Barbara Visser

A new film commission for Kunstraum by Dutch artist Barbara Visser.

For Manual/2: The Patient Artist, Visser revisits four of her iconic works from the 90s that address the identity of the artist: Portrait of the Artist (1992), Ars Futura (1994), Gimines (1995) and Lecture with Actress (1997).

Treating these key works as building blocks, ‘Manual/2: The Patient Artist’ uses Visser’s practice from the past 25 years as material to be reworked and sampled. Here Visser has collaborated with a writer – Emily LaBarge – to recreate the accounts with more emphasis on their power as stories than their historical accuracy. Visser’s project for Kunstraum also forms part of the artist’s research into psychological aid since the 1950s, incorporating as one of the narrative voices in the film her own file from the Psychoanalytical Institute – reading the descriptions different therapists have written about her as a form of fiction.

A reader of new commissioned texts will accompany the exhibition, with responses to Visser’s work from Emily LaBarge, Dan Munn, Gareth Bell-Jones and Kunstraum Director Thomas Cuckle. On Saturday 23 May, The Showroom will host a symposium organised by Kunstraum with presentations, readings and performances on and around Visser’s practice.

< BACK | TOP ^