This autumn, Anne Imhof is invited to take over the Stedelijk’s 1,100-square-metre lower-level gallery. Combining art, architecture, light, and a sound composed especially for the occasion, she will transform the space into a labyrinthine total installation. Anne Imhof is recognised as the artistic voice of a new generation. Her work is disorienting, and an unfailing memorable phenomenon by shapeshifting all genre-boundaries. Imhof’s first solo show in the Netherlands is a collaboration between the Stedelijk and Hartwig Art Foundation.
Installation view Anne Imhof – YOUTH, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam co-presented with Hartwig Art Foundation. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
Installation view Anne Imhof – YOUTH, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam co-presented with Hartwig Art Foundation. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
Installation view Anne Imhof – YOUTH, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam co-presented with Hartwig Art Foundation. Photo: Peter TijhuisAnne Imhof took a risk, embracing emptiness in her new work.
It pays off powerfully. —Artnet
To engage our senses, Imhof appropriates a polyphony of disciplines. She ensembles painting, installations, choreography, and music. Often drawing on duality, Imhof finds inspiration in a wealth of cultural history, from Greek mythology and Nihilism to underground culture. She addresses the dynamics of power, tapping into feelings such as hyper-individualism and loneliness, desire and greed, saturation, and the fear of missing out. Translating these emotional states into her artworks, Imhof captures fleeting moments rather than a single point in time. She will construct a dystopian underworld inside the Stedelijk, by way of a vertiginous labyrinth constructed of school lockers, that recollects a feeling of anxiety and body dysmorphia. Within its narrow passages, an Avatar gazes, confuses barriers, and shifting light plays with our orientation.
The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow was intended to be the exhibition’s first venue. In response to the Russian war in Ukraine, the Garage Museum suspended its exhibition program with immediate effect. The preparations for Moscow are now the reference for the show in Amsterdam. A new video work created in Moscow by Anne Imhof will premiere at the Stedelijk.
The exhibition Anne Imhof – YOUTH is a co-presentation of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Hartwig Art Foundation. Beatrix Ruf in collaboration with Katya Inozemtseva curated the exhibition for the first venue, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow. In response to the Russian war against Ukraine, the Garage Museum decided to suspend its exhibition programme with immediate effect. The preparations for Moscow are now the basis for the show in Amsterdam, which is curated by Vincent van Velsen in close collaboration with Rein Wolfs.
For the exhibition Anne Imhof – YOUTH, the Stedelijk is generously supported by Ammodo, the benefactors of the Stedelijk Museum Fonds and the Mondriaan Fund.
Header image: Anne Imhof, Fate (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.
Anne Imhof (Giesen, DE) studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. She was awarded Der Preis der Nationalgalerie in 2015, which led to a solo exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. Imhof won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2017 for her work Faustand in 2022 she was the recipient of the Binding Culture Prize. She was recently the subject of solo exhibitions at Tate Modern (2019) and Palais de Tokyo (2021).