Asta Gröting (born 1961 in Herford, Germany) is a contemporary artist. She works in a variety of media like sculpture, performance, and video. In her work, Gröting “is conceptually and emotionally asking questions of the social body by taking something away from it and allowing this absence to do the talking.”[1]
Gröting's earlier work focused on sculpture, before she also turned to video and performance, starting 1993.[3] Gröting's works often present ordinary, familiar elements, where the viewer's attention is drawn towards their material transformation, caused by the exaggeration of the familiar. In Gröting's work there is a focus on what is not visible, like the inner voice, the space between lovers having sex, the digestive system, or the inside of holes made by bullets, and the ways in which the invisible can be brought to the surface. As such, she allows absence to do the talking. In these explorations a sense of realism is at work that pays attention to what is not considered to be beautiful, or to what is seen as damaged or even damaging. It develops works that convert psychological and emotional perspectives to the complex relationships of people into clear forms. Often they are presented in work groups or series.[4]
Works (selection)
Since 1993 Gröting produced film and video works where she examines both the relationship between humans and animals and their nature. The film Wolf and Dog depicts the encounter between a dog and a wolf. The work shows first the approach followed by a dramatic scene between the two animals captured with an ultra-high-speed camera at 1,000 frames per second.
In Primate and Human, for just a few moments, the close-ups of two orangutans are superimposed on the face of an infant. The works asks the question: What happens when primates and humans make eye contact, and what do we see in the primate’s eyes?[1]
»In this and all her works, Gröting draws us into her way of seeing. Her films and sculptures are interested in looking intently with a microscopic focus at surfaces, appearances and effects in order to ascertain what lies beneath them. Each piece seems to be seeded in the question, what is the nature of x? With a forensic attention to detail, she searches for aspects not visible to the naked eye, asking what can surfaces tell us that we don’t know that we know? How can we look again at what is right before us?«[5]
Berlin Fassaden (2016–2018) consists of a series of negative imprints made out of silicone that are monumental in size.[6] They track the traces of the bullet holes made during war in facades that have not yet been renovated. For Gröting the casts function as photographic long exposures that depict the story from the moment of the bullets’ impact to the present time, taking along dust, dirt, and even graffiti. “I want to look from inside these destroyed walls and facades into the world,” Gröting says, “as if I could see my own face staring back at me.”[7]
Touch is an ongoing series, which the artist started in 2015. Gröting invited a number of friends to sit for a portrait. The portrait consists of the artist tracing the contours of their face with her hands. It recalls the gestures of sculpting, reading the face's expression. Although it's a touching of a surface, it's at the same time also a most intimate conversation.[8]
In The Traveling Carriage of Goethe the Mercedes of Adenauer and My Smart (2011) Gröting made full-scale casts of the undersides of three vehicles from three different centuries. The rubber molds visualize a sculptural history of movement. Motion is also the topic of Gröting's video Parken, in which from a bird's eye view we see several cars competing for a parking space.[9]
Space Between Lovers (2008–) is the materialization of a physical intimate moment. Two actors were covered in silicone while they were having sex. In this way, the in-between, the inner space was visualized sculpturally. Both intimacy and distance define also Space Between a Family (2010–2015), which consists of life-size casts of members of Gröting's family made over the course of several years. “It is not hard to imagine that these introspective figures possess internal organs,” the British author Deborah Levy writes, “but they are uncanny too, mournful grey ghosts of substance who seem to be emerging from both a war and a womb.”[10]
From the early nineties onwards, Gröting took beside sculpture an interest in immaterial media like performance and video. For The Inner Voice (1993–2004) Gröting explored ventriloquism as a performative instrument to research the soul and its inner workings.[11] A series of videos came about depicting conversations between a dummy created by the artist and ventriloquists from all over the world. In their own native language they performed dialogues written by Gröting, Deborah Levy, and Tim Etchells. On several occasions Gröting worked together with the Native American ventriloquist Buddy Big Mountain.[12]
Solo exhibitions (selection)
2023 Fortune. Asta Gröting and Ming Wong, carlier | gebauer, Berlin, Germany
2023 Asta Gröting. Das Wesen von x – Gerhard-Altenbourg-Preis 2023, Lindenau-Museum Altenburg im Prinzenpalais des Residenzschlosses Altenburg, Altenburg, Germany
2017: Berlin Fassaden, Teil I, KINDL – Zentrum für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin, Germany
2014: Asta Gröting, Arbeiten aus der Sammlung der Landesbank Baden-Württemberg und der Sammlung Grässlin, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Germany
2010: Parallel Performances, Asta Gröting, Maria Eichhorn, Arter, Istanbul, Turkey
2010: Asta Gröting, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
2010: Asta Gröting, Lentos, Linz, Austria
2009: Asta Gröting Sculpture: 1987–2008 Henry Moore Sculpture Institute, Leeds, UK
2020 Infinite Sculpture. From the Antique Cast to the 3D Scan, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
2020 On Celestial Bodies, Arter, Istanbul, Turkey
2020 Abduction, BOA In Public Space Program (BOA IPSP), Oslo, Norway
2020 Zurück in die Gegenwart – neue Werke, neue Perspektiven – die Sammlung von 1945 bis heute (permanent exhibition), Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
2019 Sculptures infinies, Palais des Beaux Arts, Paris, France
2019 Where do you see yourself in 20 years, Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
2019 Nah am Leben, James-Simon-Galerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2019 Kleinplastik Triennale, Fellbach, Germany
2017: This is a Voice, Maas Museum, Sydney, Australia
2017: Das Gesicht. Eine Spurensuche, Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden, Germany
2017: Das Auto in der Kunst seit 100 Jahren, Kunsthalle Emden, Germany
2016: Touring Exhibition: The Withdrawal of the Red Army, Northern Norway Art Museum, Tromsø, Norway 07.11.2015 – 24.01.2016
2016: This is a voice, Wellcome Collection, London, UK 14.04.–31.07.2016
2015: Blicke ! Körper ! Sensationen ! Das Dresdner Wachskabinett und die Kunst, Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden, Germany
2015: All the World's a Stage, Works from the Goetz Collection, Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
1996: Preis der Bayrischen Landesbank International S.A.
1994: Otto-Dix-Preis, Gera
1991: Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
1990: A.&W. Grohmann Fellowship, Baden-Baden
1989: Schmidt-Rotluff-Fellowship
1988: Stiftung Kunstfonds
Public collections (selection)
Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie for the Collection Nationalgalerie Berlin, Berlin / Arnold Forde, Los Angeles, USACarol Schwartz, Denver, USA / Collection Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain / evn sammlung, Maria Enzersdorf, Austria / Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain (FRAC), Limoges, France / Fundació la Caixa, Barcelona, Spain / Hypo-Bank, Munich / Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), Stuttgart / Jerome Stern, New York, USA / Koç Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey / Landesbank Baden- Württemberg, Stuttgart / MARTa Herford, Herford / Museum Ludwig, Cologne / Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, USA / Sammlung Block, Berlin / Sammlung Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt a.M. / Sammlung Goetz, Munich / Sammlung Grässlin, St. Georgen / Sammlung Schwenk, Haigerloch / Staatsgalerie Stuttgart / Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Gent, Belgium / Valdemar Gerdin, Stockholm, Sweden/ Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
Bibliography
Asta Gröting. Das Wesen von x. Video Works 1993-2023. Gerhard-Altenbourg-Preis 2023, Spector Books, Leipzig, 2023, ISBN 9783959057851
Asta Gröting, Berlin Fassaden, ed. Andreas Fiedler, exhibition catalogue KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, September 10 - December 3, 2017 ISBN978-3-95679-356-1
Asta Gröting, Die Geschichte der Werkzeuge ist das aufgeschlagene Buch der menschlichen Psychologie, exhibition catalogue Kunstraum Dornbirn, Austria, March 17 - May 14, 2017 ISBN978-3-903153-88-2
Asta Gröting, exhibition catalogue, eds. Marius Babias and Stella Rollig, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein - n.b.k. Berlin and Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Köln 2010 ISBN978-3-86560-786-7
Asta Gröting. Sculpture: 1987–2008, exhibition catalogue Henry Moore Sculpture Institute, 8 February - 26 April 2009, Leeds 2009
Asta Gröting.The Inner Voice, eds. Jan Hoet and Christoph Keller, Revolver, Archiv für Aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 2004 (English and German) ISBN3-86588-003-7
^Deborah Levy,"Going Going Gone", press textArchived 2014-09-06 at the Wayback Machine for the exhibition Asta Gröting, carlier | gebauer, Berlin January 18 - March 1, 2014
^Babias, Marius. "Asta Gröting". Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
^Bell, Kirsty (2023). Canine Fundamentals: On Wolf and Dog (1st ed.). Leipzig, Germany: Spector Books. pp. 40f. ISBN978-3-95905-785-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^Birgit Rieger, Die Narben der Stadt. Ausstellung über Berlins Fassaden, Tagesspiegel, Nov. 13, 2017. See also the radio interview with the artist for rbbArchived 2017-11-19 at the Wayback Machine
^Press text for the exhibition in KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2017
^Birgit Rieger, "Hautarbeit. Neue Filme von Asta Gröting", in: Tagesspiegel, February 2, 2016
^Kerstin Stakemeier, press text for the exhibition "Asta Gröting
The travelling carriage of Goethe the Mercedes of Adenauer and my smart", March 3 - April 14, 2012, carlier | gebauer, Berlin.
^Stella Rollig, "Searching through the Domains of the Human", in: Asta Gröting. The Inner Voice, eds. Jan Hoet and Christoph Keller, translated into English by Tradukas, Revolver, Archiv für Aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 2004
