Ulla von Brandenburg, Singspiel (2009).
© Ulla von Brandenburg
The Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka proudly presents Chorsingspiel, an exhibition dedicated to German artist Ulla von Brandenburg. This presentation, produced within the framework of the “Hors-les-murs” programme of the Fondation Louis Vuitton which showcases holdings of the Collection at the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Venice, Beijing, Seoul, and Osaka, follows the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s mission to mount international projects and reach a broader global audience.
Ulla von Brandenburg’s œuvre takes diverse forms – films, drawings, murals, objects, installations, etc. However each of her works stands as an extension or an element of a larger staging space. Before enrolling in Hamburg’s University of Fine Arts in Germany, the artist studied scenography and still has a strong penchant for the world of theatre. Curtains, whether directly borrowed from the theatre and mounted on a stage or taking the form of colourful quilts, are recurring elements in her work. These pieces of fabric – part sculpture, part painting – also serve to shape or frame the exhibition space. They create nooks and crannies or establish pathways to projection spaces.
Film and video, techniques the artist frequently uses, paradoxically allow her to reactivate pre-theatre forms, such as classical tragedy. This interest in models typically viewed as outdated is a recurrent theme for Ulla von Brandenburg. Her preferred iconography is linked to the turning point between the 19th century’s preoccupation with the occult and the rationality of the 20th century. Spiritualist photography, the shift from hypnosis to psychoanalysis, tarot cards, and secret societies commonly appear in her creations. By embracing a symbolist imagination anew, the artist revives the mysticism of the fin-de-siecle movement, as well as the utopia of the “Gesamtkunstwerk” (total work of art), as well as the unacknowledged and repressed roots of modernity.
Chorsingspiel gathers two video installations which belong to the Collection. Singspiel (2009) refers to a form of opera in Germany in the late 18th century. Both a silent film and a soundtracked work, it depicts a family meal uniting a dozen guests of varying ages and a strange performance in an outdoor theatre, where Ulla von Brandenburg herself performs two songs, recalling the concerts performed during film screenings in the early 20th century. Chorspiel (2010), also a black-and-white movie, uses the vocabulary of performance, theatre and painting, synthesized in a tableau vivant incorporating the choruses of Greek tragedies. These two artworks, presented in Japan for the first time, pay a vibrant homage to the multifaceted oeuvre of this major German artist.
About the Fondation Louis Vuitton
The Fondation Louis Vuitton serves the public interest and is exclusively dedicated to contemporary art and artists, as well as 20th-century works to which their inspirations can be traced. The Collection and the exhibitions it organizes seek to engage a broad public. The magnificent building created by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and already recognized as an emblematic example of the 21st-century architecture, constitutes the Fondation’s seminal artistic statement. Since its opening in October 2014, the Fondation has welcomed more than ten million visitors from France and around the world.
The Fondation Louis Vuitton commits to engage in international initiatives, both at the Fondation and in partnership with public and private institutions, including other foundations and museums such as the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (Icons of Modern Art. The Shchukin Collection in 2016 and The Morozov Collection in 2021), the MoMA in New York (Being Modern: MoMA in Paris), and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London (The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for Impressionism) among others. The artistic direction also developed a specific “Hors-les-murs” programme taking place within the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Venice, Beijing, Seoul and Osaka, which are exclusively devoted to exhibitions of works from the Collection. These exhibitions are open to the public free of charge and promoted through specific cultural communication.
PORTRAIT OF ULLA VON BRANDENBURG
AT ESPACE LOUIS VUITTON OSAKA, 2024
Photo credits: © Jérémie Souteyrat / Louis Vuitton
Ulla Von Brandenburg
Ulla Von Brandenburg was born in 1974 in Karlsruhe, Germany. She lives and works in Paris, France.
After training in stage design in Karlsruhe and a foray into theatre, Ulla Von Brandenburg studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (University of Fine Arts) in Hamburg, Germany. Her work is characterised by a diversity of media (installations, films, watercolours, murals, collages, performances, etc.), which dialogue with one another and which she stages to suit the exhibition space. Her work is internationally recognised and has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Palacio de Velázquez in Madrid, Spain (2023/2024); the Stuttgartstaats Galerie, Germany (2022), the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst in Bremen, Germany (2021); the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France (2020); the Whitechapel Gallery in London, United Kingdom (2018); the Musée Jenisch Vevey, Switzerland (2018); the Kunstmuseum in Bonn, Germany (2018); the Perez Art Museum in Miami, Florida, USA (2016); and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri, USA (2016). In 2024, the artist was a resident at Villa Kujoyama, Kyoto, Japan, and has had a new exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami since September.
Works by the artist are in numerous public collections, including the Tate Modern in London, United Kingdom; the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Stuttgarter Staatsgalerie, Germany; the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; the GAM in Turin Italy and the Mudam in Luxembourg.
