The human being

A series of 5 international group exhibitions,
the first of which (26.07. – 05.09.2004) will deal with the subject of

»Bocca della Verità«

Curator: Hans-Werner Kalkmann

Foreword: Between 1998 and 2003, the Art Association held international group exhibitions featuring the animal species bull, beetle, bird, snake and fish and involving 281 different artists.

The new series of exhibitions is dedicated to the human being and his five senses, concentrating on representing the sense organs section by section. Once again, these exhibitions will be group exhibitions in which an attempt will be made to show works of contemporary artists created especially for the respective exhibition. Naturally recourse will also be made to art history in an effort to give a clear presentation of the multi-layered links between past and present and make these comprehensible.

A catalogue is to be available for each individual exhibition (with illustrations of all exhibited works). Additionally it is to include texts by doctors, physiologists, psychologists and experts from other relevant scientific fields which cast particular light on the sense organ in question.

The mouth

Etymologically speaking, the German word "Mund (mouth)" has a double meaning. It can be derived, on the one hand, from the Latin word “mentum” meaning "chin/jaw-bone" or, on the other hand, from the Indo-Germanic root “menth” meaning "to chew". In former times, the word was also used in the sense of “opening”, “hole” or “crack”.

This somewhat meagre etymological derivation, however, in no way does fair justice to the current significance of the mouth, since in modern times it has become a highly significant symbol in the plethora of images of our audio-visual presentations. Quite apart from the fact that, as a tool for the articulation of language, the mouth is the epitome of the human sense organ.

In the context of art history, the various aspects find expression at a very early stage in pictorial representations, literary evidence and sayings, such as in Aesop (fable no. 64), Jesaja (53.7) or in the German "Kaiserchronik (Chronicle of the Emperors)" (middle of the 12th century). Luther's saying "den Leuten auf’s Maul schauen (to listen to what people really say)" is, of course, very well-known. And there are many more examples in which the mouth is used pictorially in a figurative sense.

We have chosen the image of the "Mouth of Truth" as the title of our exhibition because it makes biting a central theme, and thus also the ingestion of nutrition. Moreover it brings language as the human being's means of communication into focus. We hope that, with the complexity of this image, our contemporary artists will develop pictorial discoveries which will complement and enrich our ideas of the mouth.

Bodenburg, July 2003

Further exhibitions are planned as follows:
Hand (2005) – Ear (2006) – Nose (2007) and Eye (2008).