For Gerhard Johann Lischka, the interweaving of things is the premise of thought and art. Lischka's Mind Art projections bear witness to this principle, as do his interviews with personalities such as Niklas Luhmann, Andy Warhol and his television contributions. The presentation takes a look at the artist's nearly 50 years of work, his A-Z.

For the distinguished artist and cultural philosopher Gerhard Johann Lischka, the environment surrounding humankind is an inescapable element that conditions and shapes us. Lischka therefore focuses on the alert and observant monitoring of current events. The trains of thought that result constitute the fermentation agents and foundations of a new art form, which he calls Mind Art. The free and open thoughts, the constant movement of the mind, the thinking, which are summarized in highly diverse constellations of texts and images, are declared here as artistic practice and a receptive requirement – because Lischka's art can only be encountered with an alert state of mind: Everything is connected and interwoven with everything. This is why one of his most important shows is titled »Alles und noch viel mehr« [Everything and Much More] (Bern, 1985).

The title »Assoziationen« [Associations], refers both to the Mind Art projections and to the exhibition organized by the ZKM | Karlsruhe. The title is most apposite because the Latin word »associare« means »to unite, connect, link, interlink.« The exhibition, which will take place on the ZKM | Museum Balcony and online, will show the Mind Art projections that make it possible literally to zoom in on Lischka's encyclopedic work of the last 50 years, from A to Z, so to speak. At the same time it is also the framework for publishing the newspaper »Meine Zeitung« [My newspaper] 2020, designed by the artist and produced by the ZKM, which presents the artist's accurate analysis of the present day in images and texts – which he calls »writing pictures.«

In addition, the exhibition features a selection of interviews with and conducted by Lischka, including with Jean Baudrillard, Niklas Luhmann, Vilém Flusser, and Andy Warhol, as well as radio and television contributions conceived by the artist. The various contributions can be seen from June 25 to August 2, 2020 at the ZKM Museum Balcony and most of them are also available online.

A virtual conversation between Gerhard Johann Lischka and Peter Weibel, the artistic-scientific chairman of the ZKM, rounds off the presentation.

Website

The Artist Talk as Part of the Opening

Credits

• Peter Weibel (Curator)

Exhibitions team

Project management: Clara Runge
Technical project management: Martin Mangold, Marc Schütze

Organization / Institution

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe