Zilla Leutenegger: Our House

Museum Giersch der Goethe-Universität

Frankfurt, Germany

OUR HOUSE: Our house is the Giersch Museum building at Goethe University, a villa with a history. Built in 1910 as a residential building, later home to the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, it has been a museum since 2000. The intimate, private atmosphere of the former living quarters has always fascinated visitors. Now this residential character of the house itself is the focus of the exhibition project OUR HOUSE. Artistic positions on living.

 

Nothing is as private as it is public as housing. Having your own four walls is a basic human need. In view of rising rents and a shortage of living space, the question of fair, sustainable and good housing is once again being debated with great urgency both politically and socially. How do we live? How precarious are some housing situations and how can housing be conceived in the future? The participating artists raise these questions and at the same time refer to the spatial situation of the museum building.

 

On display are works by contemporary artists such as Matthias Weischer and Susanne Kutter, but also historical positions such as the Viennese photographer Robert Haas or the Frankfurt photographer Inge Werth. They deal with the most diverse facets of living, from the interior as an aesthetic stage to the precarious housing situation of refugees and the claustrophobic interior of corona lockdowns. Berlin-based artist Jana Sophia Nolle is developing a new work for the exhibition that deals with the growing social inequality that manifests itself in different housing realities. The artist Jakob Sturm will also deal with the topic of housing and living space in Frankfurt in a new installation work. The Swiss artist Zilla Leutenegger will play a special role, critically examining the museum villa through extensive artistic interventions.

 

The project is part of the INTERIOR cooperation, which includes the MGGU and five other cultural institutions in the region: The Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, the Museum Sinclair-Haus in Bad Homburg, the Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt as well as the Kunsthaus Wiesbaden and the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden.

 

The story guides on the history of the houses of all INTERIOR cooperation partners can be found at: https://interior-rheinmain.de/de/

 

Artists*: Francisca Gómez ; Robert Haas; Karolina Horner; Susanne Kutter; Zilla Leutenegger; Morgenstern & Wildegans; Jana Sophia Nolle; Elizabeth Ravn; Jakob Sturm; Matthias Weischer; Inge Werth