a controversial exhibition the ultra-left terroristic organization RAF ....................................................................................................................................

......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary




‘zur vorstellung des terrors’
regarding terror: the RAF-exhibition

29. january - 27. march 2005
KW / kunst-werke, institute for contemporary art, berlin
http://www.kw-berlin.de

---
a controversial exhibition the ultra-left terroristic organization RAF.
the show presents together RAF documents, the media echo of the RAF
and artistic positions directly or indirectly addressing the history of the RAF.
the exhibition contains work by some 40 different artists, among them
jörg immendorff, gerhard richter, joseph beuys, sigmar polke, ...
who have dealt with RAF terrorism in their work.

media
in two ways, the curatorial principle of the exhibition takes account
of the perception of the RAF formed in and through the media.
on the one hand, by citing and displaying examples of this media
presence in the form of 29 dates tied to the history of the RAF's
terrorism in the 1970s. here one can see what one could see at that
time and what, in this ‘being seen’, decisively molded the
‘imagining of terror and the imagining of the RAF’ in west german society.
magazine title pages and selected articles from the print media
(bild zeitung, spiegel, stern, süddeutsche zeitung, and frankfurter allgemeine
zeitung, as well as excerpts from television coverage by the broadcasters
ARD, ZDF, ... document the period.
on the other hand and at the same time, it is made clear to the viewer
that the artistic grappling with this perception of a reality created
by the media is multi-dimensionally differentiated and makes it more
directly and differently experiencable.

it's a scandal
the show was initially meant to be called ‘RAF, the myth’,
and that seemed to be part of the problem.
despite the organizers' denials, german politicians said that the show
is distasteful and glorifies the notorious german guerillas.
the tabloid ‘bild’ reported that the berlin senate planned a ‘scandalous
exhibition about the RAF’ which would be financed with ¤100,000 ($125,000)
in federal funds. ‘bild’ said relatives of the RAF's victims had appealed
to german chancellor gerhard schröder to prevent the exhibition
from promoting the myth that already surrounds the group and glorifying it.

when government funding grows scarce, there's always ebay...
klaus biesenbach, founder and former director of kunst-werke,
the berlin institute of contemporary art, found himself with state
funding off the agenda.
‘the project aims to do just what we're accused of: to allow a
historically-grounded assessment of the RAF that counteracts
glorification and mythologization’ biesenbach said.

renowned artists, including Doug Aitken, Monica Bonvicini,
Francis Alÿs, Thomas Demand, Andreas Gursky, Carsten Höller,
Jane and Louise Wilson and Saatchi favorites Dinos and Jake Chapman,
Paul Pfeiffer, Ugo Rondinone, Lawrence Weiner
auctioned pieces of work on ebay and donate the proceeds to the
artistic cause. after 10 open days and almost uninterrupted international
participation, the online auction to support the exhibition project
concluded successfully on wednesday, dec. 22nd '04 at 2 p.m.
close to 250,000 ¤ were bid by participants from the USA, australia,
brazil, and europe for the 12 works of art offered on the website
or were additionally donated to the KW.

new title
the show went on stage under the new name of ‘regarding terror: the RAF’
and was curated by ellen blumenstein and playwright felix ensslin,
the son of RAF terrorist gudrun ensslin.
patron of the exhibition is the former federal minister of the interior
gerhard baum.
afterward, the exhibition will be shown in the neue galerie at the
landesmuseum joanneum in graz, austria.

---
a few lines on RAF
RAF is an acronym for the 'rote armee fraktion' ('red army fraction').
back in the 70s and 80s, this organization was responsible for
a lot of terrorist attacks in germany, also called baader-meinhof gang.
the intent was to portray themselves as faction of a much larger
revolutionary army.
the RAF, which had its roots in the radical leftist student movement
of the late 1960s, carried out a campaign of killings, robberies
and bomb attacks from 1970 to 1993 in germany with the aim of
destroying a society they condemned as imperialist and capitalist.

leading figures of the extremist group such as andreas baader
and ulrike meinhof attracted widespread sympathy from many
young people critical of western consumer society and equally
trenchant condemnation from an older generation stunned by
their ruthless violence.

the RAF almost completely ceased to exist in mid-1972,
when the original leaders were jailed, but within the next few years
it would be almost totally revitalized when another group, the SPK,
disbanded and remnants of that group joined the RAF.
this was the so-called ‘second generation’ RAF.




















---







-------
monthly designboom newsletter
-------





-------
? comments and contact us ?
-------






RAF logo featuring the hechler and koch machine pistol,
design by andreas baade.



hungerstreikerklaerung RAF, 1974



zusammemlegung der gefangenen, 1974



36 politische gefangene im hungerstreik, 1984



RAF announced its breakup in 1998






---


‘dead 2’, oil on canvas by gerhard richter, 1988.
artwork on show.



artwork by by joseph beuys, 1972.
artwork on show.



‘girl in mask’ by doug aitken, 2002.
auctioned by the artist to fundraise the exhibition.



‘my grandma went to see hell and all I got was this lousy souvenir’
by jake and dinos chapman, 2004.
auctioned by the artists to fundraise the exhibition.



untitled by francis alÿs, 2004