Anne Imhof, who was born in 1978 in Giessen in Germany, is primarily known for her epic durational performances involving diverse collectives of dancers, musicians and actors. Their movement, speech and song is built from often fragmentary gestures, and informed by a wealth of sources as well as the innate expertise of the performers themselves, which Imhof harnesses to choreograph tableaux of rich affective power.
Installation view of Anne Imhof’s Citizen exhibition at Sprüth Magers, London © Anne Imhof; courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers; photo: Ben Westoby / Fine Art Documentation
A reflection on and of contemporary societal conditions, these works are also profoundly engaged with cultural and performance traditions, from the languages and forms of contemporary dance and ballet to rock concerts and art history.
Installation view of Anne Imhof’s Citizen exhibition at Sprüth Magers, London © Anne Imhof; courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers; photo: Ben Westoby / Fine Art Documentation
Imhof’s practice extends far beyond performance, involving painting and drawing, sculpture and sculptural installation, and film. In each language that she adopts, she overtly engages her audience and particularly their bodies, whether that is in the mode of address of her performance works, in sculptures that evoke barriers or surveillance mechanisms, or in paintings that overwhelm the viewer in their scale and the gravity of their imagery.
Installation view of Anne Imhof’s Citizen exhibition at Sprüth Magers, London © Anne Imhof; courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers; photo: Ben Westoby / Fine Art Documentation
Imhof discusses the disparate creation of meaning in her work, through her own framing, her collaborators’ performances and the viewers’ experience. She reflects on the balance between structure and improvisation in her performances and the mutual trust that is key in working with dancers, choreographers, musicians and actors. She talks about the role of drawing in underpinning the other elements of her work.
Installation view of Anne Imhof’s Citizen exhibition at Sprüth Magers, London © Anne Imhof; courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers; photo: Ben Westoby / Fine Art Documentation
Among the references Imhof discusses are to the early influence of teachers who recognised her interest in drawing and who led her to make copies of Michelangelo. She talks about Tino Sehgal and William Forsythe’s formative influence and her admiration of cultural figures as diverse as the artists Cameron Rowland and Arthur Jafa, the philosopher Juliane Rebentisch and writers including Franz Kafka and Robert Bresson, whose screenplays she particularly admires. She gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?
• Anne Imhof: Citizen, Sprüth Magers, London, until 1 August
This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the arts and culture platform. Bloomberg Connects offers access to a vast range of international cultural organisations through a single click, with new guides being added regularly. They include numerous museums and galleries that have been the site for key works by Anne Imhof, including the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and MoMA PS1 in New York. On the guide to MoMA PS1, you can read about the wide-ranging programmes of this bastion of experimental art for more than 40 years.
You can discover the sixth edition of Greater New York, the periodical exhibition that in this iteration features 53 artists and collectives living and working in the New York area, with texts on the show by the PS1 director Connie Butler and interpretation and images relating to all the participating artists. Among them are the Queens-based collective Red Canary Song, whose installation Touch the Heart—which presents four dim sum dining tables exploring stories relating to migration and its cultural, emotional and bodily effects—is the subject of a special feature.
