Maria Eichhorn
Film Lexicon of Sexual Practices 1999/ 2005/ 2008/ 2014/ 2015
April 29 – June 25, 2016
20 films (16 mm, color, silent, each approx. 2:40 minutes): Anal Coitus (2008), Anilingus (2008), Breast Licking (1999), Clitoris (2014), Cunnilingus (1999), Ear (2014), Ear Licking (2005), Eyes (1999), Feet (2014), Fellatio (2008), French Kissing (2005), Japanese Bondage (2015), Love Bite (2005), Masturbation (Man) (2008), Masturbation (Woman) (2014), Milk Bath (2014), Mouth (1999), Needle Play (2015), Vulva (2014), Wax Play (2015); film screening, wall text
Performers: Frank Biesendorfer, Micky Tschur, Silke Wagner, camera Achim Lengerer [1999]; performers: anonymous, camera: Achim Lengerer [2005]; performers: Alexander Weber, anonymous, camera: Manuel Kinzer [2008]; performer: Zoë Harris, camera: Jutta Pohlmann, production: Barbara Simon, production assistant: Karin Rudokas, camera assistant: Lydia Richter [2014]; performers: Matthias T. J. Grimme, Nicole Nya-oh, camera: Jutta Pohlmann, production: Barbara Simon, Focus Puller: Sascha Werdehausen, Set Photographer: Jonathan Albroscheit [2015]
Film Lexicon of Sexual Practices was made for the exhibition 1. Mai Film Medien Stadt / May Day Film Media City (Portikus, Frankfurt/Main, 1999), initially comprising four films, and conceived as being extendable. During the exhibition films were shot, depicting the entries Eyes, Mouth, Breast Licking and Cunnilingus. In the course of each additional exhibition of the work in the years 2005, 2008, 2014 and 2015 new films were produced. The individual films are available in the exhibition situation in film cans labeled with the respective film title, to be played on request, and are screened in an undarkened exhibition space. A text applied to the wall contains the list of all films and the information “The films will be screened on request.” The scenes, shot mainly with a static camera against a neutral background, show close-ups of the practices identified in the titles, and are silent. Love Bite and French Kissing feature two female and Anal Coitus and Fellatio two male performers, and Cunnilingus a female and a male performer.
Exhibitions Film Lexicon of Sexual Practices
Maria Eichhorn. 1. Mai Film Medien Stadt / May Day Film Media City, curated by Kasper König and Angelika Nollert, Portikus, Frankfurt/Main, April 30 – June 13, 1999
Maria Eichhorn, 27. August – 8. Oktober 2005, Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin, August 27 – October 8, 2005
Maria Eichhorn. Film, vidéo, œuvre sonore, curated by Marie-Josée Jean, VOX, Centre de l’image contemporaine, Montréal, November 4 – December 16, 2006
Body Politics, curated by Thomas Edlinger, Florian Waldvogel, Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, September 8 – December 18, 2007 [reproductions of film stills in the exh. cat., no film screenings]
Dispersion, curated by Polly Staple, ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, December 3, 2008 – February 1, 2009
Maria Eichhorn. Filmlexikon sexueller Praktiken, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, March 10 – 28, 2009
Maria Eichhorn. Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, May 10 – July 6, 2014
Maria Eichhorn. Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, 11. September 11 – Dezember 13, 2015
Literature Film Lexicon of Sexual Practices
Maria Eichhorn. 1. Mai Film Medien Stadt / May Day Film Media City, exh. cat. Portikus, Frankfurt/Main, 1999, with contributions
by Marie-Theres Deutsch, Bernd Drücke, Maria Eichhorn, Karin Hartung, Irene Hohenbüchler, Emily King, Kasper König, Angelika Nollert, Martin Pesch
Maria Eichhorn, “Film Lexikon of Sexual Practices,” in: Maria Eichhorn. 1. Mai Film Medien Stadt / May Day Film Media City, loc. cit., pp. 61–65
Maria Eichhorn. Film, vidéo, œuvre sonore, exhibition brochure, VOX, Centre l’image contemporaine, Montreal, no. 19, November 2006, with a text by Nora M. Alter, no pag.
Body Politics, exh. cat. Witte de With,
Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, 2007, pp. 33–48
Dispersion, exh. cat. Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2008, pp. 31–39, with
a text by Nora M. Alter
Melanie Gilligan, “Dispersion,” in: Artforum International, April 2009, p. 198
Andrew Forster, “Maria Eichhorn,” in: Art Papers, March/April 2007, p. 64
Richard Birkett, “Maria Eichhorn,” in: Artforum International, May 2014, vol. 52, no. 9, p. 200
Karlheinz Pichler, “Vorhang zu und alle Fragen sind offen – Maria Eichhorn im Kunsthaus Bregenz” in: Kultur, Zeitschrift für Kultur und Gesellschaft, no. 4, May 2014, pp.18–19
Annegret Erhard, “Von Analkoitus bis Zungenkuss,” in: die tageszeitung, June 4, 2014
Tobias Vogt, “Maria Eichhorn. Kunsthaus Bregenz,” in Artforum International, vol. 53, no. 2, October 2014, p. 296
Simon Baier, „Punkt, Pathogenese, Strich. Über Maria Eichhorn im Kunsthaus Bregenz“, in: Texte zur Kunst (Berlin), No. 96, December 2014, pp. 226–230
Courtesy of Portikus, Frankfurt /Main; Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz; Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver