Exhibition: The Boat is Leaking. The Captain Lied

Three extraordinary artists merge together; presenting a trans-media exhibition project in Venice. “The Boat is Leaking. The Captain Lied” is the result of an ongoing, in-depth exchange between writer and filmmaker Alexander Kluge, artist Thomas Demand, stage and costume designer Anna Viebrock and curator Udo Kittelmann. The exhibition will unfold on three storeys of the 18th century palazzo – the ground floor and the two main ones – and include photographic and film works, as well as spatial settings and loans from private and public collections.

Fondazione Prada will be the home to a dialogue of polyphonic references and constellations that intend to be an expression and representation on everyday life juxtaposing the worlds of yesterday and today.

Quoting William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar “Why, now blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark! The storm is up, and all is on the hazard”, Udo Kittelmann underlines how this collaboration generated out of a “shared awareness, both on an emotional and theoretical level, of the critical aspects of present times and the complexity of the world we live in”.

In a dialogue of polyphonic references and constellations between the contributions of each artist, the exhibition spans film, art and theater media. The confluence of image spaces and scene settings for a variety of atmospheres transforms the historic palazzo of Ca’ Corner della Regina into a metaphorical site for the identification of the worlds we live in and our personal attitudes towards them.

The exhibition aims to provide comprehensive insight into the respective production of Alexander Kluge, Thomas Demand and Anna Viebrock, whose artistic endeavors have always extended beyond the aesthetic and imaginative, and were conceived with political and historical intentions. All three artists reveal themselves as pathfinders and clue seekers, witnesses and chroniclers of times past and present.

Alexander Kluge

Anna Viebrock

Thomas Demand

Out of this, an exhibition is generated, intended as a space for experiences and encounters. This visually powerful, multi-layered environment bestows expression and meaning on the everyday and on the worlds of yesterday and today, between apparent normality and catastrophe, in a society divided between lust for life and loss of trust, extreme distress and never-ending hope.

As stated by Kittelmann, “It is a particularly lucky coincidence that Alexander Kluge’s filmic production, Thomas Demand’s photographic work and Anna Viebrock’s stage settings are brought together in this collective exhibition concept, melding what are usually distinct artistic forms of expression. Until now their different creative fields have prevented them from engaging in this kind of symbiotic collaboration, even though they know one another personally and have often exchanged ideas.”

The show will run from May 13th to November 26th 2017