Since 2003 Yingmei Duan have been realizing different Performances and Performance- Installations using exhibition spaces as her studio. Similarly in this project the gallery was transformed into a studio environment. One could also experience a small performance library in the space.

This work questions the relationship between performance and painting. Contact was made with 33 performance artists and Duan requested their permission to create a painting from one of their performances. She created a large-scale interactive performative installation in the gallery and it consisted of intensive research and analysis.

“Yingmei Duan elaborated these works and all the others. She dealt with this subject very intensely. At the beginning of the working process it was necessary to understand every performance and the intention, otherwise she couldn’t achieve such a remarkable result. Certain questions were kept in mind during this project, here is a selection of them: Is every performance “paint- able”? What kind of things can you picture figuratively? Where is the border to abstract painting?”

Text from Sarah Pfingsten concerning the exhibition

“As a result of the preoccupation with a performance from Christoph Schlingensief one can see another very interesting picture. In the Theatre- Installation “Area 7””(2006) rooms are built up around the Animatograph. Dirty toilets and old hotel rooms; going further subjects like Religion, Politics and other society developments are mentioned. This installation teems with provocative elements, which are supported by performances from Schlingensief himself and other artists. On a triptych of canvas one can see Yingmei's result. It is coloured very dark. In the front it seems like water or even an ocean and behind this the viewer notices people. On the third picture in the upper right corner are three persons, looking curious and nasty. They are observing the situation. Dark lines and blear forms cloud the picture. Between abstraction and figuratively painting we can see several heads and bodies. The provocative level of the installation is not only shown by elements reminding of nightmares, but also through the full effect of the triptych.”

Text from Sarah Pfingsten concerning the exhibition

“I assign Teching Hsieh and Mingzhu to existential artists. The first one is known by his one-year performances; he spent a whole year outside, a year connected with another person or he put a card in an attendance recorder every hour, as in factories. These powerful works have been interpreted by Yingmei and resulted in very strong pictures. The interpretation of the performance, where the artist had been outside for a year, shows a dark and weighty coloured row of houses in the background and single dark- blue figures in the front. It seems, as if the same person is in different places at once. Another picture from this series shows a lonely person on a hovered ground, surrounded by circles with watch hands; every clock shows another time. Obviously this is the interpretation of the performance with the attendance recorder. We can see the incredibility of this action in the melancholy and loneliness of the person in the centre of the picture. The white background underlines the contrast and also the effect.”

All participating artists:

Vito Acconci, Jekaterina Anzupowa, Matsuzaka Ayumi, Anna Berndtson, Oliver Blomeier, Sarah Braun, Cai Yuan & JJ Xi, Ivan Civic, Nezaket Ekici, Weidong Feng, Alexandra Gneissl, Pascale Grau, Chengyao He, Tehching Hsieh, Eun Hye Hwang, K.U.SCH (renate Krätschmer Und jörg SCHwarzenberger), Verena Kyselka, Lotte Lindner, Daniel Müller-Friedrichsen, Christoph Schlingensief, Johannes Lothar Schröder, Iris Selke, Till Steinbrenner, Dorte Strehlow, Melatie Suryodarmo, Adele Todd, Doreen Uhlig, Mirko Winkel, Herma Auguste Wittstock, Zhichao Yang, Ming Zhu