Doppelpass VII: Himmelsstürmer - Frenzy Höhne und Peter Kees

In the organizer's words:

Doppelpass VII

Sky strikers

Frenzy Höhne & Peter Kees

Opening Thursday, January 30, 2025, 6 to 9 pm

Exhibition until Thursday, March 27, 2025

Opening hours

Tuesday to Friday, 12 to 6 pm

The exhibition 'Himmelsstürmer' shows works by the two conceptual artists Frenzy Höhne and Peter Kees, which reflect the higher, faster, further of our time in a very unusual and subtle way.

Frenzy Höhne knows how to develop significant images of our contemporary society from everyday objects in a very apt and humorous way. The expansive installation 'Bessermenschen-Babbel', created especially for the exhibition, brings together countless small, seemingly kitschy porcelain figures whose clothing and gestures are reminiscent of a bygone era. The artist makes the Biedermeier era disappear under a layer of trendy paint and provides the sculptures with white bags inscribed with current advertising slogans that address the values and culture of our present day.

The colourful 'Bessermenschen' (better people) spiral upwards into the height of the exhibition space on a black shelving tower reaching for the sky, following the messages and temptations of endless renewal and self-optimization of advertising, which creates new needs without limits. In addition to the appearance of shelves of goods, the installation is also reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, a mythological image of human self-exaltation, the completion of which was thwarted by the confusion of what was once a common language. To what heights does this language whip us up today?

"The arts have the task of reflecting social processes," says Peter Kees, whose works always provide fresh food for thought. At DG Kunstraum, he is showing a monumental sculpture: a wingless airplane that was on display for the first time in 2023 at the Arcadia Festival in Ebersberg Forest, which he initiated and curated. It bears the inscription "LIBERTÉ" - an invitation to get on board and fly away?

The skies, outer space, a space of freedom? Perhaps it once was, before more than 13,000 satellites orbited the Earth. From 2026, you can take off into space with Virgin Galactic for 250,000 to 500,000 dollars a week, or you can afford a flight on one of SpaceX's private rockets. While the airplane lying in the forest can create immediate crash fantasies, in the exhibition space it counteracts the idea of freedom itself, because without wings and without an engine, the object rather conveys an image of hopelessness - crammed into space, like a songbird in a cage. But how did the airplane lose its wings? The image of Icarus resonates; the overconfident man flew too high into the sun and crashed. The belief in eternal growth can be given a question mark.

Finally, the multi-channel spatial sound installation 'Soll + Haben' by Frenzy Höhne, which resounds above everything, evokes harmony and the collective pursuit of profit optimization in our time. The title of the work already refers to the source of the texts, which are recognizable as leitmotifs of German savings banks and have been arranged by the artist into a six-verse liturgy. The instructions for success are repeated like a litany and accompanied by specially composed organ music and a brilliant audience choir. The perception of the savings bank texts as liturgical elements of a religion of consumption can be read beyond the business title as a moral impetus of our present - and echoes for a long time as a catchy tune.

Frenzy Höhne (*1975 Dresden) studied philosophy and education at the Leibniz University of Hanover, fine arts at the Hochschule für bildende Künste - HfbK Hamburg and was a master student at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst - HGB Leipzig, where she currently lives and works. The conceptual artist makes astute use of a variety of media techniques; she develops objects, site-specific sculptures and sound installations, photographs, graphics and drawings that address the values and needs of our communal life in a multi-layered way and also directly integrate the audience in the context of performative interventions and actions in public space. Her work was recently awarded the Leo Breuer Prize 2024 by the LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn and presented in an extensive solo exhibition at the gkg - Gesellschaft für
Art and Design in Bonn.
www.frenzy-hoehne.de

Peter Kees (*1965 in Bayreuth) is an artist who deals with longings, ideals and visions. Since the Havana Biennial in 2006, he has repeatedly annexed individual square meters in European countries and declared them Arcadian territory. As Arcadian ambassador, he issues visas and grants asylum. His works have been shown at the Mediations Biennale in Poznan, the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, La Capella Barcelona, the PAN Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, the Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Kunsthalle Rostock and the Kunstfest Weimar, among others.
www.peterkees.de

Program
opening
Thursday, January 30, 2025, 6 to 9 p.m.
7 p.m.
Welcome and introduction

Artist talk with Frenzy Höhne and Peter Kees
Thursday, February 20, 2025, 7 pm

'42 or the world formula'
Organ performance by Peter Kees
Sunday, February 23, 2025, 7.30 pm
St. Paul, St.-Pauls-Platz 11, Munich

Finissage with trombone concert by Yannik Groß
'In the distorting mirror room. Ricercar for tenor trombone in eight scenes' (Wolfgang Florey, 2008)
Thursday, March 27, 2025, 7 pm