Was ist verloren?
Wieland Schönfelder & El Lissitzky

Asking the question ‘What is lost?’, which also serves as the exhibition’s title, Haus Coburg presents the first institutional solo exhibition by Berlin artist Wieland Schönfelder, created in dialogue with a portfolio of figurines by El Lissitzky.

Wieland Schönfelder has a scenographer’s understanding of sculpture, which could just as easily be called installation, given its skilful ignoring of the boundaries between figure, space and moving image. Arranged in various poses, his sculptures recall mannequins that express a variety of theatrically exaggerated emotional states. Opulent curtains, miniature stages, props and backstage areas are some of Wieland Schönfelder’s further borrowings from the world of theatre presented in the exhibition spaces.

The starting point for Haus Coburg’s presentation was provided by El Lissitzky’s (1890 Pochinok, Russia– 1941 Moscow, Russia) portfolio of figurines Die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau ‘Sieg über die Sonne’ (Victory over the Sun). It references a futuristic opera by Michael Matyushin, premiered in Tsarist Petersburg in 1913, which satirized the belief in technological progress of the time. When El Lissitzky was invited by the Kestner Gesellschaft to create a portfolio in 1923, shortly after the founding of the Soviet Union, he chose this opera as inspiration. He designed nine figurines created out of geometric and typographic elements, all equipped with a body which allows them to move in all directions. Rational shapes and high agility form the basic elements for a positive vision of the future. On a cover sleeve, Lissitzky addresses an international audience in five languages with the heading: ‘ALLES IST BIEN WAS GOOD НАЧИНАЕТСЯ ET HAT NO FINETA’ – all is well that begins well and has no end.

Wieland Schönfelder’s new adaptation focuses, in turn, on the experience of loss. For the victory over the sun leads to its disappearance. The consequences are incalculable, and the individual uncertainty takes on social dimensions.

Wieland Schönfelder (*1985 Berlin)