29.10.17 18.02.18

The Loop in Art, Fi lm, Architecture, Music, Literature and Cultural HistoryThe loop is omnipresent—whether in music, the internet, video art or hotel lobbies and living rooms, where continually flickering open fires or aquariums with ceaselessly darting fish are displayed on monitors. The self-contained circuit, the endless loop, has moreover been a topos in the areas of cultural history, alchemy, and philosophy since classical antiquity at the latest. With “Never Ending Stories,” the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg presents the first extensive examination of the loop phenomenon in art, film, architecture, music, literature and cultural history, taking a comprehensive interdisciplinary look at the subject as regards time and place as well as form and content. Cyclicality in self-con-tained systems can be traced from the Ancient Egyptian serpent Ouroboros that devours its own tail to contemporary multimedia installations, significantly designating trance, dream and trauma in the human psyche. The architectural parcours developed especially for the gallery and the great hall in the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg enables numerous mental rota-

tions as well as spatial-physical looping experiences. The scope of the show ranges from the “Ourob-oros” Octagon and the “Zen” Hall to the quadratic mirrored “Music Hall.” In the process, chapters of the exhibition such as “Endless Eros,” “The Digestion of the World” and “Architecture without End” continually expand into cinema, installation and self-awareness spaces: generously sized black boxes featuring video loops by Salla Tykkä, Rodney Graham and Omer Fast, for example, are juxtaposed with immersive room installations by artists like Douglas Gordon, Ragnar Kjartansson and Bruce Nauman. In “Never Ending Stories” you can experience almost contrapuntally Yayoi Kusama’s trancelike light infinity measuring just four by four meters and Gregor Schneider’s ultimate space loop “Bathroom” spanning over 500 square meters.

The ArtistsAdel Abdessemed · Abramović/Ulay · Francis Alÿs · Rosa Barba · Robert Barta · Thomas Bayrle · Max Beckmann · Joseph Beuys · Michel Blazy · Étien-ne-Louis Boullée · Marcel Broodthaers · Philip Corner · Julio Cortázar · Attila Csörgő · Salvador Dalí · Wim Delvoye · Jan Dibbets · Marcel Duchamp · Thomas A. Edison · Maurits Cornelis Escher · Juan Esteban Fassio · Omer Fast · León Ferrari · Sandra Filic · Robert Filliou · Fischli/Weiss · Robert Fludd · Frank B. Gilbreth · Douglas Gordon · Rodney Graham · Max Grau · Anton Henning · Seikô Hirata · James Joyce · William Kentridge · Athanasius Kircher · Ragnar Kjartansson · Kraftwerk · Yayoi Kusama · Stanley Kubrick · Claude- Nicolas Ledoux · Tim Lewis · Sarah Lucas · Guillaume de Machaut · Michael Maier · Matthäus Merian the Elder · Robert Müller · Juan Muñoz · Eadweard Muy bridge · Bruce Nauman · OMA · Nam June Paik · Giambattista della Porta · Barbara Probst · Markus Raetz · Bridget Riley · Peter Roehr · Raymond Roussel · Erik Satie · Markus Schinwald · Gregor Schneider · Richard Serra · Shunsô Shôjû · Nedko Solakov · Daniel Spoerri · Gertrude Stein · Donna Summer · Roland Topor · Salla Tykkä · Günther Uecker · Andy Warhol and many more

Cover: Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013 © Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; YAYOI KUSAMA Inc.

1: Anonymous, Aurora consurgens (detail), 15. Jh. © Zentralbibliothek Zürich

2: Maurits Cornelis Escher, Drawing Hands, 1948 © 2017 The M.C. Escher Company-The Nether-lands. All rights reserved.

3: Bruce Nauman, Double Poke in the Eye II, 1985 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

4: Ackermann (Manufacturer), Demon picture disc for Joseph Plateau’s Phenakistiscope, 1833 © Werner Nekes

5: Max Beckmann, Café Interior with Mirror-Play, 1949, photo: Ursula Edelmann © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

6: Markus Raetz, Sinne I, 1987, Monika & Markus Raetz © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

7: Robert Lebeck, Jackie Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill at Robert Kennedy's coffin, New York 1968 © Archiv Robert Lebeck

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive reference work, edited by Ralf Beil, that sheds fundamental and scholarly light on this multi-faceted theme and moreover brings together commentaries on the individual exhibited works. The 13 essays written especially for the catalogue by Aleida Assmann, Jan Assmann, Ralf Beil, Norbert Bolz, Claudia Dillmann, Michael Glasmeier, Joachim Kalka, Stefan Klein, Peter Kraut, Niklas Maak, Peter Sloterdijk and Franziska Stöhr encounter work texts by Stephanie Lovász and Michael Schultze as well as source material by Étienne-Louis Boullée, Julio Cortázar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kraftwerk, Friedrich Nietzsche, Plato and Simon Reynolds. Designed by Eggers + Diaper, the catalogue is published by Hatje Cantz Verlag. The hardcover publication in a German and an

English edition encom-passes 360 pages with

circa 650 illustrations and costs 45 € in

the museum shop.

The Catalogue

The Program

28.10.17 / 7 pmOPENING NEVER ENDING STORIESWith MKantat and Konzertchor Braunschweig Party from 9 pm with DJ LCavaliero MannAdmission free

7.11.17 / 6:30 pmA LOOP SELDOM COMES ALONEGuided tour with director Dr. Ralf BeilAdmission plus 3 €

12.11.17 / 11 am – 6 pmLOOP THE LOOP!OPEN HOUSEAdmission free

23.11.17 / 7 pmPLAY IT AGAIN SAM …When repetition becomes loop. Concert and Moderation Steffen Schleiermacher.In cooperation with Deutschlandradio Kultur8 € advance booking and evening box office

9.11.17 / 7.12.17 / 11.1.18 / 8.2.18 / 6:30 pmLOOP AFTER WORKShort guided tours, cham­pagne and snacks between business and evening12 € including admission

ART DIALOGUEAn intensive course on themes from the exhibition3 € plus admission

7.11.17 / 4 pmThe Circle – A never ending story (Ouroboros)

21.11.17 / 4 pmDream and Trauma (Eros)

5.12.17 / 4 pmThe eternal return of the same (Literature)

9.1.18 / 4 pmInfinite Loops (Film)

23.1.18 / 4 pm The loop machinists (Man and Machine)

6.2.18 / 4 pmRepeat Repeat Repeat (Music)

STUDIO TIME FOR ADULTSHands on! A visit to the exhibition inspires one’s own creativity.Admission plus 2 € material costs REGISTRATION

www.kunstmuseum­wolfsburg.de bildung@kunstmuseum­wolfsburg.dePhone +49 (0) 5361­2669­20

18.11.17 / 2 – 6 pmA Rose is a Rose is a RoseRepetition as a graphic means

27.1.18 / 2 – 6 pmInside the LoopodromCircles and circulations: work­ing with natural materials

25.1.18 / 6:30 pmDA CAPO SENZA FINEA musical evening of loops. Direction and moderation Matthias Stanze8 € advance booking and evening box office

31.1.18 / 7.2.18 / 14.2.18 / 10 am – 2 pmSTUDIO FOR SENIORS Be active in the Creative Studio 7 € plus 2 € material costs

WORKSHOPS FOR FAMILIES Discover the exhibition with your children and be creative!Family ticket plus 2 € material costs per person

5.11.17 / 3 – 5:30 pmFolding the Loop. An Origami workshop of unlimited possi­bilities

3.12.17 / 3 – 5:30 pmStop­Motion­Lab. The infinite possibilities of animation

14.1.18 / 3 – 5:30 pmMagic loops. Optical illusions

4.2.18 / 3 – 5:30 pmNever Ending Stories. The endless writer’s workshop

31.10.17 / 19.11.17 / 17.12.17 / 21.1.18 / 4 pmFAMILY GUIDED TOURSYoung and old can experience the exhibition togetherFamily ticket plus 2 € per person

3.2.18 / 10 am – 3 pmWE ARE THE ROBOTSOne day programming workshop for children.In cooperation with the Medienzentrum Wolfsburg10 € admission

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, all events are in German.

NÄCHSTE

AUSSTELLUNG

OPENING HOURSTuesday – Sunday 11 am – 6 pm

HOLIDAY OPENING HOURSOpen on Monday October 30 and Reformation Day October 31Closed Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day Open December 25 and 26

ADMISSIONExhibition including multimedia guide 10 € / discount 8 €Family ticket 16 €Annual ticket 36 €Group price 8 € p.p.School classes upon consultation

PUBLIC GUIDED TOURSSaturday 4 pmSunday 12 and 3 pm3 € plus admission fee

CONTACTKunstmuseum WolfsburgHollerplatz 1 38440 Wolfsburg

Phone +49 (0) 5361-2669-0Fax +49 (0) 5361-2669-66info@kunstmuseum-wolfsburg.dewww.kunstmuseum-wolfsburg.de