18.07.–14.10.2017

Portikus is turning thirty. Founded as a small art space on Schöne Aussicht in 1987, we moved from there to the Leinwandhaus and then to the Maininsel. Portikus XXX is the name of our anniversary project that doesn’t look back, but simply keeps moving ahead, not inside Portikus itself, but in the city so important to Portikus: Frankfurt am Main. We leave our space and, with small gestures and major interventions, present new works in urban places that shape the cityscape. In this way, Portikus XXX addresses a broad audience while, at the same time, we continue to do what we’ve been doing in recent years: making exhibitions that stimulate, expand perspectives and ask questions.

Curated by Franz Hempel & Fabian Schöneich

19.07.2017, 21h
Portikus
Filming Lack
w/ Thirteen Black Cats, Martha Rosler, among others

26.07.2017, 21h
Portikus
Dara Friedman

02.08.2017, 21h
Procession / Parade
w/ Nina Könnemann, Jimmie Durham, among others

09.08.2017, 21h
Portikus
Sound Bleed
w/ Minouk Lim, Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, among others

16.08.2017, 21h
Portikus
Non-work
w/ Helke Bayrle, Frances Stark, among others

What might a minor history of Portikus told through video look like? Helke Bayrle’s Portikus Under Construction gives this history its images, building an institutional memory and body of artworks out of what is almost always erased and obfuscated: work left outside of finalized and public-facing installations within the main gallery. Though the artworks in this screening program are by no means minor in and of themselves, they work outside of the limits of these artists’ previous contributions to the exhibitionary legacy of Portikus. Almost none of these films and videos have been shown within the galleries of Portikus before, yet they provide a vehicle for reflection through their addition and deviation. In an effort to let these relations permeate the methods of this program, groupings of films and videos will together assert the value of lack, the uncertain, the secondary, the obscured, the forgotten, and the unclassifiable. This project attempts to build a minor history of Portikus, inspired by Bayrle, from these foggy positions.

Program by Levi Easterbrooks

Portikus XXX on the oaccasion of 200 Jahre Städelschule - 30 Jahre Portikus is made possible by the generous support of Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft, Hans und Annemarie Weidmann-Stiftung, and Städelschule Portikus e.V. 

The presentation of Shannon Bool is suppported by the Embassy of Canada.