++++ Frankfurt/Main (DPA) – The art exhibition Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt is offering works by young artists from all over Europe until 25 August. Works by more than 80 artists from about 30 countries can be seen. The show, which is organized every two years in a different city, is dispersed over many venues in the city area. Until 30 May, the art fair, Art Frankfurt, is also being presented by 190 galleries.
Visitors are greeted by life-size dolls at the central venue for Manifesta, Frankensteiner Hof, next to the recreation and eating district of Alt-Sachsenhausen. Only at a second glance do you notice that something is not quite right with each figure. A preacher is wearing a dressing gown, a female mechanic is wearing high-heeled shoes, a supposed burglar is holding a remote control unit in his hand. The Russian artist, Anton Litvin, calls his dolls Population Next.
The Bulgarian artist, Luchezar Boyadjiev, succeeded in intermeshing art and life. He found Frankfurt residents ranging from a stripper to a professor whom he questioned about their lives in the city for a reward of one hundred euros. "Normally, artists receive money for making a portrait of somebody. I will pay you if you allow me to portrait you," he promised on postcards and in newspaper advertisements.
An artists’ group called Evolutionary Cells has announced prize money of ten thousand euros. It is calling for "self-commissioned shaping of social perspectives". People are being sought whose portraits will be done in Frankensteiner Hof. A woman who has sold her belongings and since then has been living in the residences of people who are away, or a family which has registered in the commercial registry as a company dedicated to "private childcare".