Rüstkammer: Teresa Murak and the Brigandines of Elector Augustus of Saxony

Teresa Murak and the Brigandines of Elector Augustus of Saxony

Dialogue with the Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann

With “Leibmaske” (Body Mask), the performance and land artist Teresa Murak (b. 1949) has created a captivating representation of female physicality. Suspended as if ﬂoating in the room, this torso was formed from thousands of cress seeds which germinated on the body of the artist. It is thus the relic of one of Murak’s characteristic performative “sowings”.

Exhibition Site Residenzschloss

DATES 14/08/2020—30/05/2021

The gelatinous mass of seeds that later dried became a mask for the artist’s chest and abdomen. In her work, Murak continues to use organic materials such as soil, sourdough, cloth and seeds, linking herself through these materials with the processes of becoming and vanishing. Breaking in this way with the permanence that commonly appertains to the sculptures and torsi of Western art, she creates a representation of the human body that shares the body’s vulnerability and impermanence.

At the Rüstkammer in the Renaissance wing of the Dresden Residenzschloss, Murak’s work – appearing mystical here – is juxtaposed with representations of the body that are altogether diﬀerent. The armours and brigandines from the posses-sions of Elector Augustus of Saxony form a counterconception to “Leibmaske”, not only due to their appearance: While the female body is seen as a naturally grown shape in a material that resembles earth — a body whose associations with softness and warmth remain present — the armours, precision-made from cool, hard metal, signify male bodies. They, too, are masks. In their sym-bolic eﬀect, the contemporary artwork and the historical exhibits give rise to an opposition of key images of human existence — a confrontation of fertility and creative power with war and destruction.

**Brigantinen des Kurfürsten August von Sachsen italienisch, Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts (vor 1567)**

A goal for the donated works of the Sammlung Hoffmann is to have them enter a dialogue with objects from the various museums of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, thereby opening up different perspectives and levels of meaning for both the contemporary and the historical exhibits.

To the Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann

Further Exhibitions

03/07/2020 —30/05/2021