Ridiculously Yours?! Art, Awkwardness and Enthusiasm

The Humor of Catastrophe, Fiascos, and Shame

In modernism, and especially in the classical avant-gardes of the early 20th century, there is a very specific dialectic at work: on the one hand, there are bold innovations,radical negation, and aesthetic dogmas. On the other, there is also an infectious kindof laughter. “Enthusiastic awkwardness” or clumsiness was the basis of many artproductions and still is today. The humor of catastrophe and bad taste, Dadaism, camp,trash culture (B- and Z-movies), science fiction, and horror are some of the manyfacets that will be presented in the exhibition project Ridiculously Yours?! Art, Awkwardness and Enthusiasm at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn.

The richly illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition, curated by Jörg Heiser and Cristina Ricupero, delves into the humor of various artistic epochs through essaysby Charlie Fox, Jean-Yves Jouannais, Rhonda Lieberman, Sianne Ngai, Noemi Smolik,and Timotheus Vermeulen. With an introduction by Jörg Heiser and Cristina Ricupero.