This richly illustrated edition presents a broad span of Baruch's oeuvre, from the 1960s to her recent textile production. It includes three essays—by Fanni Fetzer, Martin Herbert, and Noah Stolz—as well as polyphonic focus texts by curators, friends, and art historians from the artist's circle, all providing compelling insights into her works and methods.
“Marion Baruch's work circles emptiness. Viewed in terms of form, the artist prefers working with gaps, revision, transparency, omissions. She herself speaks of 'void,' but doesn't mean the spiritual nothingness of James Turrell, Lucio Fontana, or others. This emptiness is rather free space in a literal sense, which is to be understood as an invitation to the public to enter this space.”—Fanni Fetter
“Marion Baruch's artistic choices have been characterized by the unusual importance she gives to encounters and obstacles she has met with in her personal life. A few biographical details suffice to explain changes of direction she has taken in the artistic sphere, or the strategies she has adopted to maintain her independence as a woman and artist. And it is perhaps for this reason that Marion Baruch's path has, although remaining on the edges of the art system, actively affected that system's substance.”—Noah Stolz
Published on the occasion of Marion Baruch's first retrospective, innenausseninnen, at Kunstmuseum Luzern; MAGASIN des horizons, Grenoble; les Abattoirs, Toulouse; Muzeul de Arta, Timişoara; and Museo MA*GA, Gallarate.
The conflicts of the 20th century are reflected in the long life of Marion Baruch (born 1929 in Timișoara, Romania): fascism, capitalism, communism, feminism, pacifism, migration, classes, nations, religions, linguistic communities, political ideologies. Marion Baruch concerns herself with internal worlds and external spaces. Consequently this artist's work revolves around the theme of emptiness; she works with gaps, through views and transparency. She speaks of the “void”, meaning not a spiritual nothingness but rather a free space, in the literal sense, to be understood as an invitation to the viewer.
