Andreas Kuhnlein: The Ship of Fools

The Ship of Fools

Dates

3 October ‒ 29 November 2020: Exhibition
Prolonged until 31 January, 2021!

Opening Hours:
September-October: Tue-Sat 2 - 7pm, Sun+holidays 10 am - 7 pm
November: Tue-Sat 2 - 6pm, Sun+holidays 10 am - 7 pm
School classes and groups may visit the exhibition outside the opening times after making an appointment.
The exhibition spaces and Café Botanika are wheelchair accessible. The exhibition and accompanying programs are admission free.

2 October, Friday 7 pm: Exhibition opening
Shuttle taxi from Freising station: 6:55 pm; return: 8:45 pm

• Greetings: Josef Mederer, president of the District Council
• Introduction: Norbert Göttler, District of Upper Bavaria Homeland Preservation Technical Consulting
• Musical accompaniment: Hans Well & Wellpapp

25 October, Sunday 16 pm: ART#DAY 074: Artist’s talk
Discussion with Andreas Kuhnlein and Norbert Göttler
Musical accompaniment: Sebastian Brandl

17 November, Tuesday 16 pm: meet up+art
Guided tour of the exhibition with Alexandra M. Hoffmann

The Exhibition The Ship of Fools

In his series The Ship of Fools, comprising over 100 works, artist Andreas Kuhnlein thematizes protagonists of all manner of historical events, people, ourselves. For his exhibition at the European Center for Art Upper Bavaria, he has created additional new figures inspired by the rich history of Freising and the Schafhof.
Kuhnlein’s installation is a contemporary portrayal of various types of figures and gestures that have been reworked repeatedly throughout art history. Based on the motif of the captainless ship first described by Plato and numerous variations thereof—e.g. in the painting of Hieronymus Bosch or in literature in Sebastian Brant’s book first published in 1494, which lends the exhibition its title—the artist continues his observation and iconography of universal forms and gestures in his unmistakable formal language. Kuhnlein creates his work with the help of tools such as chainsaws, flame throwers or welding equipment. His sculptures are characterized in particular by their rugged and jagged surfaces.

About the artist

Kuhnlein, born in 1953, grew up on a farm in his native Unterwössen. He completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and after his journeyman years joined the Federal Border Guard. In 1981, he retired from the police force, took over his aunt’s farm and worked part-time in a carpentry workshop. During this phase of his life he discovered the importance art for himself. He has been a freelance sculptor since 1983. To date, he has had well over a hundred solo exhibitions and has participated in more than a hundred of exhibitions in fifteen different countries. (Wikipedia)

Thoughts on the installation The Ship of Fools

In the early ‘90s a friend gave me a copy of Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools) by Sebastian Brant, first published in 1494. I read the Reclam edition and was fascinated by the descriptions of human vices, misconduct and foolish irrationality of people. In 2009, the city of Traunstein invited me for a solo exhibition at the Kunstraum Klosterkirche, an art space inside a former monastery church. This is when I decided to translate the Ship of Fools artistically into an installation of 133 works.
The scene is divided into two areas: shown in a reddish-brown field of wood chips are individuals for whom the thing of supposed importance transcends all else. Casting reason aside, they throw their support behind attributes and “sanctuaries,” ignoring the impending doom.
On view in the second, adjacent area, set on solid ground, are scenes of human activities with an undetermined outcome. Portrayed here is an interplay between doomsday scenario and rational action. (Andreas Kuhnlein)