© Richard Serra. Courtesy ARS, NY and DACS, London, 2015 and Gagosian Gallery

The Graham Foundation and the Goethe-Institut Chicago are pleased to present a rare screening of films by German filmmaker and television art pioneer Gerry Schum. From 1968 to 1970, Gerry Schum broadcasted original artist films through German public television. This radical model bypassed traditional institutions with the direct dispersal of artwork into the domestic space. International in scope, Schum’s productions featured work by Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, Jan Dibbets, Richard Long, Mario Merz, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, among others. Albeit brief, Schum’s project introduced a new framework for viewing earthworks and conceptual and performance art in the context of everyday life.

 

On June 11, 2014, Gerry Schum’s television productions return to the domestic space with a rare screening at the Graham Foundation’s historic Madlener House. The program includes Fernsehgalerie's two television exhibitions, Land Art (1969) and Identifications (1970), along with Dies alles Herzchen wird einmal dir gehören (All This Darling Will Once Belong To You) (1967) and Konsumkunst - Kunstkonsum (1968)—two early documentary works Schum produced for Hessischer Rundfunk, Hesse and Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne. The first occasion to screen all four works together in Chicago, the event sheds light on this lesser-known collaboration between European and American artists between 1967-1970. The screenings will be introduced by curator Robyn Farrell.

 

FILMS:

Gerry Schum, Land Art - Fernsehausstellung I, Fernsehgalerie Berlin, 1969, DVD transfer, 32:00. 
Richard Long, Barry Flanagan, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, Marinus Boezem, Jan Dibbets, Walter de Maria. Courtesy Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands.

Gerry Schum, Identifications - Fernsehausstellung II, Fernsehgalerie Berlin, 1970, Video. 36:00. 
Joseph Beuys, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Klaus Reinke, Ulrich Rückriem, Daniel Buren, Hamish Fulton, Gilbert & George, Stanley Brouwn, Ger van Elk, Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Gino de Dominicis, Mario Merz, Gilberto Zorio, Gary Kuehn, Keith Sonnier, Richard Serra, Franz Erhard Walther, Lawrence Weiner. 
Courtesy LIMA, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Gerry Schum, Dies alles Herzchen wird einmal dir gehören (All This Darling Will Once Belong To You), Hessischer Rundfunk, Hesse, 1967. DVD transfer 6:55 min. Performance organized by Paul Maenz and Peter Roehr, Galerie Dorothea Loehr. September 9,1967, Frankfurt am Main, recorded by Gerry Schum.

Gerry Schum, Konsumkunst - Kunstkonsum, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne, 1968, DVD transfer from 16mm, 29:32.

 

This event is made possible with the generous support of the Goethe-Institut Chicago.

 

Gerry Schum (b. Cologne 1938-1973) was educated in television and film production at the Deutches Institut fer und Fersehen in Munich, and at Fernsehakademie from 1961-1968. He began work as a cameraman and filmmaker for television broadcast stations in Berlin around 1966, completing a series of documentary collaborations for television broadcast: Schaustücke—Ereignisse (Showpieces—Events, 1967); 6. Kunst-Biennale San Marino (1967); and Konsumkunst-Kunstkosum (Consumption-Art, Art-Consumption, 1968). Together with Ursula Wevers, he initiated Fernsehgalerie Gerry Schum, 1968-1970 and Videogalerie Schum, 1971-1973. Over the course of five years Schum worked as producer and cameraman to broadcast and distribute artist films and videos by John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Jan Dibbets, Gilbert & George, Michael Heizer, Mario Merz, Bruce Nauman, Ulrich Rückriem, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Ger van Elk, Lawrence Weiner, among others. In 1972 Schum was commissioned to present video art sections at Document 5 and the Venice Biennale. Before his death in 1973 Schum accepted the position of curator for the first video art studio at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany.

 

Robyn Farrell is a Chicago-based writer and curator whose work explores the intersection of contemporary art, technology, and time-based media, and early European video collectives c. 1970. Farrell has written and organized programming for INTUIT: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, the DePaul Art Museum, and Conversations at the Edge at the Gene Siskel Film Center, among others. She is currently Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago.

 

The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany. Global in reach, the Goethe-Institut aims to promote knowledge of the German language abroad, foster international cultural cooperation, and convey a comprehensive picture of Germany by providing information on Germany's cultural, social and political life. For more information, visit www.goethe.de.