Description

This catalogue accompanying the exhibition at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden looks at the phenomenon of the hotel from various perspectives and explores the subject in a refreshing new way with numerous essays on art, literature, design, and film. The exhibition features an extensive body of visual work by many different artists, including William Turner, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, and many other key figures, looking at the historical development of the hotel from the beginnings of a new culture of travel in the 19th century leading up to the works of Sophie Calle and Martin Kippenberger in the 20th century.

A tour of Baden-Baden’s major hotels complements the historical treatment of the subject with site-specific and performative works shown alongside painting, photography, and film. Christian Jankowski was invited to Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa as artist-in-residence to create a performative work for this site. A special part of the exhibition was designed by renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, taking as his point of departure his legendary curatorial experiment HOTEL CARLTON PALACE: CHAMBRE 763 from 1993, where he held an unannounced exhibition in his 12-square-meter Paris hotel room with works by 70 artists. In this volume, a photographic stroll through the richly varied exhibition and descriptions of individual works document the show in all its dimensions.

Published on the occasion of “ROOM SERVICE – On The Hotel In The Arts And Artists In The Hotel”