CAPTAIN PAMPHILE

The exhibition curated by Gunter Reski and Marcus Weber takes as its launchpad Alexandre Dumas’ ludicrous novel “Captain Pamphile”. Although it was first published in 1839, precisely today Dumas’ early book proves to be a trenchant commentary on events of the day. In the novel, with a strong streak of sarcasm Dumas makes fun of the wild and callous adventures of pirate Captain Pamphile.
In the exhibition, key passages from the novel that are replete in imagery are interpreted by the artists invited to participate. In this way, a kind of “pictorial novel” arises in which we can more or less discern decisive passages from the original book. On show are over 100 images and drawings made specially for the show – in a kind of walk-through series of scenes of sensational events. Sections of text on the wall provide additional indications of the plot. The plethora of authors means the overall show has a touch of the gesamtkunstwerk about it. Moreover, in this exhibition the purportedly superficial images from a bizarre story are deliberately combined with reflections on painting and art.
“At the end of 2008, after a decade of various debates on painting and the attendant group exhibitions of all types, we really liked the attempt to turn the narrative screw one more twist. To us, to incorporate narrative painting into a narrative exhibition structure seemed only logical.” (Marcus Weber)
“Captain Pamphile” is a “mobile” pop-up novel in pictures, a tale that has certainly not been exhaustively told, complete with countless footnotes, links, and hypertexts. It’s a sea passage conducted with buccaneering enjoyment, that takes being en route to the limits where the helm keels over.” Esther Buss (from the catalog)

Artists taking part:
Christoph Bannat, Tanja Bedrinana, Peter Böhnisch, Lutz Braun, Jonathan Brewer, Hans Christian Dany, Michael Deistler, Stephan Dillemuth, Hansjörg Dobliar, Matthias Dornfeld, Drei Hamburger Frauen, Ulrich Emmert, Stefan Ettlinger, Heike Föll, Ane Graff, Ellen Gronemeyer, Anna Gudmundsdottir, Markus Gutmann, Sebastian Hammwöhner, Sophie von Hellermann, Uwe Henneken, Peter Herrmann, Nadira Husain, Dani Jakob, Doroto Jurczak, Kerstin Kartscher, Jürgen Kisch, Korpys & Löffler, Clemens Krümmel, Elke Krystufek, Friedrich Kunath, Nikolaus List, Hans-Jörg Mayer, Isa Melsheimer, Christina Morhardt, Ariane Müller, Piotr Nathan, Silke Otto-Knapp, Katrin Plavcak, Peter Pommerer, Christoph Prasch, Thomas Ravens, Gunter Reski, Daniel Roth, Peter Saul, Christoph Schäfer, Gitte Schäfer, Christian Schwarzwald, Markus Selg, Andreas Seltzer, Amy Sillman, Martin Skauen, Johannes Spehr, Peter Stauss, Stefan Thater, Wawrzyniec Tokarski, Susan Turcot, Markus Vater, Gabriel Vormstein, Marcus Weber, Klaus Winichner, Waldemar Zimbelmann, Claudia Zweifel