Around a year ago, Bethan Huws was invited to curate a show based on the works by Marcel Duchamp at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, as part of the Artist's Choice series. Works from the collections of Kunstmuseum and the Hilti Art Foundation as well as some of her own works were integrated into the exhibition. A mise-en-scène was developed, incorporating works by Josef Albers, Max Beckmann, Lucio Fontana, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Thomas Struth – four of which are physically absent but conceptually present. A series of four new videos has been specially produced: the first is on Fountain; the second on the Ready-made; the third on Guillaume Apollinaire; and the fourth, General, on Duchamp in general.
Each work in the exhibition, from Josef Albers to Lucio Fontana, is here to say something about Marcel Duchamp, rather than to serve its own purpose – except some of Huws' own, which were originally intended as such. Works of art lend themselves to a wide range of interpretations; this is something artists are used to, but it does not exclude their original aim. To a great extent, and in the spirit of Duchamp, the exhibition questions what we see.
A production of Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, curated by Bethan Huws.
Bethan Huws, Où sont les toilettes, s'il vous plaît?, 2018
Photo: Ralph Feiner | Courtesy of the artist & Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz–Zurich
© 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich
