The result of that "Bag Art Projects" is a kind of localized snapshot on the question: what is art ?

We see a diverse mix of individual definitions of art, that  visualize together this concept of art.

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Since about 1993, the “classic” painted Thitz Bag has taken on another, conceptional significance: The bag as a means of communication. 
His procedure for this is simple and direct: Each participant in a selected group of people will receive a bag bearing a painted message.  This bag is to be decorated or to be filled with personal items before it is returned to the issuing museum. Thitz started out by asking certain occupational groups, e.g. artists or politicians, “painted questions” on their individual visions.  Proceeding on the assumption that such visions were already existing, he even made stressed-out politicians meet the visionary challenge.  In times when any kind of communication is purposeful or advertising something, the feedback from those queried seems amazing. Reviewing his project “Dialogue between Arts and Politics”, implemented in two German federal countries, owing to the support of their respective Department of Art. 
Citys and Towns  like Goch, Siegen, Waiblingen, Ostfildern, Offenburg and Kalsruhe (Germany), Grenchen (Swizerland) Feldkirch (Austria) but also Miami or New York (USA) or Athens (Greece)  were comprehensively covered by bag projects, i.e. every household or selected people (children,students)  got an “interrogative” bag.  The high extent of participation was just as surprising as the answers themselves.  In Ostfildern, 2001 bags were finally to be seen at the Community Gallery.  3000 bags, filled and decorated, made it back to the museum in Goch or to the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.These bag projects mainly owe their success to the fact that no restrictions apply to the participants other than artistic or conceptual ones.  

What now is the quintessence of those bag projects?  Will every city have to be overwhelmed with bags? The most important result may be a factor rather unfamiliar to scientific thinking.
 So - what is the effect of approaching “Cithitzens” of an entire town with painted “Questions-in-a-Bag”? The search for statistic or sociological relevance is not the aim of such projects.  It is much rather the action in itself, the active stimulus to develop creativity, the challenging of our innermost impulse to communicate through art. Because all answers are inspired by the fact that the Bag will be shown in an Art-Context in Museum , the result of that "Bag Art Projects" is a kind of localized snapshot on the question: what is art ?  The final installation of all these Bags by Thitz will show  a diverse mix of individual definitions of art, that installation visualizes  this concept of a momentary term of art. 

Things may not be all that difficult, as we can learn from the response painted by a fourteen-year-old high-school kid from Grenchen (Switzerland).  His bag shows the World Trade Center’s burning twin towers flanked by the word “PEACE”.  It is unlikely that the world could be saved completely if its entire population communicated via bags from now on, but our perspective might be directed towards our very selves, giving some hint on our innate human value. In our globalized world, it is perhaps important to put more emphasis on the already existing global Daily Life culture, as on borders, states, skin-colors or religions.

We will simply be asked …

(*)Projects were Supported by: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung ( Förderkennzeichen KBBBK1011)    Link

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Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau

April 25,  2010 until  June , 6, 2010


THITZ  Exhibition and Bag Art Project

Catalogue edited by Kerber Verlag www.kerberverlag.com  ISBN 978-3-86678-406-2
Opening  at Orangerie des Schlosses Georgium at  April 24,   6 pm.

More than 2000 people of the city of Dessau in Eastern Germany did participate at the "Bag Art Project" in the renowned state museum at eastern Germany Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau. All their painted bags  were assembled to the Installation "Bag City" in the Museum(Photo) .  Since there were a lot of texts on the bags complaining the decrease of cultural exposes through the state - the reaction of officials was to organize a discussion   forum in the exhibition with interested people on TV. 

 Thitz Paintings 

"In the 1994 ’Chabola City’, a shabby hut becomes a palace growing skyward, which has more in common with Cologne Cathedral than with the poor quarters on the outskirts of our cities. Thitz lends dignity to the forgotten slums, so curiously deserted.Our reality is ambivalent. Appearances are always deceptive; the artist sets out to expose them. ’Puschkin- allee‘, a 2010 Berlin picture, is comparatively calm. An autumnal mood pervades the visual web. And embedded in the fine branching of the trees we discover messages from the artist. Banal phrases, echoes of people in the urban space: ‘wisdom’, ‘artist cell phone’, ‘global’, ‘freedom’, or ‘prosperity 6000 km’. Viewers hesitate, look for explanations in the picture, and are left alone with their endeavours.
Thitz does not resolve the puzzle of his pictures. The world as he sees it is too complicated, too complex for a one-dimensional explanation. Thus the phrase ‘Art saves the world’ from the same picture is wishful thinking, a vision, a wonderful idea. We write our own story about it."

Dr. Stephan Mann  Director Museum Goch 

"As part of the exhibition organized Thitz, as in many cities at home and abroad, an interactive bag art project.

5000 paper bags were distributed to citizens and to students of the city . Everyone should paint the bag in person or to fill it with appropriate items. According to the motto: "We build our city from bags" -  over 1200 bags returned by the citizens were arranged in a large installation in the orangery of the castle Georgium. The audience thus creating together with the artist a great "social sculpture". To participate in this project, everyone was invited. ; After the exhibition, the participants were given back their bags. "(Quote:website)

Bag art goes political!

Because of the large participation of Dessauer citizens in the project and because of the apparent accumulation of cultural and political opinions on the bags as "Save our theater" or "No cuts in culture",in the exhibition a panel discussion was organized with the Ministers and other politicians and cultural workers.

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Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau 

Puschkinallee 100   

D-06846 Dessau-Roßlau  

 www.georgium.de   

 Tel: 0340/66126000

in Cooperation with Galerie Rothamel, Germany .

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The Project in Greece  began 2005 with Thitz exhibition in the Gallery Angela Dikeoulia (5.5.2005 -5.6.2005) in its former space in Kiffissia .  During the "Eco ArtFestival " Thitz began one of his famous "Bag Art Projects" in Athens, in ccoperation with  the environmental Organization: "Clean up Greece, Athens" .
The Show was recorded by 4 TV Senders with Interviews and images of the exhibition and the project . Famous TV Journalist Mr. Makis Triandafilopoulos painted his own bag for the project and bought a Thitz painting of the exhibition. 

2008 The project continued  at May 2008 in the city center of Athens, during Thitz big Museum-exhibition "BAG ART" at the "Cultural Center of the City of Athens"(Photo) The exhibiton was curated by Mrs. Angela Dikeoulia (Galerist) and organized by Mrs. Karla Baer Mananoupolou (Clean up Greece). The installation as an huge "Bag Art Globe" was one of the highlights of the exhibition.

Two years later 2010 the project did enter the renowned Museum Herakleidon in the center of Athens. Thitz was invited to an exhibition of his paintings and to continue the Bag Art Project in the museums educational space.

Museum Herakleidon 

“Marathon around the World”  by Thitz.

 The exhibition is with the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture and under the auspices of the German Embassy in Athens.




The bag is Thitz's trade mark and it is a surface for his painting, an important component of his collages, and, over and again, a herald from foreign lands and cultures. 

With the bag, the artist travels the world. 



In the framework of this year’s Eco Art Festival Athens, this vision gets a wider dimension and embraces also the rescue of nature, culture and peace. It’s a strong message that is carried by Thitz's “runner” specially painted for his individual exhibition in Athens. 




The  Herakleidon Museum together with the the environmental Organization “Clean up Greece” organized that Art Exhibition.

 "In this Thitz is a protagonist of a much wider stream of contemporary art, which is the reemergence of the human individual and of human collectives as the focal point of artistic creation. The human and humanity are back in town, in art. It seems that in new pop art the human is reinstalled back into his place, which classically speaking is his as of right. The human, and ...humanity.Speaking of the human place in art, I feel that the time has come to walk on a few steps to a painting which reflects Thitz's personal perception of Athens.
Thitz, a painter, but also a thinker. Thinking is very clearly and obviously an important source of artistic creation. I firmly believe that great art works regularly reflect brilliant minds, the intelligence of the creator. Intelligence for me is a measure to distinguish good art from rubbish. 
But then it is also true that art is a powerful source of intelligence, of logical and philosophical thinking, even though less conspicuously than is the influence of logical thinking of art. If it is less evident, this follows logically from the fact that the impact of art cannot be expressed in terms of the logos, only in the idiom of art.  BagArt. A characteristic trend of renaissance paintings were the vanities, paintings reminding the onlooker of his mortality and admonishing him to live his life accordingly, to embrace the nearness of death as his guidance.
In Bag Art Thitz represents not vanities, but opportunities. The various images on his bags seem like promises, even though empty promises. Thitz' bags are, however, an appeal to all of us that we must not succumb to the prefabricated promises of our supermarkets' and discounter world. 
He has invited dozens of Athenians to decorate these bags, a remarkable series of individualized promises. They show us states of well-being and experiences which the creators of these images wish us. I see in them signals of human solidarity which have become ever the more important in our times of crisis. But it is for us to accept these wishes and to fill these forms with content.
Start spreading the news !"
Mr. Guy Féaux de la Croix ATHEN 2008 (Vice Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens) 20.5.2008 Out of the speech for the opening of the exhibition.

2010 Museum Herakleidon, Athens  (Greece)   " Marathon around the world ".

3.6.2010 − 14.8.2010       Bag Art Project and  Exhibition  by Thitz

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The opening of the exhibition took place at the Herakleidon Museum (16th Herakleidon str., Thissio) on Thursday 3rd June at 20.00 hours in the presence of the artist.

Laudatio and greetings from: 

 Mr. Guy Feaux de la Croix , from Embassy of  Bundesrepublick Deutschland

 Mr. Nikos Kontoprias, Director of  Museum Herakleidon;  (Photo Nr.3)

Mrs. Irini Komnimou, greek Ministy of Culture 

Mr. Spyros Zacharis, Mayor of Marathon   (Photo Nr.2)

Mr. Spyros Mercouris, President of  the network of european Cultural Cities (Photo Nr.1)

Mrs. Maria Polizou, Marathon Champion and Director of the Marathon  Run Museum  (Photo Nr.1)

Mrs. Carla Baer Manolopoulou, President Clean up Greece/Eco Art Festival (Photo Nr.3)

Workshops were organized for elementary school students to raise awareness regarding their environment.

Museum Herakleidon, Athens  (Greece)

16 Herakleidon St., Thissio

118 51 Athens

+30 210 34 61 981 |   info@herakleidon-art.gr  |  

www.herakleidon-art.gr

Museum Hours  :   Tue-Sat 13:00-21:00  |   Sun 11:00-19:00  |   Monday - closed 

Clean up Greece, Troias 30,  112 57, Athens,  GR,  desk@cleanupgreece.org.gr

www.cleanupgreece.org.gr

Visitors with interest to purchase  works of Thitz in Athens, please do not hesitate to contact   Galerie Art Cargo A. Dikeoulia Athens 

Galerie Art Cargo A. Dikeoulia Athens 

 In Cooperation with  Gallery Angela Dikeoulia, Athens  and  Neue Kunst Gallery (Karlsruhe)

The catalogue of 60 pages was produced by the City of Athens, including  essays  written by: Sophia Daskalaki - Mitilineou, President of the Cultural Organization of the Municipality of Athens ,  Mrs Carla Baer Manolopoulou, President of Clean up Greece and Mr Christos Michalopoulos, Art Critic

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THITZ started the "Miami Bag Art Project" on December 6 ,during Art Basel Miami Beach   at the Miami Children’s Museum. The first children created their own art-bags together with Thitz and Mrs.Maria-Anna Alp (Alp Galleries New York) and with the help of the teachers of the Museum. The first "Art-definition-Bags" were hanged at the installation space in the entrance Hall of the Museum.

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Some Paintings of Thitz are exhibited since December 8, at the "Art Gallery" of the Museum.
December 7, - 10, Project Information at the "Art Kids"–playground of the  Miami Children’s  Museum  at Art Basel Miami Beach.  The children have time in December to create on their bags, their proper definitions of art.

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THITZ  was back in Miami on January 3. All the recollected bags were integrated in the installation at the Museum . On January 4rd, was a reception at the presentation and the exhibition of Thitz work at the Museums "Art Gallery". At the ART MIAMI Alp Galleries did present Thitz work and the Bag Art Project (Booth of Sponsor Mercedes Benz)  

The Exhibition and the installation closed at  January 15th , 2007  

Miami Children's Museum  ,

980 MacArthur Cswy.,   

Miami, Fl. 331325

USA

Special thanks go to the Miami Childrens Museum and the Sponsors for supporting the Project, Exhibition and presentation at the Museum and the Art Basel Miami .

 from Thitz and Alp Galleries

Alp Galleries, New York
291 Seventh Ave.

5 th Floor, New York, NY 10001 

Phone (212) 206 -9108,

www.alpgalleries.com

Miami Children’s Museum 
980 Macarthur Cswy.,

Miami, Florida  33132

 The projects in USA  were organized with Alp Galleries,New York.

 Supported by: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung ( Förderkennzeichen KBBBK1011)    Link

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This Museum is one of the oldest Museum Buildings in Germany. An exhibition here is said to be a big  step forward in the  ranking of important artists.

In the year 2006 Thitz was invited to  show his recent series of paintings the "painted Cities" and to organize one of his Bag Art Projects in the educational space of the Museum. Besides the paintings of Sydney ,Paris, New York and Hong Kong  the   "Bag art Project"  invited all children of Karlsruhe to create their own definition for Art - on (or in) BAGS. 

Over 5000 Thitz-Bags were distributed in all schools of  the city and in return - the painted  bags were shown at the museum at November.

In times of globalization, local features, from Africa to Australia, with all related visual habits are juxtaposed through internet and TV. On the bags we get some honest, human responses, which reflect the reality of daily life inspired through the art context. The installations will be the model for a locally restricted, subjective definition of art. Some thousands of definitions of art karlsruher students show us at least as much art as it fits in a bag.

Thitz 2006

This was  the most successful  Bag Art Project ever. The over 3000 bags did not fit into the space at the Museum, so that the remainder had to be exhibited in the main branch of the Sparkasse Karlsruhe.

The Catalogue "painted Cities " was published by the Museum Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and the Miami Childrens Museum.

Read the catalogue text by Mrs. Anja Wenn  

Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Hans-Thoma-Straße 2-6
76133 Karlsruhe

Opening hours:
Tue - Fri 10am - 5 pm
Sa, Su, 10am - 6 pm

The Project was Supported by: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung ( Förderkennzeichen KBBBK1011)  

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