Events

It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of the artist Inge Mahn at the age of 79. She passed away on Monday, 19 June, in the early morning. Following the artist's wishes, the Foundation has decided to proceed with her summer solo exhibition, as planned, and to have the new installation finished an on view. This will open on Saturday, 15 July, and will run until Sunday, 27 August.

The Stiftung zur Förderung zeitgenössischer Kunst in Weidingen is very pleased to present an exhibition of work by Inge Mahn, opening on Saturday 15 July 2023. The monumental sculpture Ömega Man by Albert Oehlen will be inaugurated on the same weekend. On Sunday 16 July, a solo concert by Evan Parker will take place in St. Marien Wallfahrtskirche.

Spanning more than five decades, the sculptural works of Inge Mahn interact closely with their surroundings. The works, mostly made of white plaster, are not to be regarded as isolated entities, but are always in close dialogue with the individual architectural and social circumstances that surround them. The artist’s oeuvre is characterised by an examination of everyday objects, which are often recontextualised using strategies of alienation and exaggeration, thus removing the objects from their conventional sphere of activity. In this way, the original functions of ordinary objects or places are called into question, opening up new dimensions and perspectives of the so-called everyday to the viewer. Though a large number of Mahn’s sculptures take up the form of existing objects, the artist never creates pure reproductions, instead translating objects into her own sculptural language, thereby assigning them new associations. With their consistent dynamism, Mahn’s works suggest a state of permanent transformation.

For Mahn, the artist’s role is less to control the process than to observe it: ‘I do something, and the materials do something,’ she states.¹ This openness to spatial conditions and material properties yields a vitality which seems to inhabit the sculptures themselves. They want not only to be seen, but to be experienced on site. Their dimensions mirror those of the human body, in turn calling for the viewer’s presence in the space. In Untitled (Altar), a new work from 2023, Mahn takes up elements which have previously been encountered in her practice. An oversized white bell stands at the centre of a parade of boots on a stage, over which garments hover. Alongside her sculptures, a selection of photographs and drawings are presented in the exhibition space and at the Günther Förg library.


Inge Mahn was born in Teschen in 1943 and died in Berlin in 2023. She lived and worked in Berlin and Groß Fredenwalde. The artist's work has been included in institutional solo exhibitions, most recently at Bauhaus Dessau (2020); Kunstverein Braunschweig, K21 Düsseldorf (both 2017); and Akademie-Galerie Die Neue Sammlung, Düsseldorf (2014). Previous exhibitions have included the Museum Schweinfurt (2006); Kunsthalle Kassel (1999); Kunsthalle Helsinki (1996); Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (1990); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (1988); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (1983); MoMA PS1, New York (1981); and documenta 5 in Kassel (1972).

Mahn's work is in the collections of ARTER, Istanbul; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart; Kiasma - Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki; Kunsthalle Schweinfurt; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf; and Sammlung der Kunstakademie Stuttgart, among others. Mahn was a professor of sculpture at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts from 1987 to 1993 and at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art in Berlin from 1993 until 2009.

​¹ Interview with Inge Mahn on the occasion of her solo exhibition, Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin, 24 February 2021, minute 10:01 – 10:04