GEGO

GERTRUD LOUISE GOLDSCHMIDT

Gertrud Goldschmidt (b. 1912 in Hamburg, d. 1994 in Caracas) was one of the leading artists of her generation in Latin America. Under her adopted name, Gego, she became known above all for her large-scale spatial installations. She regarded her works not as sculptures, but as structures or drawings in space. Among her most striking pieces are large objects made of wire, rope or delicate strands of aluminium, which were often created as 'percent for art' commissions.

Gego studied architecture under Paul Bonatz at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical College in Stuttgart from 1932 to 1938. In 1939, at the age of 27, she emigrated to Venezuela via England. Having settled in Caracas, she built just one double house, Quinta El Urape, as an architect and was active as a fine artist. In 1958/59 she began teaching – first of all, watercolour and gouache at the Architecture and Urban Planning department of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, then sculpture at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas Cristóbal Rojas. Gego's training and practice as an architect had a major influence on her art, in that the forming of space remained a central concern of her artistic practice.

The film will accompany a retrospective of Gego’s works to three locations in Europe: the Hamburg Kunsthalle and the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart in Germany, and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, England.

first component: the work and the artist

second component: gego’s biography

third component: the protagonists:

Some short conversations with specialists on Gego’s work and with the four curators of the exhibitions in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Leeds. Each curator will speak about her particular focus within the exhibition and read some testimones and sabiduras in relation of their statements.
Caracas: Alvaro Sotillo, Maria Helena Huizi, Ruth Auerbach, Maria Helena Ramos, Josehina Manrique, Barbara Gunz, Ester Crespin Gunz. Dr Petra Roettig, Dr Brigitte Kölle, Lisa Le Feuvre, Dr Eva Froitzheim, Dr Ulrike Gross.

Music

Music composed and played by Vladyslav Sendecki will provide discrete punctuation in the film. Sendecki was presented with the prestigious Hamburg Jazz Award in 2011. His compositions are sparse and he is interested in the philosophy incorporated in Gego’s work.

VOD