Heike Mutter, Ulrich Genth

Cultivated Conflikts

Vertrautes mit Störpotenzial

Since 2003, the artist duo Mutter/Genth (Heike Mutter, b. Munich, 1969; Ulrich Genth, b. Tübingen, 1971) has initiated collective processes with carefully calculated interventions and context-specific projects in public settings and institutional spaces around the world. Their sculptural works and interventions add new layers of meaning to the sites, uncovering their existing potential as well as latent conflicts, often to humorous effect. They stimulate diverse forms of appropriation and participation and invite the audience to become actively involved in the settings. In the case of Tiger & Turtle—Magic Mountain at Angerpark, Duisburg, their best-known work to date, the echo on social media has taken on a life of its own, opening up new perspectives for an art of public engagement. The catalogue is the first to present comprehensive documentation of Mutter/Genth’s works. Brief descriptions of the projects are complemented by essays in which Karen van den Berg, Ben Kaufmann, Ann Kristin Kreisel, Baptist Ohrtmann, and Wolfgang Ullrich explore issues such as the reception of the artists’ oeuvre by various public audiences.