical figures or, in the case of some, to archival queer magazines. In reference to acknowledging the marginalized remembrance culture around the AIDS virus and larger framework of minor queer and non-normative histories in Germany, Gufler’s first set of quilts commemorate personalities who have passed of AIDS related-illnesses. Since, he gradually has extended the sphere for his quilts towards his own research interest, personal encounters, friendships, and adorations. Through affectionate and often lavish choices of textile, materiality, formal references, and through relating surfaces that mirror the intricateness and multi-layered quality of life and its narrations, each quilt distinctively responds to those it pays homage to.

Philipp Gufler’s practice spans various media, including silkscreen prints, artist books, performances, and video installations. He 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 (2021). His works have been exhibited, amongst others, at Haus der Kunst, Munich, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Vleeshal, Middelburg, Kunstverein Göttingen and Museum Lenbachhaus, Munich. His 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). As active member since 2013, he has integrated artistic research as a methodology into the archive Forum Queeres Archiv München.