This artist's book and monograph presents a broad selection of Mirjam Thomann's work from 2006 to 2015—including a ceramic project at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; spatial interventions at Galerie Christian Nagel in Cologne and Berlin; an installation at Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht, later recontextualized for exhibitions in Arnsberg and Cologne; or a series of display sculptures based on a reconstruction of exhibition architecture from the 1960s. For all her work, Thomann uses what is at hand at a certain site as an impetus, as material, space, and terrain.
Along with spreads of 109 color images, 2015 Mirjam Thomann includes a preface by art historian and curator Eva Maria Stadler and a comprehensive essay on Thomann's work by art historian, critic, and artist Tom Holert. Stadler reflects on how Thomann's Aufstellungen (setups) refer back to the history of exhibitions.
Tom Holert insightfully surveys Thomann's exhibitions against the backdrop of four dimensions: what is at hand, the modular, the periphery, and the practical. He discusses how Thomann's work effectively draws from the etymology of the term “premise”—e.g., by considering the training to become an artist, the tradition of a medium, the knowledge of a generation, the canon of a milieu, the conditions of an institution, the specifications of a spatial situation, the power relations in the art businesses.
The book, designed by the artist, consists of a text section followed by a sequence of plates, all equal in size and arranged in a reversed timeline. Next to installation shots, reproductions of booklets, and invitation cards and images documenting performances, the plates include archive material collected by the artist such as postcards, video stills, floor plans, and snapshots.
Contributors
Tom Holert and Eva Maria Stadler
