Ugo Rondinone: Life Time Cat. Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

Ugo Rondinone (*1964) adds a poetic dimension to everyday objects and phenomena. In typically Minimalistic arrangements, he puts a tree, a clock, the sun, or a rainbow in new contexts by means of repetition, isolation, or reduction, creating atmospheric ambiences. The SCHIRN is dedicating a large survey exhibition to Rondinone that will showcase key paintings, sculptures, and video works by the renowned Swiss artist. Devised specifically for the SCHIRN, his new installation extends along the entire length of the gallery and into the Rotunda. The exhibition and the book Life Time combine fundamental themes that have shaped the work of the conceptual and installation artist for the past thirty years: time and transience, day and night, reality and fiction, nature and culture. Rondinone has repeatedly referred to the iconography of Romanticism in his works and used quotes from literature and pop culture. The starting point of his multimedia oeuvre is the transformation of the outside world into a subjective, emotional inner world. He develops experiential spaces in which the viewer actually becomes part of the installations and their immersive structures.

Matthias Ulrich has been curator at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt since 2005, where he has realized numerous internationally acclaimed solo exhibitions as well as thematic group shows. Monographic retrospectives have been devoted to Jeff Koons, Tobias Rehberger, Michael Sailstorfer, and most recently Richard Jackson. Thematically advanced projects were devoted to the world of tourism with "All-Inclusive" or the interweaving of art and music with "Big Orchestra," both exhibition catalogs realized with Snoeck. Dominic Eichler (born 1966) lives and works in Berlin. He is an art critic, artist, musician, curator, and co-founder of the contemporary art space Silberkuppe. He is also a contributing editor of frieze. In 2005 he was awarded the AdKV Prize for Art Criticism. In 1999 he co-founded the pop band Dominique.