Artists
Dirk Dietrich Hennig Born in 1967 in Herford, Germany | Lives and works in Hannover
Portrait
Dirk Dietrich Hennig
Foto: Seth Widman
In 1998, the Hanover conceptional artistDirk Dietrich Hennigfounded theCupere Institut für Geschichtsintervention (The Institute for Historical Intervention)that examines the concept of truth in (art) history. Since then he has presented himself in the guise of fictitious artists with all the artist’s accompanying myths; for example, as the Minimal artists George Cup & Steve Elliott, and the Belgian cross-border Fluxus artist, Jean-Guillaume Ferrée, whose lifework is punctuated by psychiatric episodes.
Hennig is not only responsible for the visual embodiment of the artist figures but, at the same time, also for producing the artist’s artifacts and ephemera, and the preparation of a history of reception that is archived and made accessible to the public in exhibitions or on the internet (for example at www.georgecupresearchcenter.com). The staging is so comprehensive and convincing that in January 2010, for example, a film by George Cup & Steve Elliott was presented in the London Tate Gallery without the curators responsible being aware of the ruse. With these parasitic work strategies operating within an art system hungering for authenticity, novelty, and nonconformance, Hennig’s work fulfills (and mirrors) not only the prevailing curatorial and institutional cravings, but is also of significance in light of the society-wide loss of historical consciousness in the face of an overwhelming present.
Education
| until 2000 | Kunstakademie MĂĽnster |
Solo exhibitions (selection)
| 2009 | Vertretung Niedersachsen beim Bund, Berlin |
| 2008 |
Städtische Galerie Nordhorn Kunstverein Wolfsburg |
| 2005 | Musée Ferrée temporairement, Heiligenrode, Bremen |
| 2003 | Roselius Museum Worpswede |
Group exhibitions (selection)
| 2011 | Architectures de film, Centre George Pompidou, Paris |
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2010 | The Square the Line and the Light, Tate Modern, London |
| 2009 | hier und anderswo, MARTa Herford |
| 2007 | Small sculpture Trienale, Murska Sobota, Slowenien |
Bibliography (selection)
| Ludwig Seyfarth, „Ironie, Fälschung und Moral“ in: Kunstforum International, 213, 2011 |
| Krist Gruijthuijsen, Encyclopaedia of Fictitious Artists - The Addition, ZĂĽrich, 2010 |
| A.C. Greenspan, „George Cup & Steve Elliott, Eine Rekonstruktion“ in: Kunstforum International, 204, 2010 |
| Naoko Kaltschmidt, “Blacked Out. George Cup & Steve Elliott. Retrospektive“, in: Springerin Band XV Heft 1, 2009 |
| Henry Pierre Bertin, “Jean Guillaume Ferrée“, in : Artist Kunstmagazin, 67, 2006 |