Carolyn Lazard
Hintertür

Name: Hintertür
Start: 2021-05-22
End: 2021-07-25
Location: Kunstverein Braunschweig

May 22 – Jul 25, 2021

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In their artistic work, Carolyn Lazard questions the capitalist idealization of health and productivity by establishing “radical possibilities of incapacity” (Lazard) as a practice to rethink conventional understandings of labour. Drawing on these concepts of „crip time“, Lazard’s work explores fugitive occupations of dominant time and institutional space.
For their solo exhibition, Hintertür, Lazard has produced a new video installation drawing from the sensorial legacy of flicker films. This work points to the mutual embodiment of both the filmmaker and the viewer, animating questions of agency and access in relation to phenomenological cinema. In addition, Lazard inverts Kunstverein Braunschweig’s spatial logic by implementing architectural interventions that fundamentally change how audiences navigate the building. In historic buildings, physical barriers to access are normally regulated by Braunschweig’s historic preservation codes. Alternatively, artistic interventions are permitted to make minor changes to historic buildings. For this exhibition, Lazard developed Remise ramp (2021), a ramp connecting two rooms, and Remise signs (2021), an alternative sign system directing visitors to the back door of the space. Both works will provisionally remain after the exhibition is over.
Hintertür will be extended by a discursive program of readings, film screenings, and talks that deepen questions about facilitation and meditation. Accompanying the exhibition, an artist's book will be published.
Carolyn Lazard (*1987 USA) recently realized solo and duo exhibitions at Essex Street, New York (2020) and at Shoot the Lobster, New York (2018, in collaboration with Juliana Huxtable). A solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center will follow in 2022. The presentation at Kunstverein Braunschweig is Carolyn Lazard’s first institutional solo exhibition in Europe.
Curator: Nele Kaczmarek
Download Floor Plan

Carolyn Lazard and Ed Halter talk about the exhibition Hintertür by Carolyn Lazard at Kunstverein Braunschweig. A special focus of the talk is the 2-channel video installation "Red" (2021), shown for the first time. With an introduction by curator Nele Kaczmarek.
With German subtitles
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Carolyn Lazard, Exhibition Hintertür, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[On view is a small scale light beige house from the early 19th century with four squared and two half-circled windows. A paved forecourt is in front of the house. To the right an open gate is leading towards a garden that continues outside the frame.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Remise Signs, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[The image focuses on the entrance of the building: a green door that is closed. To the left four screws and a light yellow stain indicate the former position of a sign that has been dismantled. To the right a new silver sign is installed, an arrow is pointing towards the right.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Remise signs, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[The image focuses on the entrance of the building: a green door that is closed. To the left four screws and a light yellow stain indicate the former position of a sign that has been dismantled. To the right a new silver sign is installed, an arrow is pointing towards the right.]
5/17

Carolyn Lazard, Exhibition Hintertür, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[On view is a small scale light beige house and the entrance to the garden with an open gate.]
6/17

Carolyn Lazard, Remise stone (Tuesday–Sunday 11 am–5 pm, Thursday 11 am–8 pm), Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021 Installation view
[The image shows a gate opening towards the garden. A natural stone is keeping the door open.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Exhibition Hintertür, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[On view is the backside of the building with the open garden gate to the left, and an open back door to the right that allows insight to the following room. Next to the door a sign is titling the building as the Remise. A path that is connecting the paved forecourt, garden and the back door of the Remise is framed by freshly cut lilac bushes.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Cinema 1, Cinema 2, 2020 and Offshoot, 2021, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the Remise space, on the left sit two identical small black boxes directly on the floor, plugged into electrical sockets. On their top, identical configurations of logs appear burning in flames. To the right there is a flower bouquet with lilac bushes that is placed on a window ledge above a heater.]
9/17

Carolyn Lazard, Offshoot, 2021, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the centre of the image there is a flower bouquet with lilac bushes that is placed on a window ledge above a heater.]
10/17

Carolyn Lazard, Cinema 1, Cinema 2, 2020 and Offshoot, 2021, and Remise doorstopper (Tuesday–Sunday 11 am–5 pm, Thursday 11 am–8 pm), 2021, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021 Installation view
[In the Remise space, on the left sit two identical small black boxes directly on the floor, plugged into electrical sockets. On their top, identical configurations of logs appear burning in flames. In the centre there is a flower bouquet with lilac bushes that is placed on a window ledge above a heater. To the right is the back door that is kept open by a small wooden doorstopper.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Remise doorstopper (Tuesday–Sunday 11 am–5 pm, Thursday 11 am–8 pm), 2021, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[Detail shot of the green back door with a small wooden doorstopper of the same colour.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Remise ramp, 2021 and Cinema 1, Cinema 2, 2020, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the Remise space there is a ramp on the left that is leading towards the following corridor. The ramp is painted in the same grey as the floor. On the right two identical small black boxes sit directly on the floor. On their top, identical configurations of logs appear burning in flames.]
13/17

Carolyn Lazard, Cinema 1, Cinema 2, 2020 Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the Remise space sit two identical small black boxes directly on the floor. On their top, identical configurations of logs appear burning in flames.]
14/17

Carolyn Lazard, Red, 2021 Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the Remise space the grey ramp is continuing towards another room, where a monitor indicates „Strobe on“ with green letters on a black screen. The following room is bathed in red light.]
15/17

Carolyn Lazard, Red, 2021 Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the Remise space a wall is separating two parts of a larger room. In the fron to the left sits a monitor. On the right a large scale video projection is on view that shows an image of red and dark orange gradient.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Red, 2021 Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the centre of the image a large scale video projection is on view that shows an image of red and dark orange gradient.]
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Carolyn Lazard, Red, 2021 Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2021
[In the centre of the image a large scale video projection is on view that shows the word „Strobe on 4“ behind a red backround.]