“YOUTH”: Anne Imhof’s first solo exhibition at Stedelijk

Central Image: Eliza Douglas in Moscow, February 12, 2022. By Anne Imhof. Directed by Jean-René Étienne and Lola Raban-Oliva. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Buchholz & Sprüth Magers. Produced with the support of Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Hartwig Art Foundation and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam | Source: stedelijk.nl

Anne Imhof is a German contemporary artist known for her performances, paintings and installations. She has been characterised as the “voice” of the new generation of artists that embrace an entirely nihilistic philosophy. The harsh materials she deploys, like black dibond aluminium and glass bricks, combined with the presence of Goth performers accompanied by a background of heavy-meta and electronic music, are careful, conscious choices apparent in all of her prominent works. She aims to criticise the dynamic of relations between institutions of power. Her way of rendering these sociopolitical clashes generates a sense of worry and the feeling of the uncanny. Body language is an important means for her work, transmitting ambiguous messages, often contradicting what she actually intends conceptually, always accompanied by music.

“Youth”, now at the Stedelijk Museum, was initially meant to take place last April at the Garage Museum of Moscow. An important part of the installation as it took form, in Amsterdam after all, is exactly this transportation and the re-definition of the final work due to the war in Ukraine. Imhof was in Russia for the filming of a video when the war broke out at the end of February. Two days later, Garage announced the cancellation of its programme for the year. “We all knew there were tanks around Ukraine but many of us believed in the power of diplomacy” noted Imhof during her opening statement on Thursday, September 29. She and other art workers started to face problems regarding the limits that could be pushed through art created on Russian soil and the harsh reality of a war on European soil.

Anne Imhof, YOUTH, exhibition render. Image from sub (Exhibition Architecture and Supervision). | Image Source: stedelijk.nl

The exhibition, which eventually opened in Amsterdam in October, is riveting. The artist creates a maze that spans one of the largest exhibition spaces in the Netherlands. Adding mixed media to her work, Imhof literally occupies the space at Stedelijk. Void, however, is an integral part of her spatial arrangement. Spectators are invited to wander around gym lockers, piles of car tires and blind rooms. The rooms she creates include all sorts of mass-produced objects, even paintings and screens, while some walls are covered with graffiti.

Installation view of Anne Imhof’s “Youth.” Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam co-presented with Hartwig Art Foundation. Photo: Peter Tijhuis | Image Source: news.artnet.com

The absence of a performer is not something that her audience is used to, so the visitors seemed to be on the lookout for her or a representative of hers, for a surprise that never came. The absence in the empty spaces - filled with all kinds of media - becomes even more intense with Imhof being absent even from her video installations, in which she chooses to express herself through an "avatar", the performer Eliza Douglas with whom she often collaborates. What better way to make a point about death and the decline of society than to have the artist herself be absent? Sound, a key element in her work, has a strong presence in this exhibition as well. In collaboration with the German-Turkish rapper Ufo361 and the well-known, Venezuelan musician Arca, the soundtrack was created, framing and haunting the empty spaces of the overall installation.

Anne Imhof, “The ride”, 2022. Featuring Eliza Douglas. Directed by Jean-René Étienne and Lola Raban-Oliva. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Buchholz & Sprüth Magers. Produced with the support of Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Hartwig Art Foundation and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

The influence of folklore and the mythological element -references that are characteristic and integral to Imhof's overall body of work- is evident in this work as well. Her tendency towards nihilism and her post-apocalyptic rendering of historical references to culture and tradition both pervade the spaces she has taken over at Stedelijk. The tension and anxiety of the dystopian future are intensified by the new video-art piece, created by the artist specifically for this exhibition and shot in snowy Moscow. The work is riveting simply due to its own course, from first shooting it before the war and with the aim of exhibiting it in Moscow, to its final presentation and its reinterpretation in the context of an exhibition that is literally far from the war, but which comments on it.

Calculated 3D model of HEXAGON executed in preparation of Anne Imhof’s initial exhibition plans at Garage Museum, December 2021. Courtesy of Katya Inozemtseva. | Πηγή εικόνας: stedelijkstudies.com

Imhof is a very active artist who is gradually gaining more and more significant recognition and accolades. She won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2017 for her work “Faust”. Subsequent exhibitions at the Tate Modern and the Palais de Tokyo (in 2021) received rave reviews, both from the media and the public. In 2021, Art Review's "Power 100" list ranked Anne Imhof among the top 5 new artists. Today she lives and works in Frankfurt, Main, Germany. “Youth” is her first solo exhibition in the Netherlands and will remain open to the public until January 29, 2023.