GLITCH

OPENING: THU 30.11.2023, 7 pm
Rooms 21–26

Broken smartphone displays, crackling radio broadcasts, frozen images during a video call. Only when there is an interference is our attention directed to the nature of the technical media that surround us every day without, however, it becoming the centre of attention.

As one of the youngest and most unpredictable forms of art, “glitch art” specifically draws attention to the productive side of the flawed. Initially prevalent in the technical jargon of radio and television engineers in the 1950s, the term “glitch” (Early Modern High German: glitschen, meaning to glide or slither, or from the Yiddish gletshn, to slip or skid, to slide away) soon came to describe programming or graphic errors in the world of computer games. A glitch is thus the unexpected result of a malfunction that occurs not only in computer games but also in other digital software. In the art context, technical interference finds its immediate expression in the field of computer-generated images and digital work. However, its roots go back to the early days of the history of photography. As an artistic counter-movement to recognised forms of expression, the technical glitch takes its course from early photography via avant-garde film to video and sound art, as well as to digital image media and net art where glitches are intentionally provoked or deliberately programmed.

The special exhibition “Glitch” in the Pinakothek der Moderne, extending over an area of 1,200 square metres, explores and examines the “art of interference“ as a global phenomenon and, for the first time, looks at the historical origins of the “glitch art“ movement. A total of 50 international artists show how important it is to question norms and entrenched thought patterns, to confront us with innovative alternative ideas and, ultimately, render the invisible visible.

With works by Erwin Blumenfeld, Monika von Boch, Kilian Breier, Nick Briz, Broomberg & Chanarin, Chargesheimer, Pierre Cordier, Inge Dick, Christian Doeller, Maya Dunietz, Walter Ebenhofer, Jake Elwes, Jamie Faye Fenton, Ralf Filges, William Forsythe, Marc Foucault, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Fabian Hesse & Mitra Wakil, John Hilliard, Esther Hunziker, Lotte Jacobi, Gottfried Jäger, Arthur Jafa, JODI, Joan Jonas, André Kertész, Germaine Krull, Ryoichi Kurokawa, !Mediengruppe Bitnik and Sven König, Rosa Menkman, Ugo Mulas, Mame-Diarra Niang, Carsten Nicolai, Kazuma Obara, Nam June Paik, Jiang Pengyi, Sondra Perry, Sigmar Polke, Timm Rautert, Man Ray, Johanna Reich, Evelyn Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Barry Stone, ariella tai, Wolfgang Tillmans, Raoul Ubac, Timm Ulrichs, Steina Vasulka, Peter Weibel

Curator: Franziska Kunze
Assistant Curator: Katrin Bauer

Further information on the website of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

The exhibition is generously supported by:

Herbert Schuchardt-Stiftung
PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne with its partner Allianz and the K.S. Fischer Stiftung
RICHARD MILLE
International Patrons of the Pinakothek e.V.
BMW Group

The catalogue is generously supported by:
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation
Karl Thiemig-Stiftung