Gregor Schneider: Dead House u r constitutes a year-long installation of the German artist’s major, long-term project Totes Haus U r (Dead House u r, 1986–2003), which transformed, reimagined, and restaged the artist’s home in Rheydt, Germany across multiple venues. Just prior to this exhibition, Schneider had installed the work as Totes Haus u r Venedig 2001 for the German Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale, for which he won the Golden Lion. The house was shown in its entirety for the first time at the biennale and reconstructed again in its entirety at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, with two key changes. First, the house was rotated 180 degrees, so visitors enter from the basement in the back rather than through the front door; second, all doors that were open in Venice are now closed, and all doors closed in Venice are now opened. Otherwise, the complex labyrinth of narrow corridors and tiny crawl spaces remained broadly similar, guiding visitors through hints of Schneider’s family history, examinations of psychosexual domestic dynamics, and uncanny manipulations of furniture.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.
Gregor Schneider: Dead House u r was curated by Paul Schimmel, Chief Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art.