katharina grosse presents 'mumbling mud' exhibition in shanghai

K11 art foundation (KAF) together with chi K11 art museum present ‘mumbling mud,’ an exhibition by internationally acclaimed german artist katharina grosse. the exhibition features five immersive, site-specific installations. grosse is known for her use of the spray gun as her primary painting tool to create vast paintings which serve as a direct response to their context. using this tool she has liberated the application of paint from its immediate connection to both the painter’s body and a predetermined surface. gross comments: ‘a painting can land anywhere: on an egg, in the crook of the arm, along a train platform, in snow and ice, or on the beach.‘

installation view of katharina grosse: mumbling mud at chi K11 art museum, shanghai, 2018. photo by JJYPHOTO. courtesy of K11 art foundation and galerie nächst st. stephan, vienna © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn.

katharina grosse subdivides the 1,500 sqm museum into five zones, each occupied by a large-scale installation produced almost entirely on-site. mumbling mud leads the audience through an labyrinthine passageway that evokes a sense of spectrality. the ambiguous, multicolored forms sprayed across varying structures and draping cloths installed at the five zones lend a sensation of bordering the familiar and uncanny. the exhibit ruminates on the strangeness of an ever-changing city that cannot be delineated with simple contours. the name of the exhibition refers to this fundamental ambiguity. ‘mumbling’ implies an intermediate state between speaking and silence, and ‘mud,’ an intermediate state between the solid and the liquid.

installation view of katharina grosse: mumbling mud at chi K11 art museum, shanghai, 2018. photo by JJYPHOTO. courtesy of K11 art foundation and galerie nächst st. stephan, vienna © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn.

installation view of katharina grosse: mumbling mud at chi K11 art museum, shanghai, 2018. photo by JJYPHOTO. courtesy of K11 art foundation and galerie nächst st. stephan, vienna © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn.

installation view of katharina grosse: mumbling mud at chi K11 art museum, shanghai, 2018. photo by JJYPHOTO. courtesy of K11 art foundation and galerie nächst st. stephan, vienna © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn.

installation view of katharina grosse: mumbling mud at chi K11 art museum, shanghai, 2018. photo by JJYPHOTO. courtesy of K11 art foundation and galerie nächst st. stephan, vienna © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn.

installation view of katharina grosse: mumbling mud at chi K11 art museum, shanghai, 2018. photo by JJYPHOTO. courtesy of K11 art foundation and galerie nächst st. stephan, vienna © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn.

installation view of katharina grosse: mumbling mud at chi K11 art museum, shanghai, 2018. photo by JJYPHOTO. courtesy of K11 art foundation and galerie nächst st. stephan, vienna © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn.

project info:

public viewing dates: 10 november 2018 – 24 february 2019, open daily 10am – 8pm

exhibition venue: chi K11 art museum, B3, K11 art mall, 300 huaihai road central, huangpu district, shanghai, china

artist: katharina grosse

curator: venus lau, artistic director of K11 art foundation

curatorial adviser: ulrich loock