Leihgabe (Loan)
2010–ongoing, wood, brass, enamel paint
a) Shelf: 34 × 67 × 28 cm
b) Loan object, each: 29.7 × 5 × 25 cm
The loan items presented here are compact, sculptural book-objects made of wood painted with glossy black enamel paint.
The loan objects are identified as such by brass plates on their »spines« and numbered consecutively from one to ten. They stand on a wall shelving unit made of wood, each object in its designated compartment. On the formal level, the work closely follows works by Minimal Art artists from the 1960s in the United States. While the focus in Specimen Removed is on disbanding a collection, this work, as its title indicates, concerns the lending of exhibits from one’s own collection—in this case that of the artist—to other museums. The artist contacted directors of other institutions beforehand and arranged the lending of the objects.
The duration of the permanent loan was stipulated for one thousand years. The institutional nature of the work is equally important as the parasitical. Artists constantly send their works to museums with no return address in order to be »in the collection.« Beinroth as artist is using the contacts of one museum to place his objects in other collections, and in so doing he quotes and caricatures this practice.
The loans are stored upright on bookshelves in the participating art museums. The wall shelving unit shows the remaining loans. A text panel provides information about the locations of the objects currently out on loan.
