With awareness of fundamental questions that arise today, the project group Formation 7 was formed in 2017. It consists of 6 artists living in Leipzig, Germany: Anja Heymann, Marie Carolin Knoth, Mandy Kunze, Petra Polli, Rink/Kindervatter and Susanne Wurlitzer. Once a year, they relate their own work to a jointly chosen 7th artistic position. This, in turn, can relate to the past, as well as to the present. Crucial for the project group Formation 7 is that the confrontation with the external position happens in an open dialogue and intensive process of exchange.
This year, the first joint choice of Formation 7 fell on the 17th-century painting Bear Hunt. by Carl Borromeo Andreas Ruthart. It is located in the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig and shows a scene which is characterized by brutality and violence. It stands as a symbol of the pecking order in which the stronger triumphs over the weaker. The subject of hunting and hounding was already understood in Ruthart's time as a content carrier of social, political or even religious events. Given the conflicting times we live in today, Formation 7's decision for Ruthart's paintings has a social relevance. It offers many connecting points to what drives the present. A confrontation with the artistic positions of others, as promoted by Formation 7, has always existed. As far as the subject matter and the composition of his Bear Hunt are concerned, Ruthart himself refers to Flemish artists of the 17th century. In particular, paintings by Paul de Vos and Frans Snyders (The Munich Bear Hunt / Bavarian State Painting Collections Munich) served as a model for him. References can also be made to Ruben's painting Mercury and Argus from the Old Masters Gallery in Dresden.
It is to be expected with tension how differently the members of Formation 7 will interpret Ruthart's Bear Hunt or how they will refer to each other in their work or even ignore each other. The result will certainly be cross-media, as Formation 7 thrives on the great variety of its artistic forms of expression.
Opening: 05.12.2017, 18 Uhr
