Passage 2011
An Actionistic Transalpine Drama
Distributed for Hirmer Publishers
With Texts by Marcus A. Friedrich and Arne Rautenberg
143 pages
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197 color plates
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11 1/4 x 7 1/2
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© 2012
In May 2011, Munich-based artists Thomas Huber and Wolfgang Aichner set off with a seventeen-foot boat on a journey of a few hundred miles that would nonetheless take several weeks—because the route would take them across Italy’s Zillertal Alps. Destined for the 2011 Venice Biennale, Huber and Aichner conceived of this seemingly Sisyphean task, Passage 2011, as a metaphor for human hubris and the pursuit of success. As neither expected to complete the pass, Passage 2011 would also serve as a study of failure.
Passage 2011: An Actionistic Transalpine Drama draws on the artists’ photographs and detailed journal entries to reconstruct this epic journey, its moments of heartwarming success and its physically and mentally testing travails, including one instance in which they had to rappel the cheery red boat down a steep rock face that dropped more than two hundred feet. As a finale, Huber and Aichner launched the boat in the Venice Lagoon for a triumphant cruise along the Grand Canal, where, as expected, it rapidly sank and had to be retrieved in order to be installed in its place at the Biennale.
Passage 2011: An Actionistic Transalpine Drama draws on the artists’ photographs and detailed journal entries to reconstruct this epic journey, its moments of heartwarming success and its physically and mentally testing travails, including one instance in which they had to rappel the cheery red boat down a steep rock face that dropped more than two hundred feet. As a finale, Huber and Aichner launched the boat in the Venice Lagoon for a triumphant cruise along the Grand Canal, where, as expected, it rapidly sank and had to be retrieved in order to be installed in its place at the Biennale.
Der Spiegel
“Passage 2011 is certainly one of the best and most profound contributions to the entire Biennale.”
Jemima Greaves | Outdoor Photography
“Artistic duo Global Aesthetic Genetics undertook a bizarre project in May 2001, in which they pulled a boat across the Zillertal Alps with the aim of reaching Venice in time for the Biennale. In Passage 2011, we are presented with beautiful alpine images and lots of photographic evidence of the highs and lows from the expedition, which tie in very well with the firsthand accounts of their arduous and very odd journey.”—Outdoor Photography
Contents
Preface
Introduction: passage2011—The action as metaphor
Christian Schoen
Introduction: passage2011—The action as metaphor
Christian Schoen
The logbook
Act One
Arne Rautenberg: Defiance
Arne Rautenberg: Nothing is more eternal
Act Two
Arne Rautenberg: The realm of the dead can wait
Arne Rautenberg: Ever the fool
Act Three
Arne Rautenberg: Making victory out of defeat
Arne Rautenberg: Beautiful view over the small blue
Epilogue: Of mountains, boats and faith—The ritual power of action art
Marcus A. Friedrich
Biographies: The artists and the authors
Acknowledgements
Imprint
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Art: Art--General Studies | Photography
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