Wendlingen Municipal Gallery
25.9 - 10.11.2024
Utopia & Bags
"Thitz exhibits ideas. His art makes utopias visible. And it challenges us as viewers to discover."
"A concrete starting point for Thitz's artistic utopias is Venice. As a place of longing, the lagoon city exerts a great fascination on the artist. As is well known, Venice is threatened by floods. By masses of water as well as by streams of tourists. In addition, Venice itself is a utopia realized on millions of wooden piles.
In Thitz's art, Venice becomes a double figure of reflection. The utopia that has become a city - as it still stands today - is threatened by doomsday scenarios. It is therefore facing a gloomy, dystopian future. But Thitz eliminates this contrast between utopia and dystopia in his art by using the dystopian scenario of
doom finds a hopeful utopian solution. In concrete terms, this looks like this: Venice as a functioning and fascinating underwater city. A completely new attraction. Or, as you can see on the first floor: a Venice in which the streams of tourists are well-ordered and in manageable numbers, so to speak, bagged up and admiring the city on the blue-clear water."
Quote from the introductory speech by Mr. Florian Stegmaier (cultural scientist)
"Everything will be fine! - my dream future". On the occasion of his exhibition in Wendlingen, the artist Thitz is calling on the people of the city to bring him a recycled bag of their own design to the exhibition. Your dream future can be painted in or on the bag or depicted using any other technique with the bag. Thitz will create an artistic installation in the exhibition from all the bags submitted. On the last day of the exhibition, every "artist" can take their own work of art home with them.
Thitz says: "I have noticed that when you talk to people all over the world about the future of humanity, a very clear and unmistakable Basic attitude revealed: Everyone wants things to go well for us in the future, for us to all live together peacefully, all over the world. So if the world were a real democracy and people could decide what happens, there would be no war, no destruction of nature, no hunger, no extinction of animals...
Of course I realize that this is not the case today, but what do we want to do? Where do we want to go? Do we want to make the world worse or better?
Sometimes it's that simple!"
The vernissage is on Wednesday, September 25th, 7:30 p.m.
Mayor Steffen Weigel will give a welcoming speech, Florian Stegmaier, cultural scientist, will introduce the exhibition and Rubina Trost, violin, will provide the musical accompaniment.
Artist talks with guided tour: Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024, 6 p.m., Sunday, October 20th, 2024, 3 p.m. Finissage with artist talk and guided tour: Sunday, November 10th, 2024, 3 p.m. Weberstr. 2, 73240 Wendlingen
How much art is there in the Pfullendorf region? The artist Thitz wants to find out: He calls on all residents, their friends and guests: Design a paper bag, paint it or come up with something else! Make it an "ART BAG!" Hand in the finished bag to the "Alter Löwen" municipal gallery by May 5, 2023. All of the bags will be used to create an artistic installation that can be seen during the exhibition in the gallery. After the end of the exhibition, from July 9, 2023, the bags can be picked up again. Organizer: "Alter Löwen" municipal gallery in Pfullendorf
Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst - Diether Kunerth
THITZ Ausstellung mit Tütenprojekt in Ottobeuren
14.11.2020 -11.4.2021
Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst - Diether Kunerth
Marktplatz 14a
87724 Ottobeuren
Tel.: 08332/79698912
Fax: 08332/79698910
Email: markus.albrecht(at)ottobeuren.de
Homepage: www.mzk-diku.de
Museum Goch
Museum Goch "Bag Art Global"
On 12.9. opened a presentation of all previous bag projects with original bags and documentation in the Museum Goch. That will be the 2nd bag project since 2000 in Goch. The results were installed at the opening of the new one in the M4- Goch community center on 11/12.9. and did further invite to participate. In addition, there were a series of events such as on September 15, a panel on "Climate change - where to?" with the former Federal Environment Minister Dr. Barbara Hendricks and Bernhard Drießen of fridays for future.
Venice Biennale Urban Bag Art- Project 15.6.-22.6.2019 Thitz+DADA in Venice , Interactive Urban Bag Art Project during VENICE BIENNALE
Thitz did already visit as a supporter the Pestalozzi School in the favelas of Londrina 2009 and this time he was able to see the progress that the Giovane Elber Foundation has achieved there. In addition to the school, a day care centre for small children and a cancer ward for children in the hospital were also set up. For the prohect the children have painted over 200 bags, from which Thitz could build a beautiful installation in the middle of his exhibition at the Museu de Arte de Londrina. Together with current works and documentations of the worldwide bag project, it resulted in an exhibition worth seeing.
Fortunately, some of the "artists' children" came to the opening and besides Giovane Elber, the museum management and cultural directors of Londrina spoke.
Opening 20.8. with THITZ
Exhibition 20.8.- 2.9.2018
Museu de Arte de Londrina, Rua Sergipe, 640, 86010-360 Londrina -Paraná
Municipal Gallery in the Centre - Niederrheinischer Kunstverein
The Niederrheinischer Kunstverein has invited Thitz to exhibit at the Museum Wesel on the occasion of the 775th anniversary of the city. For the bag project 5000 bags were distributed and processed by the people from and around Wesel. The results are exhibited by Thitz in the form of one of his well-known installations in the huge entrance hall of the museum. Works from over 30 years of Thitz-Tütenkunst were selected for the exhibition.
September 11, 11.30am opening reception.
At the opening the new Thitz book "THITZ TÜTEN KUNST" (*) will be presented for the first time.
Curator: Jörg Happel. Museum Wesel - Galerie im Centrum, Ritterstraße 12-14, 46483 Wesel Link
THITZ Exhibition and bag art project
The bag art project has already been started this summer in Landau and is already in full swing. Everyone could participate- as long as bags were there. In addition to the Bag-Art Installation a beautiful museum presentation with various works of the artist is mounted in the beautiful historical rooms of the villa. Shown are his latest paintings and installations, objects and bags.
Opening of the exhibition at the Municipal Gallery Villa Streccius Landau at 04/12. 2015 at 7.00pm
Matinee with Thitz and Michael Oess ( Neue Kunst Gallery ) at 01.10.2016 at 11am ,
Städtische Galerie Villa Streccius, Südring 20, 76829 Landau / Pfalz
Opening hrs: Tues and Wed: 5pm-8pm, Thursday to Sunday 2-5h
www.kunstverein-landau.de | www.suedlicheweinstrasse.de | www.villa-streccius.de
Organizer: Kunstverein Villa Streccius Landau eV. | Co-organizer: Weinstrasse. e.V. | Neue Kunst Gallery Karlsruhe
Bag Art Project with Installation at Erfurt Museum
Over 1100 painted bags were sent back to the Museum by citizens of Erfurt.
So Thitz could not only create that beautiful "Bag-world" Installation but also 2 other installations out of all that bags in the Museum. Allthrough there were still a lot of Bags over - these were distributed in the whole Museum - so it is possible to see them all there.
We did enjoy your participation and creativity!
The opening took place on May 23 2014 at 5 pm during "Nacht der Museen- (common opening night of all Museums and Galleries") then Artists reception at Galerie Rothamel at 9 pm
Stadtmuseum Erfurt | Johannesstraße 169 | 99084 Erfurt | Tue–Sun 10am – 6pm | (+49)361 655 56 51 | www.stadtmuseum-erfurt.de | stadtmuseum@erfurt.de
Galerie Rothamel | Kleine Arche 1A | 99084 Erfurt | Tue – Fri 2pm – 7pm, Sat 11am – 4pm | www.rothamel.de | galerie@rothamel.de
THITZ solo exhibition April 15 2014 - June 01 2014
"Metropolis of Tomorrow"
Bag Art Project in the German city of Solingen
The Bag Art Global Project of Thitz reaches Solingen. Even a Bag-Art Film was designed by pupil of the Gesamtschule Solingen.
Over 1100 painted bags with many political connotations prove that the citizens of Solingen are tolerant and political interested..
The Bags were part of an art-installation by Thitz from 21. th March 2014 until 11.th April 2014 at the Museum of Arts Kunstmuseum Solingen and in the municipal Library.At the Museum a documental presentation of the other Bag-ArtGlobal Projects was shown. .
Kunstmuseum Solingen
Wuppertaler Str. 160, Solingen-Gräfrath
More bags big bag installation in the municipal library Solingen
Mummstraße 10, Solingen
Infos: Uschi Lauterjung (+49)176/49 309 106
www.thitz.com
www.facebook.com/tütenkunst
www.lebenswertes-solingen.de/tütenkunst
Press:
TV Show with THITZ in his exhibition:
WDR TV Mr Ekkehard Wolff made film shots in the exhibition for his Show "Rede mit Ede" Sendung ( Fridays at 7.30 pm)SEE THE FILM NOW !!
Newspapers (in german)
Solinger Tagblatt 22.3.2014
Solinger Morgenpost 22.3.2014
Kunst und Literaturverein Dill-Lahn e.V.
Thitz "People and other Bags "
On 3 levels, presented the Kunstverein a cross section through the entire oeuvre of Thitz. In addition to the works on canvas, it provides an overview of the graphic work, paper work and installations of objects and bags. The bag project was very successful in Herborn - Thitz was able to build out of more than 600 bags - a very beautiful and compelling installation in the ancient building of the Kunstverein.
Kunst- und Literaturverein Dill/Lahn e. V.
Mühlbach 5-7
D-35745 Herborn
Tel: (+49) 27 72 - 5 15 01
In cooperation with Neue Kunst Gallery Karlsruhe
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.
Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau
Puschkinallee 100
D-06846 Dessau-Roßlau
www.georgium.de
Tel: 0340/66126000
in Cooperation with Galerie Rothamel, Germany
ATHENS (Greece) Bag Art Project 2005- 2010
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
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:
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(at)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
Museum Solo Exhibition and Bag Art Project "Poesie und Brötchentüten" ("Poetry and sandwich bags")
at the Münsterlandmuseum Burg Vischering in Lüdinghausen Germany
17.1.2010 until 15.04.2010
Opening: Curator Dr. Stephan Mann ( Museum Goch )
Münsterlandmuseum Burg Vischering in Lüdinghausen
Berenbrock 1 59348 Lüdinghausen
Tel.: + 49 (0)2591 7990-0 Fax: + 49 (0)2591 7990-28 E-Mail: kultur@kreis-coesfeld.de
With Galerie CP Cerny, Wiesbaden
Bag Art Project
The citizens of the area have participated very enthusiastically in the project. The more than 800 painted paper bags were arranged by Thitz in a wonderfully light installation (see picture).
With its abundance of hidden details, unfurled the installation a subtle and almost poetic effect in the context of the restored medieval castle.
The Bag Art Project Brazil began in the summer of 2010 in the middle of the favela of Londrina, as there, the children were asked to paint a bag with the German artist Thitz. Thitz traveled at his own expense to Brazil and worked with the children of the Pestalozzi school in the favela Franciscata in Londrina. That school was built by the organization " Verein zur Förderung brasilianischer Straßenkinder" of Giovane Elber .
The students of this school did paint the first 100 bags. From the bags Thitz created the installation, which resulted in the word "PAZ". The Installation was part of the exhibition of Thitz works in the Museum of contemporary Art of Londrina.
The opening was at the Museum at 12.9.2009 with the Sportstar Giovane Elber,the Mayor and other celebrities. In interviews on radio and television Thitz and Giovane Elber could point out the problem of street children and explain the project. Not only with that project supports Thitz the work of the association for the help for Brazilian street children from Giovane Elber in Londrina. Frequently he donates some of his paintings to be sold in favor of the association. Later, the installation was also shown in Germany on the occasion of fundraising events.
Bag Art Global
Exhibition at Municipal Gallery "Galerie für Technik und Kunst", Schorndorf July 4 - July 26 2009
On the occasion of his exhibition "Bag Art Global" in the galleries for art and technology, Schorndorf, the artist Thitz conducted a survey of his bag projects. 1200 citizens participated in it to fill a specially made bag with a personal or otherwise important subject to paint on it. The bags were all part of the installation. After the exhibition, the bags could be picked up again.
During the opening of the beautiful exhibition on 4 Thitz July Thitz and the jazz musician Dieter Seelow have revived the idea of ??a dialogue between the arts in a live performance in front of the 300 guests again.
An introduction to the work of the artist, the Stuttgart art historian MA was given by Ricarda Geib (read now).
"Globalization does not just happen - we humans do it and we should therefore make it human." (Thitz)
Thitz is constantly in search of unifying elements among people and cultures. Through globalization, local cultural elements around the world from Africa to Australia, and all related visual habits are now simply placed side by side. The bag is one of the elements for the already existing global culture - everywhere in the world, people use it -to buy bread or carrying around in it all their possessions, like the New Yorke "Bag People". Through his projects Thitz receives mostly honest, humane answers that reflect the lifestyle of the people unadulterated. This Thitzs installations become the model of a localized, subjective but absolutely true art term.
The Schorndorfer Project "BAGS ART" establishes a thematic and a spatial relationship between art and everyday life. The Cultural Forum has Schorndorf . In collaboration with Centro Schorndorf distributed over 5,000 bags.
HOPE - a bag project by Thitz
The nationwide kick-off event for the project "Hope for Eastern Europe" of the Diakonisches Werk of the Evangelical Church Germany on 8-10 February 2008 in Speyer's Stadthalle was opened by Lord Mayor Schineller. The bag project "HOPE" was the central artistic contribution to the event. Students and pupils from Odessa (U) and Speyer worked on the more than 300 black and white bags for the installation. Posters were printed from the bag installation and sold in favour of "Hope for Eastern Europe".
Minister President and SPD Federal Chairman Kurt Beck and Minister a.d. Dr. Heiner Geißler discussed the perspectives and needs of such projects for Eastern Europe with Mr. Schindehütte (Bishop for Ecumenism and Foreign Work of the EKD) and Mrs. Golubenku (City Councillor Odessa) in the discussion round. Thitz then presented the bag project in more detail in an interview with moderator Quach.
For some years now, Thitz has been conducting so-called nationwide "bag surveys" of people from a city or in a specific environment. For example, the citizens of Goch (D), Athens (GR) and Miami (USA) were sent bags with the request to fill them with a personal object, to paint them or to design them in any way and to return them.
"I am looking for commonalities among the citizens of the world, which are particularly evident in everyday life. The everyday object bag is only one element of an already existing "global culture", which already exists today! For example, a person in Odessa carries his purchased bread home in a bag in the same way as a Stuttgart person. Today art is one of the few ways to present these commonalities and thus perhaps to develop our language further." says Thitz.
The project took place in cooperation with the Gallery Kulturraum Speyer.
Picture below: Heiner Geissler (former Minster, fraction leader of the CDU), Kurt Beck (SPD Federal Chairman)
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.
Some paintings of Thitz are exhibited since December 8, at the "Art Gallery" of the Museum.
Art Basel Miami Beach. 12-06-2006 until 12-10-2007 , Project Information at the "Art Kids"–playground of the Miami Children’s Museum . The children have time in December to create on their bags, their proper definitions of art.
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 01-04-2007 until 01-08-2007 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
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 - 5pm
Sat, Sun, 10am - 6pm
The Project was Supported by: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung ( Förderkennzeichen KBBBK1011)
“Thitz - Painted Cities“ at Alp Galleries, New York
Together with some helpers like the German artist Franziska Schemel and the gallery owner Maria Anna Alp, Thitz arranged a spontaneous bag art project at the gallery stand at the Art Miami Fair. Visitors and collectors were happy about the change in everyday life at the fair and painted imaginative and interesting bags. The bags of the Miami Art Fair were later integrated into the Thitz exhibition in New York, where the project continued with visitors to the exhibition.
Alp Galleries, New York
291 Seventh Ave. 5 th Floor,
New York, NY 10001
Phone (212) 206 -9108,
"Offenburg Bag Art Project" for the exhibition in the municipal gallery Offenburg.
Between Bag Cinema und Bag City
The world of the painter Thitz
"Thitz will leave lasting traces in Offenburg" said the mayor in his speech. Indeed, the participation in the "Offenburg Bag Art Project" was a huge success. Not least thanks to the support of the national and local press, the project became a "talk of the town". For the project very nice bags were printed and distributed together with the Museum Offenburg. 700 bags, some of them very elaborate, came back from the Offenburgers and could all be admired in the exhibition. The installation of the 700 absolutely direct and unambiguous openburg art definitions was the latest result of the conceptual art project, which Thitz has been carrying out in a similar form at home and abroad for over 15 years. "The concept of art has not softened and has just become more subjective. To redefine "art" we have to ask people directly," says Thitz.
Curator: Mrs. Susanne Asche then head of the cultural office in Offenburg
"Colourful and colourful are they, the people in'Bag City', red and yellow, green and brown people, with curls or long, streaky hair fluttering wildly behind them.... everything seems conceivable in the towns and landscapes of Thitz." (Stephan Mann) In his bag pictures, the "New Pop Art"-artist describes the world. "The beautiful, colourful world of consumption in our cities, for example, can only be explained if you look very closely at all the small details, the many hidden, sometimes seemingly lost people and their stories. (Thitz)After studying in Stuttgart and Barcelona, the artist, born in 1962, developed his multi-figure paintings on bags in the mid-1980s, which were followed by his first bag projects in the 1990s. He undertook bag surveys of citizens in German cities, but also many bag trips and campaigns in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. "A special inspiration emanates from the everyday object bag, which not only affects me when painting, but also reaches the viewer. In Offenburg, in addition to paintings on bread bags such as the 23-metre-long figure frieze, Thitz also shows canvas works and the installations "Tütenkino" and "Bag City", which are designed as large walk-in paper bags."
Quote: Mrs. Gerlinde Brandenburger-Eisele, Director Museum Offenburg
In addition to the latest Thitz canvases, a 25 m long bag frieze with studies by people from 15 countries was on display in the 550 sqm exhibition. The newly erected giant walk-in bags together with the bag project formed the installative part of the exhibition.
After the end of the exhibition on February 19, the purchased Paris work will be on permanent display in the entrance area of the museum in the Knights' House.
Städtische Galerie im Kulturforum, Amand-Goegg-Straße 2, 77654 Offenburg,
Opening on 20.1.Welcome by Dr. Christoph Jopen, Mayor of the City of Offenburg, and Dr. Susanne Asche, Head of the Culture Department of the City of Offenburg, Introduction: Dr. Stephan Mann, Head of Museum Goch
Städtische Galerie im Kulturforum
Amand-Goegg-Straße 2
77654 Offenburg
museum(at)offenburg.de, Museum im Ritterhaus, städtische Galerie Offenburg
The opening of the museum in 2004 was truly glorious! The "Who's Who" of the international curators and collectors was gathered at least on the first opening day.
The two Thitz figures Lena and Valerio were exhibited together with a large work in the basement of the new building. In the new museum shop there were also Thitz-Museum-Burda cups and of course the official museum bag of Thitz was designed.
This was the birth of the bag project with the museum's own "Kunstwerkstatt" foundation. In August 2005, a first group of children eagerly painted on bags in and in front of the museum.
In September these were exhibited in the workshop and all visitors were invited to participate.
Even Frieder Burda himself painted a bag! (See photos below).
The results were then exhibited in the museum in 2006.
Picture: Museum bag designed by Thitz (inside printed with city motif)
Art collector Frieder Burda paints a bag for the bag project of Thitz at the Museum Frieder Burda 2005
T Ü T E N T R Ä U M E - BAG DREAMS
Exhibition and Bag Art Project in Switzerland
700 Thitz- bags were created by the citizen of Grenchen for the Exhibition.
The Project "BAGS (T) ROOMS" began at the Triennale in Grenchen at 17.9.2003. 2004, participant citizens were inspired both by the question on the bag itself, but also by the location of the presentation to answer with regard to art and Triennial. In the form of their answers were of course all free again.Thitz asks us to approach without fear of the art. He asks for our individual definitions of art - on the bags.
Curator Prof. Linneweber-Lammerskitten
Part of the speech at Museum Kunsthaus Grenchen
Do you want a bag or is it okay like that?
The question “Do you want a bag or is it okay like that?” has of course a double layered bottom just like all good bags have double layered ones themselves. A late night dealer at a tram stop would offer you a “Tüte” ( a joint) just like the helpful vegetable selling woman at the grocery market would offer you a “Tüte” (a bag), too. The one or the other is a relief in daily life, although in quite a different sense. The question implies that it could go without a bag, too – in the first case this would be socially desirable, in the second case I'm not quite sure.
I could hardly imagine life without bags, where I mean the second kind of bags and only of those shall hence be spoken of. That of what henceforth be spoken of is etymologically the “bag” or “toot” – a horn-, funnel- or tubelike vessel or wind-instrument (1), where the (german) etymologist is only enough at the beginning because there is a multitude of bags which look entirely different and we put to totally different uses and therefore belong to other bag-types. Also not all bags are suitable for all occasions and not all bags are of a type that one wants to be affiliated with – in which case the question would be answered with a “No, thank you. It's okay like that.”, which an environmentally minded fellow human being would give as an answer at the weekly grocery market.
Let us then look at some bags a little more closely...
The more surprising is that the time we went to school which should prepare us for the hard life began for most of us with the school bag, which – not to speak of the bottom filled with tissue paper – was filled to the top with sweets. “That's how sweet school is!”, this bag wanted to tell us through its form and content. That the bag lies is what some of us knew already on the second day of school. The con-shaped bag that at first seemed like the inexhaustible and abundant horn out of a fairy-land was soon emptied and could at most be still used as a clowns headgear or a wizard's hat. ..
The learned bag Like everything else that has something to do with us humans, the bag has also a history and can become an object of scientific survey. Systematically it presents itself e.g. within the bag universe distinguished between flat sacs, side fold pouches, pointed bags, cross-bottom-shaped purses and block-bottom pouches
(1). Sociologically there are considering emotional affinity and manners among the bag-users inconsequent, carefree, environmentally aware, prestige minded and cultivated bag-types (not to be mistaken for the above mentioned bag-types), trouble makers, functionalists and bag-grumps.
Read the entire text of Prof. Helmut Linneweber-Lammerskitten (Biel,Switzerland) 2004.
View of the Installation inside the Art Space in the Church " Johanniterkirche
Bags The world of the artist Thitz
"The theme of" city "forms a focus in Thitz work -The city and its people.
These "in the light" will demonstrate prestige by carrying bags with designer print on it: one can afford suits by Armani or Prada shoes: The others who landed at the bottom of the social hierarchy and on park benches or bridges , return carrying their belongings in plastic bags around with them - the "Bag People" just. Thitz makes no "noble art" let alone those with admonitory finger raised. His medium is rather the finely honed sword of sarcasm. Still, one might think of the Old Testament word: "Subdue the earth ..." And what have we done?
A world of bags...
For almost an epidemic spreads, the hunt for the money in the world. This aspect is in Thitz - installation not only touched by the bag globe, but also through music and intensified: We hear Gregorian chants as well as meditations from Tibet or Archaic from Persia and Africa. "
Eva Jacob, curator Johanniterkirche Feldkirch (2003)
Städtische Galerie Ostfildern 2002
More than 1000 people followed this call on the very beautiful printed bag. The bags were exhibited in the upper hall of the new municipal gallery.
"On the occasion of the State Garden Show 2002 and its exhibition
in the neighbouring Municipal Gallery Ostfildern the
Artist Thitz invites you to one of his artistic bag surveys
at the State Garden Show.
To do this, we kindly ask you to take this bag with a personal or important object to you to fill them to or whatever you want to do.
Then please enter the processed bag until June 13 2002 at the cash desk at the main entrance of the State Garden Show Ostfildern.
Your bag then becomes part of an installation on the State Garden Show. All bags handed in will be on display there until June 30 2002.
After the end of the exhibition you can pick up your ba from July 2 - July 5 2002 in the municipal gallery."
Opening of the Thitz Tüten project at the
State Garden Show on Friday June 14 2002 at 5pm
Opening of the Thitz Exhibition
in the Ostfildern municipal gallery
on Sunday June 16 2002 at 11am
Exhibition until July 05 2002
Kunst Bulletin 5. 2001
Art Magazine Switzerland
Waiblingen Thitz in the museum of the city Waiblingen. Thitz in the museum - like this can't really be said. For the Schorndorf artist (*1962 in Frankfurt) with his "global bag theory" was the supplier of ideas and concepts. Concepts, however, have been museum-compatible since Duchamp. With Thitz's concept, the Waiblingen City Museum, known as a regional meeting place for a wide variety of exhibitions, has realized a truly endlessly integrative project. Small plastic bags were distributed to households in Waiblingen with the request that they be filled with a personal object or painted and returned to the museum. For the duration of the exhibition, the private small utensils will become part of a constantly growing installation. After such museum honours have expired, all bags are packed in a box, which is notarially sealed. Only after forty years, on the occasion of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the city museum, this folk treasure is to be raised again in order to provide a representative insight into the past everyday culture of Waiblingen.
July 1 2001
The first nationwide bag survey took place on the occasion of the Thitz exhibition in the Museum Goch. All 35000 households of the city of Goch received a small bag from the museum. There was a postcard with the invitation to participate in the project. The response was unbelievable! Over 3000 filled, painted or otherwise somehow designed bags were then joined together in the Museum von Thitz to form an installation "cloud".
Curator: Dr. Stephan Mann
The exhibition was accompanied by the "Tütenkatalog" with a text by Dr.Stephan Mann
Museum Goch
Kastellstrasse 9
47574 Goch
a conceptual Art project by Thitz
In collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig Holstein were sent first in 1996 and later 2001 "painted questions" watercolour on paper bags to politicians from Baden - Wuerttemberg and from Schleswig Holstein.
The reactions were both amazing and different:
The then Minister Helga Solinger made a folding screen with poems and postcards, Member of Parliament Nicolette Kressl (MP) drew a picture and added it with newspaper articles and texts, then Minister Dieter Spöri sent two small boxing gloves, the dialogue with Peter Conradi (MP) is in 3rd Round.
So far answers from: (function, title at the time of the dialog):
Mr. Björn Engholm, (former Ministerpräsident Schleswig Holstein)
Painted question by Thitz "Two Ways out"
Answer: Painting "No Way out", indian ink on laid paper, letters
Rudolf Hausmann (MP BW) Baden–Württemberg 2001
Painted question by Thitz : Smiling Man
Answer: Object, wood, note sheets, music cassette
Mrs. Irene Fröhlich (MP 1998 chairwoman of the group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Schleswig Holstein)
Painted question by Thitz: "Green Paprika"
Answer: Photo, 3 sandwich bags with poems
Mrs. Ute Vogt (MP, regional chairwoman SPD)
Painted question by Thitz: "A song of praise..."
Answer: Image, Collage on Crunchy Nut cardboard and newspaper
Mr. Rainder Steenblock (Minister for environment, nature and forestry in Schleswig Holstein)
Painted question by Thitz: "Long live the caspik sea"
Answer: Curved shield: "Ministry of nature, environment and regional development"
Mr. Dr. Dieter Spöri (Secretary of commerce, MdL)
Painted question by Thitz: "Retrato o realidad"
Answer: labeled box gloves
Mrs. Helga Solinger (then s MdL Minister)
Painted question by Thitz: "What do humans need?"
Answer: Wooden panel, Postcards, Poems, Texts, cartoon.
Mr. Ulrich Maurer ( SPD chairman of the country and parliamentary group Baden-Württemberg , MdL)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Poem
Mr. Dr. Hermann Scheer (MP, Eurosolar)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text
Mr. Jörg Tauss(MP)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag.
Answer: Text
Mr. Peter Conradi (MP)
3 rounds painted questions and answers
Mr. Gernot Erler (MP)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text
Mrs. Dagmar Pohl-Laukamp (Senator for health, social affairs, order, fire department in Lübeck)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: 5 pages Text and poems
Mrs. Angelika Beer (MP Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text, Postcard
Mr. Michael Bouteiller (Mayor Lübeck, SPD)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Tie, Edding, sandwich bag, sandwich
Mrs. Angelika Birk (Minister for women, youth, housing and urban development Schleswig Holstein)
The answer will be installed at the exhibition.
Dr. Ekkehard Wienholtz (Home Secretary Schleswig Holstein)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolo
Answer: Quote, Text
Mr. Frank Teichmüller (DGB Nordmark)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag,
Answer: Cardboard, paint, (writing "Love"), various types of paper
Mr. Frank Thomas Gaulin (Kunsthaus Lübeck, former Senator, Galerist)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Spoken inside of the bag
Mr. Heinz Werner Arens (President of the state parliament Schleswig Holstein)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text collage
Mr. Ulrich Meyenborg (Culture senator Lübeck )
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag,
Answer: Texts, quote of Thomas Mann
Mrs. Ute Erdsiek-Rave (MP SPD Group leader)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Business cards, maps of Eastern Europe on cardboard foldable
Mr. Frieder Birzele (Minister Baden-Württemberg, MdL)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Poem
Mrs. Nicolett Kressl (MP)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Painting
Mr. Harald B. Schäfer (Minister for environment, Baden-Württemberg)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text
Mrs. Brigitte Unger-Soyka (Minister for culture, social affairs, Baden-Württemberg MdL)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Poem
Mr. Sigmar Mosdorf (MP)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text
Mr. Dr. Rolf Linkohr (MdEP)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on ba
Answer: Text
Heinke Salisch (ehem. MdEP )
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Cartoon, text, mounted on the front- and back side of the question-bag.
Prof. Dr. Breinersdorfer (Candidate Bundestag)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text
Mrs. Marion Caspers-Merk( MP)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Text on bag
Mrs. Elisabeth Nill (former MdL)
Painted question by Thitz: Watercolor on bag
Answer: Collage, text and newspaper on two 2 meter long rolls of paper
The Artist Thitz wanted to intensify the dialogue between arts and politics by sending out "interrogative" pictures (watercolors on bags, designed to represent "queries") to Ministers and Members of the Federal or Regional Parliaments. Those officials were asked to use artistic means for their replies, and eighteen of the addressees showed signs of unexpected creativity. Ulrich Maurer, leader of the SPD group in the Stuttgart Parliament, wrote a poem; Minister Helga Solinger dedicated a fold-out picture consisting of post cards, poetry and cartoons to "Dear Thitz"; Member of Parliament Nicolette Kressel submitted a painting; and the ongoing dialogue between her colleague Peter Conradi and Thitz has meanwhile entered "Round Three."
KUNSTFORUM INTERNATIONAL, Art Magazine, Germany, No.2/1996
Professor Sotirios Michou to the exhibition of the Project
"Dialogue between arts and politics" at the parliament of Landtag Stuttgart.
"Art is the language to designate the intangible reality. Thus art becomes present-time research".
Arts and politics have a common parameter; the ethics of responsibility, competence, and the freedom to make the right decisions are essential maxims of conduct of either one.
"Let us put it like this: What makes a spiritual value, i.e. a significant value, significant, is its rising beyond itself, being the expression and exponent of an overall spirituality, of an entire realm of emotions and sentiments, which has found in this value its own, more or less perfect symbol: The degree of its importance will be assessed accordingly."(Thomas Mann)
Any democratic society is dependant on arts as well as on politics. Both are seismographic for the success or the failure of a progress-bearing future; otherwise the term "future" may turn into a threat.
Today’s artists have learned to confront society with questions instead of depicting questions society is asking them.
Dialogue between arts and politics – an aesthetic process
The term "dialogue" comes from the Greek word "dialogos" and is a purely pedagogic achievement of the Greek "akademia", meaning one’s readiness to exchange thoughts and positions with those of others while undergoing a learning process. A-P-D (Arts, Politics, Dialogue) lost its "D" and shrank to a mere A-P in all dictatorships.
National Socialism and Communist dictatorships have furnished stirringly negative examples of arts and politics void of dialogue by depriving them both of their freedom. The doctrines of those systems combined both fields into a yoke for citizens. The prohibition of trade unions, bans on scientists and artists were the result of mass manipulation with the purpose of extinguishing people’s own identities and of subsequently destroying them as human beings.
Consequently, the degenerate society became a perverted mirror of degenerate art.
Dialogue is a distinctive characteristic of Thitz’ work. This dialogue means a description of personal history as an environmental experience. Thitz facilitates such dialogue by means of documentation, compilation, and depiction of his impressions and their review by communication.
Thitz is not a theorist, but a man of action, a painter. His painting obtains its communicative energies from the integration of dialogue.
"Art is the language to designate the intangible reality. Thus art becomes present-time research".
Thitz himself is clad in the colors of his paintings so that his outer appearance serves as some individual piece of identification and as an acknowledgement of his identity. This makes other individuals more easily accessible and stimulates dialogues.
Thitz actively integrates his arts into society. This colorful bird-catcher and bird-seller, a "Papageno" of intermediation, puts art into circulation within society in an honest and cheerful way.
His pictures show characteristics of letters and diaries. He relates his life to his present time and thus to his contemporaries. His very picturesque "Bag Book" is an invitation to join him on many a journey.
The sensation of uniqueness arising from Thitz’ works is touching, because the basic principle of our emotional relations with life is inherent in it.
To create this uniqueness is what the artist endeavors after in his repeated efforts to capture the image of verity. The beauty of truth to life in arts lies in the truth itself, in the sincerity approachable to anyone.
We have a particular innate filter through which we take in the world around us, closely linked to our experience of life. This helps us train our capability to communicate.
Arts and politics, a dialogue, is the focus of an extensive project by Thitz that will continue to approach more parties and parliamentary groups, since Thitz, the initiator of this project, takes all his bearings from the dialogue of arts and society, both of which require freedom to achieve self-realization.
"The title is the content".
His projects at home and abroad are akin to stage productions of reality, comprising existing and fictitious realities as art.
Developing forms and their antitheses is typical of Thitz’ forgoing the academic meticulosity of art history. This leaves room for a wide scope of associations, for creating a serene, ironical depiction of real or virtual experiences as an indispensable loss of reality.
"As we all know, the loss of reality is not a loss at all, since there is no reality"(Tarkowski) - but it can be established by means of art.
For Thitz, art means communication – life itself, with nothing in-between.
He communicates with all his fellow men, with German politicians as well as with farmers in Ecuador. The painted bags are his vernacular to tell fragmentary stories about this very life, about everyday occurrence. They are no single, self-contained, detached art objects. They listen and respond, being the language which – as the yellow ‘Tom Thumb’ hopes – will enable him to depict a "Something" at least faintly reminiscent of a global society.
The dialogue between arts and politics marks the encouraging beginning of a new artistic trend, which I personally have been missing a great deal in present-day society.
Professor Sotirios Michou, Stuttgart, 1996.
The first Thitz-World should be already a whole World made of all Arts. I realized some Performances inside of this 4 m Monster - Globe during the Exhibition. Well after all a friend of mine, Thomas Weber, did use the wooden construction for getting warm his Studio for a whole year...
Photo: Catalogue " Earth" of the International association of arts IAA (1997).
“Internet Bag ”
Interactive Installation 150 cm x 200 cm x 300 cm
( Könige der Herzen” Catalogue page 54,55)
“Tütendom“ Art and Spirituality
Interactive Installation 150 cm x 200 cm x 300 cm
Bag City -Tüte
Interactive Installation 150 cm x 200 cm x 300 cm
Tütenkino
Interactive Installation 150 cm x 200 cm x 300 cm
Beamer, DVD player, canvas)
showing the Films
Giant Bags
“The World of the Bag People”
walk-in installation size 150 cm x 200 cm x height 300 cm
(electronic flashing lights, cables, bags) (illustration from the catalog ”Könige der Herzen”, pages 54, 55)
You enter through a fold in the side of the giant bag. It's dark. The sky is full of small bags flashing in different rhythms. You can see the faces of people on the bags. People of different origin and skin colour. The faces tell personal stories, present themselves - faces stolen from homepages on the Internet - and banned on bags - bag-men found in the vastness of the Internet universe. In fact, these people are not the same - they are the same only in their lostness. Your "address URL" becomes a signature - they wave like little flags from afar, as tiny ways of communication, traceable back to the living room of the homepages. We go out of the bag again and still stay behind - as a blinking dot on the infinite horizon of the Internet world.
"Tütendom" Art and Spirituality
walk-in installation size 150 cm x 200 cm x height 300 cm
(slide projector, water bowl, pen, mirror, coin) (illustration from the catalog ”Könige der Herzen”, pages 52, 53)
The light falls through the "windows" into the bag. Small paper windows with symbols and texts of religions and world views from all over the world - from books, magazines, from the Internet and from many journeys. We find text fragments and photos from Karl Marx to Robert Rauschenberg from the Dalai Lama to the Mayan gods. From all major religions about all religions, e.g. a Koran page in Hebrew or the Dalai Lama's opinion on Christianity.
It surrounds us with an impression of strange sensuality - thinking of religion inside a bag - or even art? Perhaps one can think both only to the smallest part - but rather feel, feel. Religion and art are common property, interchangeable as far as their language is concerned. What remains is the cause, the essence of art or religion. The cause? Quite simply we long for this feeling of sensuality, we give art as well as religion the honour to be able to enjoy the sacred for it. Thitz invites you to feel, to enjoy. A short moment of delicacy before we go out again into the bright hall light.
Bag City - Bag
walk-in installation size 150 cm x 200 cm x height 300 cm
(slides from New York and Thitz's studio illuminated from behind through a window (or spotlight), audioplayer, neon sign) (take a look at ”Könige der Herzen” catalog pages 50, 51)
When you enter, you find yourself in a kind of landscape segment. A building, a high-rise from Bag City whose windows offer views of the "Big Apple" (New York) city and the Thitz world of images. The yellow neon hat also extinguishes the soft sounding music when looking at the pictures. It flashes again to say goodbye. Then Bag City sinks back into its paper silence.
Tütenkino (Bag Cinema)
walk-in installation size 150 cm x height 200 cm x 300 cm(beamer, DVD player, screen)
In the "Tütenkino" installation (3m x 2m x 1,50m) the Thitz films can be projected e.g. the film "Das Buch des Eremiten", which takes place in an English landscape garden.
