ManfreDu Schu

ManfreDu’ SCHU (born in Vienna on December 21, 1959) is an international artist who develops his form of expression through various means of representation such as painting, music, object art, installations, actions and performances. The idea behind his work is a theatrical approach and philosophy through which ManfredDu Schu develops a more intensive view of an intensive being. He united biological questions and muscial rituals with the presence of fashion. He deals with diversity in art and its further development, from the individual and extreme status, sensitised sources of mental creation transcending the body of the artist into a materialised world where artistic expression of art opens up a new, expanded level of understanding.ManfreDu Schu’s latest works are short pieces of music, so called “Crash Operas”.

Work

These works are demonstratively idiosyncratic which refer to the often anonymous origin of mankind and his person, which refers to itself and to Schu’s known performances, the “Pseudogruppen” which stand and stood in museums and galeries, disconnected from history. “In contrast to the audience you construct yourself in an new way,“ says Schu. Numerous installations deal with the research of life as theatrical event where things, as it is the case in the fashion world, get inevitably connected with the human creature.In his “Crash Operas“ and installations the stage is the one-to-one interview, the possibility to express ones opinion out of timidness, bearing monologues for a long period of time, as intensification of magic morales, which are incorporated into the things, as a creator of a scientific play; scientific and at the same time passionate operas which in artistic reasearch provide a basis for sign finding and stabilisation of the sovereign thought. An important motif of Schu’s is the duality of the body, which unexpressedly develeops its theatrical form of speech as inevitable carrier substance, independent from his sexual tendency for a correspondence energy between what can be and what will be in the future.

In Schu’s works sexuality is encoded and at the same time effective in the most powerful way. The mysterious language as well as the voice and the atmosphere seem to prowl without an aim, while at the same time the neutral drive energy is undirected within the metrosexual space. The esthetics of movement develop in the excessive acting expression, in an extraordinary estetics into the makeup ot the object. Schu:“ The unborn in us is the amalgamation of our talents, the flexibility of our senses and works inside us as a creative pendular; ...the development of the facial expression and gesture has priority in the artistic work.” The momentum of mysteriousness, the questioning, the appearance of clothing, which in its authentic reality takes over authoritarian traits. At the end of the year 78’ the first hard sculptures like the laundry mountains I-V came into being, over-painted used linens on which he had slept as well as the first performances and actions Exploding clothes/Exploding Underwear and electronic compositions where he provoked through a risky combination of different music styles. Being in conflict with the unrestricted artistic freedom for further works of art, ManfreDu Schu has more and more retreated since the year 2002 in order to publish – in a more strengthened and “personally ambitious” way through new forms – the white book “SchlangenGrube /SnakePit” from Jan Hoet’s SONSBEEK 9. Schu’s own existence is understood, ...experienced as dramatisation and theatralisation, as staged visibility and creates the accentuation of insight. Details and subtility in the art have their special ways of implementation and detachedness in a sovereign, dandified as well as magic expression. Working titels such as „ShortTatooedSleep“, „21 Sounds of Blood Groups”, “21.12”, “BlackMouth”, “Go Go better God, Go Go better devil ... Go Go” refer to these aspects. The contradictions of life, lavishness are its viability, the fiction of a person is its philosophy. Shifting as disrobement leads the human creature into a state of hidden secrets and from its own soul-veils out into spheres of his or her double life. There are also cooperations with artists like Honoré ∂O’, Yuri Leiderman, Arnout Mik, Hannes Priesch, A.F. Lindermayer, Gerald Grestenberger, Bettina Bach, Rieglef Schow, Bill Beirne, Tomo Savic-Gecan, Otto Mittmannsgruber or Notburga Coronabless.

Exhibitions

* cofounder of the group REM, with the galerie of the same name at Mozartplatz 1983
* Ars Electronica, Linz (A) 1984
* Int.Elektroakustikfestival, Bourges (F).
* REM-Tournee 87/88, »Wenn Die Stolzen Feinde Schlafen« 1988
* 7. Triennale India, Delhi, Indien 1991
* Tuin de Brabandere, Tielt »BEELDEN BUITEN 92« (B) 1992
* Kunstraum Elbschloß, Hamburg »LOVE AGAIN« 1993
* International EV+A, Limerick, Irland 1994
* Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle (m.Arnout Mik, Honoré Do’) (B)
* M.O.C., München,»EUROPA 94«
* Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
* Museumsquartier - Messepalst/Kunstraum, Wien, »Pseudogruppe IX.« 1995
* Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, »WILD WALLS«
* De Vleeshal, Middelburg (NL) »AN DEN RAND DES HIRNS STOSSEN« 1996
* Vereniging voor het Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
* MAK, Wien - Kunsthaus Zürich (A/CH), »Österreich im Rosennetz«
* Vereniging voor het Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent (z.m Fabrice Hybert, Mark Manders)
* Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (A)(m. A.Bulloch u. V.Beecroft) »Persona X« 1997
* Centro Civico per l’ Arte Contemporanea, ZERYNTHIA, (I) »INDOOR« 1998
* S.M.A.K., Gent (B) »De Opening« 1999
* musée art contemporain lyon, Lyon (F) »INDOOR«
* Skulpturenprojekt EXPO 2000/Hannover-Münden,»3 RÄUME–3 FLÜSSE«
* Kunstmuseum Bonn, (D) »ZEITWENDEN«
* Ècole Regionale des Beaux-Arts, Dünkirchen (F) »Dessins« 2000
* Locus/Focus, Arnheim (N) »SONSBEEK 9«: 2001
* SMAK, Gent (B) »Gelijk het leven is«
* mestna galerija ljubljana, city art museum, Ljubljana, Slovenja (m.B.. Bach, Y. Leidermann) 2005
* museum Marta Herford, Herford (D) „My Privat Heroes“
* museum ikob, Eupen (B) “Österreichische Kunst am oberen Tassenrand” 2006

Bibliography

* Schu / Theuretzbacher, Engelbert: TUTE, Kat., Galerie Theuretzbacher, Wien 1990 (A) Falsche ISBN|3-901105-00-1
* Lindmayr, Ulli – Bijl, Guillaume: Hoorn - Horn, Kat., Hoorn (NL)/Horn-Kunstverein (A) 1990
* Luis, Eleonore / BMUK: 7. Triennale India, Kat., Delhi / Indien, Wittgensteinhaus, Wien 1991
* Schweinebraden, Jürgen:Österreich/Kunst-Europa, Kat., Deichtorhalle, Hamburg 1991
* Vanrobaeys, Piet:5 Austrian Artists, Kat., Opus Operandi, Gent (B) 1992
* Vanrobaeys, Piet: »BEELDEN BUITEN 92« Kat., Tuin de Brabandere, Tielt (B) 1992
* Lindmayr, Ulli: Zwei Mal Drei Positionen Österreichischer Künstler, Kat., Antwerpen 1993
* Gatermann, Birgit – Hart, Claudia: Love Again, Kat., Kunstraum Elbschloß, Hamburg 1993
* Böhmler – Greve – Odenwald: POIESIS, Kat., Verlag Boyens&Co, Hamburg 1994
* Schweinebraden, Jürgen: Sisyphos-Syndrom, Kat./2Bd., Mecklenburgsches Künstlerhaus Schloß Plüschow / Schloß Plön, Verlag d. EP Edition Niedenstein 1995 (D) ISBN 3924540-13-6
* Coelewij, Leontine – Nieuwenhuyzen, van Martijn / Stedelijk Museum: Wild Walls, Kat., Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 1995 (NL) ISBN 90-5006-099-4
* Lindmayr, Ulli,– Schu, ManfreDu / Kunstraum Wien: HERAUSGEBER, Kat., Kunstraum Wien, Projekte 1994 bis 1996, Triton-Verlag, Wien 1996 (A)
* Szeemann, Harald / MAK u. Kunsthaus Zürich: austria im rosennetz, Kat., New York: Springer 1996 ISBN 3-211-82925-3
* Himmelbauer, Leopold / Pohlhammer, Momoli, Vinicio: Casa Giorgione, Kat., Padua (I)1996
* Natura Naturans, Kat., Triest (I)1996
* Schu, ManfreDu / de Vleeshal Middelburg: DOCUMENT 5 / An Den Rand Des Hirns Stossen, Kat., Vleeshall, Middelburg 1996 (NL) ISBN 90-72310-18-7
* Amanshauser, Hildegund / Salzburger Kunstverein: Magazin [2] , Kat., Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg 1998
* Günther, Bernhard: Lexikon zeitgenössischer Musik aus Österreich, KomponistenInnen d. 20 Jhdt.,Lexikon, Verlag Mica, Wien 1998
* Baere, De Bart - Schu, ManfreDu / Janda, Martin: PSEUDOGRUPPE, Kat. TRITON-Verlag, Wien 1998 (A) ISBN 3-85486-007-2
* Jongenelen, Sandra: Maria Magdalena. Trechter 5, Kat. 2Bd. Culturele Raad Goes, Goes 1998 (NL)
* Pieroni, Mario & Stiefelmeier, Dora - Raspail, Thierry - Hoet, Jan: INDOOR, Kat. Zerynthia, Editione Charte, Milano, Centro Civico per i’Arte Contemporenea La Grancia, Serre di Rapolano - Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon -*Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, 1999 , ISBN 88-8158-241-4
* Hoet, Jan: 3 Räume – 3 Flüsse (I), Kat., Hann. Münden, 1999 (D) ISBN 90-75679-05-X
* EV+A COMPENDIUM 94/96/98, Kat., Limerick, Irland, 1999 ,
* Hoet, Jan, S.M.A.K. The Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art/Gent, 1999 (B) ISBN 90-5544-247-X
* Ronte, Dieter / Smerling, Walter: ZEITWENDEN, (Kat.) Dumont, Kunstmuseum Bonn, BRD, 1999 (D) ISBN 3-7701-5039-2
* Huet, Wilfried / Dehasque, Lieve: GAGARIN n° 1, the artists in their own words; Art-Mag. 2000 (B)
* Chiodi, Stefano: L’altimo disegno del 1999, (Kat.) ZERYNTHIA, Rom 2000, (I)
* Hoet, Jan: SONSBEEK 9 - LocusFocus (Kat.), Arnheim 2001, (NL) ISBN 90-806438-2-3
* Deliss, Clementine, METRONOME NO.7, »the bastard« (B), London 2001 (GB)
* Zenrynthia, biennale dell’avana 2000 (Kat.) Editione Rizzolo De Agostini 2001 (I)
* Niki Lederer&Priesch Hannes, Death in the Studio, (Kat.) New York 2002 (USA) ISBN 0-615-12280-9
* Beirne, Leiderman, Schu, Tomo: SEMAINE No. 32 , ART3, Valance, 2004 (F)
* Kerber „My Privat Heroes“ (Kat.) Museum Marta Herford, Herford 2005 (D) ISBN 3-936646-92-9
* Blaas, Katharina, Öffentliche Kunst, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum NÖ, Band 8, SpringerWienNewYork 2006 (A) ISBN 3-211-32333-3
* Schu, ManfreDu: “SCHLANGENGrube-SNAKE PIT” Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt-Wien 2006 (A) ISBN 3-85415-384-8
* De Baere, Bart & Bounameeaux, Henry, CONTEMPORARY ART IN BELGIUM 2007, Brüssel 2007 (B)

References and notes

* Hoet, Jan: SONSBEEK 9 - LocusFocus (Kat.), Arnheim 2001, (NL)