chronological | Artists |

Erich Reusch

Les Préludes

25.4. – 30.6.1999
According to Reusch’s concept, piano music is supposed to be quietly played – as if to exhaust the entire gamut of German sentiment – starting with the remotely audibly chords of Chopin’s “Nocturnes” and leading over into the dramatic motive of Liszt’s “Préludes,” in effect evoking concrete associations of war and destruction.As many people in German still know, Liszt’s “Les Préludes” served as the theme that drew the attention of radio listeners during World War II to special news bulletins. Like an echo of wartime events, these notes resound in the room, abruptly checked by the sound of a metal plate crashing to the floor.The plate’s impact unmistakeably marks the final chord in which the drama of Jewish and German history assumes concrete form.It clarifies with authority that there is nothing to embellish here, nor room for misguided reconciliation.After all, the losses will not be compensated for through artistic intervention, and Erich Reusch is well aware of the fact.The merit of his concept is, however, that that he reanimates this neutralised, sedated room, bringing it face to face with its history.Using the power of the artistic dialogue, he recalls the trace of something gone, that is perennially threatened by another form of annihilation, the erasure of oblivion.

Christoph Schreier

Kunstmuseum Bonn
(initially published in the exhibition catalogue, Erich Reusch, Les Préludes, 1999)

 

 

1It is not the first time Reusch has acoustically accentuated his installations.Another case in point would be the spatial work for the Museum am Ostwall in Dortmund from 1973.


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Diashow (3 Pictures)

Synagogue Stommeln, Erich Reusch, Installation View

Installation View

Synagogue Stommeln, Erich Reusch, Installation View

Installation View