Jonathan Monk, Mircea Cantor, Nedko Solakov: Wall to Wall. Carpets by Artists, Cologne 2016

Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists is curated by Dr. Cornelia Lauf and features work from a wide cross-section of contemporary artists and their weaving partners, taking as its point of departure a history of art, rather than a history of medium. The carpet will be used as a pedagogical device to show how artists can integrate deep philosophical and formal resolutions into the very nature of an object and its material. Wall to Wall reflects a history of art in which the achievements of significant artists motivate paradigm shifts. Artists like Andy Warhol, Rosemarie Trockel, Chuck Close, and Heimo Zobernig are considered with respect to their abilities to work in a medium that is often at odds with the ethos of movements to which they have been ascribed. The exhibition holds that this contradiction is the space in which creative revolution happens. Technique and production is also considered; the interchange between artist, producer, and artisan is of utmost importance. Wall to Wall considers the waning of artisanal traditions, presenting the artistʼs carpet as a compelling example of delegation in a post-Duchampian mode, indexing hand-made approaches for even the most hard-line conceptual artists.