First Canadian solo exhibition by the seminal German artist
The Goethe-Institut is The Power Plant's Arts Partner
with support from the German Foreign Office
Call to Action, Franz Erhard Walther's first major solo exhibition in Canada, will offer insight into the seminal German artist’s radical ideas about relationships between space, object and the human body.
The exhibition brings together a body of his work produced between the 1950s and the present, including
1. Werksatz (First Work Set), a set of 58 fabric works which visitors will be invited to activate;
Wandformationen (Wall Formations), installed within the unique architecture of the Power Plant’s Fleck Clerestory;
Schreitbahnen (Stride Paths) and
Handlungsbahnen (Action Paths), fabric works mimicking visitors’ movement in space; and Das Neue Alphabet (The New Alphabet), comprised of 26 sculptural objects of fabric and wood that relate to the letters of the alphabet.
Walther’s interest in the body and the emphasis on the artist’s and viewers’ shared role in shaping material form is a common theme running through the exhibition. For the activations of the fabric works, visitors will use their body and movements to disrupt the space and landscapes of the work’s display. These activations will occur both within and outside of The Power Plant’s gallery space, therefore changing the perception and engagement of viewers with the landscape. The installation of the hanging or placed works will also recall human proportions, and reference the human body with their spatial configuration.
Along with a presentation of Walther’s early and more recent pieces, including video and drawing documents, the possibility of action and the importance of audiences in contributing to the artworks’ final forms will be evoked in all aspects of the exhibition Call to Action.
Activations
Activations of Franz Erhard Walther’s artworks will take place throughout the duration of the exhibition.
INSIDE THE GALLERY
Thursdays, 6 PM
Fridays, 11:30 AM & 4:30 PM
Saturdays & Sundays, 11 AM, 3 PM & 5 PM
EXHIBITION COMMON (EAST OF THE POWER PLANT):
Saturdays & Sundays, 1 PM
Public Reading
Franz Erhard Walther: Dust of Stars
Saturday, June 25, 1PM
Free, The Power Plant
A public reading of Franz Erhard Walther's semi-autobiographical drawn novel Dust of Stars - a monumental cycle of 524 sheets filled with pencil drawings and inscribed by hand - will take place for the first time in English, with the artist and other notables from the Canadian art community present.
"Take Action!" - Kids session
With Franz Erhard Walther
Sunday, June 26, 3-5pm
Free, The Power Plant
Join Franz Erhard Walther, who invites you to engage with both sculpture and the institution in new and moving ways. We will begin with a tour of Call to Action, Walther’s first Canadian solo exhibition, followed by the activation of his wearable fabric forms and the chance to design their own imaginative Werksatz (First Work Set).
Franz Erhard Walther (born in Fulda, Germany, 1939, lives and works in Fulda) is one of Germany’s seminal artists whose work has expanded the wider discussion of contemporary art practices. His work has been featured in a number of significant exhibitions including: Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form, Kunsthalle Bern; Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld; and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1969); Spaces, MoMA, New York (1970); documenta V, VII and VIII, Kassel (1972, 1982 and 1987); and Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object (1949-79), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1988). Recent exhibitions of Walther’s work include Franz Erhard Walther, The Body Decides, WIELS Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels (2014) and Franz Erhard Walther, Work as Action, Dia Art Foundation, New York (2010–12).
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