Daniel Spoerri, DER KOFFER (All Nouveau Réalistes in one suitcase), Galerie Haro Lauhus, Cologne, 1961
Artists: Arman, César, Gérard Deschamps, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Robert Rauschenberg, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, Jacques de la Villeglé, “with a non-participation of an immaterial work by Yves Klein”
Duration: June 11–18, 1961
Opening: June 11, 1961, 7 p.m., with Daniel Spoerri
Dimensions: 10.8 x 14.7 cm
Further Information: For his work Der Koffer, Daniel Spoerri collected items and objects from the main representatives of Nouveau Réalisme. As a round up of the movement, which was co-initiated by Pierre Restany, Spoerri chose objects from each artist that would best visualize their aesthetic and artistic practice. He said, “I often wished to put objects by all the artists into one suitcase. I took up this idea again and asked Arman, César, Deschamps, Dufrêne, Hains, Raysse, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Tinguely, and Villeglé to do a suitcase exhibit with me. I only needed my old travelling suitcase, which has hitherto served me as a table.” (quote via www.mumok.at/en/der-koffer) During the exhibition in Cologne, Spoerri unpacked and explained each object to the audience. Afterwards, he distributed each item from the suitcase to different places, only reunited them years later.
The objects included assemblages, posters, sculptures, and small objects, as well as the suitcase design (by Spoerri) and the padlocks (by Rauschenberg). According to MUMOK in Vienna, which has held the suitcase in its collection since 2003, the padlock has been lost.
ALW
Images: Images of the invitation and all other archival documents shown on this page are part of the online collection of Archiv der Avantgarden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
