Freie Klasse München
Since the national uprisings in France and Holland against the political elites, the European Union has not only strayed into troubled waters but has also faced an identity crisis and subsequently has been pulled into a vacuum of visions. The propagated “pause for thought”, as well as the strategy of “keeping still until the next summit”, has been supported by influential politicians. However: What has to happen during this break, or: How do we wait? The Freie Klasse Munich shows prospects out of lacking prospects, shows how to keep one’s cool in times of waiting and how to kill time in a European way.
Large-scale paintings conjure up a European summit gazed upon by steadfast Europeans spooning up their star-garnished broth (Johannis Cafe Munich, Bar zum lustigen Boxer Marseille)! In a video work the once incredibly harmonic game of the political class, which became known under the title “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”, has been revived and updated for a wider audience, whereby it’s not always just money that serves as a detergent. Nevertheless, efficient cleaning requires even more efficient drying: “Starmix” (European advanced technology) makes it possible. Is it pure coincidence that the Freie Klasse’s pictures related to this topic remind of Duerer’s “Praying Hands”, or is it praying in the end which remains our last chance? The Freie Klasse intends to give an answer to these and to other questions in the “Save Europe II” exhibition.
The title “Save Europe II” refers to an exhibition in the past which took place under the same title in the artists’ interim gallery in Munich in 1994. At that time, still under totally different conditions, they brought forward to the audience European-specific aspects. The from now on significantly changed mood makes the Freie Klasse react: Needless to say that rescue comes from Bavaria – as well as many other things lately!
Since the foundation of the Freie Klasse in 1997 the main focus has been set on artistic projects which break out of the art context and deal with everyday life, turning it into the material and into the place of their manifestations and objectivations. In their experiments the intended harmonisation of art and life is only an apparent one. By putting emphasis on the term “as if”, the results remain artificial counter-worlds, otherwise they hardly would be a topic in an artistic context. The exhibition in a gallery a priori focuses on art. For this reason the Freie Klasse doesn’t want to do without large scale paintings. They set the tone and outline the topic. Objects, video works and photographs complete the show and provide small additional aspects.
“Save Europe II” in Vasa is a sorrowful and ambitious exhibition which makes clear that in Europe there is a correlation, a consensus, a conjunction, a coalition, a complication, a conflict between art, pub and crisis. Forsooth!
FREIE KLASSE was founded in 1987 as an artistic critique towards the academic education and consists of Wolfgang Groh, Hermann Hiller, Ralf Homann, Wilhelm Koch and Gottfried Weber. FREIE KLASSE is an artist group that in a special way maintains collective and team-oriented productions, without the influence of the individual artists’ own works. It reflects on collective projects that appeared by the end of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st, but also on popcultural influences within the visual arts.
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