The Name is BURROUGHS. Expanded Media

Sat, March 24, 2012 – Sun, August 12, 2012
Such works as »Naked Lunch« or »The Soft Machine« are what made William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) world famous as an author. Far less known, by contrast, is that Burroughs, as a cross-media artist, also produced a comprehensive, varied body of work that no less experiments with audio tape, film and photography as it does with painting and collages. The comprehensive exhibition »the name is BURROUGHS − Expanded Media« presents the author's artistic output in Germany for the first time. It examines the multiple affiliations between literary and experimental image production, further augmenting the image by way of the representation of »collaborations« Burroughs produced in association with other artists. The exhibition gains additional appeal thanks to a series of works by contemporary international artists who each make unambiguous reference to Burroughs' writings and his method of »expanded media«, and thus, from a present-day perspective, sound out the individual pictorial potential.
The exhibition's goal is to make tangible, in review and for the first time within Europe on such a scale, the visionary volatility of William S. Burroughs' literary output while at the same time showing the impact of his ideas and philosophy on a wider network of authors, musicians, composers, painters, photographers, video artists and filmmakers. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, Burroughs is more than ever considered – especially owing to the experiments he carried out in the 1960s together with painter, author, inventor Brion Gysin, with mathematician Ian Sommerville and filmmaker Antony Balch − as a pioneer of media art. In this respect, with the exhibition »the name is BURROUGHS − Expanded Media«, the ZKM also reflects the institution's unique mandate and its own history − that it was, indeed, Burroughs, who was awarded the first »Siemens Media Prize« in Karlsruhe, in 1993.
The exhibition's goal is to make tangible, in review and for the first time within Europe on such a scale, the visionary volatility of William S. Burroughs' literary output while at the same time showing the impact of his ideas and philosophy on a wider network of authors, musicians, composers, painters, photographers, video artists and filmmakers. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, Burroughs is more than ever considered – especially owing to the experiments he carried out in the 1960s together with painter, author, inventor Brion Gysin, with mathematician Ian Sommerville and filmmaker Antony Balch − as a pioneer of media art. In this respect, with the exhibition »the name is BURROUGHS − Expanded Media«, the ZKM also reflects the institution's unique mandate and its own history − that it was, indeed, Burroughs, who was awarded the first »Siemens Media Prize« in Karlsruhe, in 1993.
- Website
- http://www03.zkm.de/burroughs/index.php/de
- Credits
- Udo Breger (Curator)
- Axel Heil (Curator)
- Peter Weibel (Curator)
- Organization / Institution
- ZKM | Museum für Neue Kunst
Accompanying program
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- Fri, August 10, 2012
- Final Cut. The name is Burroughs
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Finissage
Vortragssaal
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- Fri, July 20, 20126 pm
- The Beat Hotel
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Film Screening
Vortragssaal
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- Fri, July 20, 20124 pm
- The Name is BURROUGHS. Guided tour with Axel Heil and Udo Breger
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Guided Tour
ZKM | Museum für Neue Kunst
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- Sun, March 25, 2012
- William S. Burroughs. A Man Within
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Film Screening
Vortragssaal
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- Fri, March 23, 20127 pm
- The name is Burroughs. Expanded Media (Opening)
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Opening
Foyer