PRESENTATION: Asta Gröting-A Wolf, Primates and a Breathing Curve
Asta Gröting is an artist whose practice spans video, sculpture, and performance, weaving together psychological, social, and cultural references into works that articulate both personal and collective experiences. Her art is deeply rooted in human interaction, attentive to the subtleties of perception, intimacy, and vulnerability. Gröting presents a cross-section of her video oeuvre since 1993, centering on the complex entanglements between humans, animals, and the natural world. Her works operate like a microscope: examining appearances, surfaces, and gestures in order to uncover what lies beneath.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Städel Museum Archive
Central to her practice is the act of making the invisible visible. Gröting focuses on overlooked processes in daily life and on the fragile yet profound web of interpersonal relationships. This sensibility lies at the heart of “A Wolf, Primates and a Breathing Curve”, a solo exhibition at the Städel Museum’s Collection of Contemporary Art. Featuring eight works from 2015 to 2025—seven videos and a specially conceived laser projection—the exhibition explores fluid boundaries: between nature and culture, closeness and distance, the known and the unfamiliar. Her deliberate manipulation of time imbues her works with intensity, transforming them into contemplative spaces that invite viewers to reflect on hidden relationships and the dynamics that shape them. Gröting demonstrates how art can act as a connective tissue between individuals, capturing moments of intimacy and silence that transcend words. Her works invite viewers into liminal states—spaces between perception and recognition—where the ephemeral poetry of existence emerges. Among the highlights of the exhibition are the newly created “Breathing Curve” (2025) and the premiere of “Matthias, Helge and Asta” (2025), both conceived specifically for the Städel Museum. “Breathing Curve” (2025) translates the physiological rhythm of inhalation and exhalation into a luminous gesture. A human breath is transformed into a radiant white line that flickers as a fleeting drawing in space. Projected against John M. Armleder’s monumental “Mosaic Mirror Wall Piece” (1991–2012) in the Metzler Foyer, the work renders visible the most fundamental and fragile act of life: breathing. Here, Gröting expands her filmic investigation of the human condition by giving form to what is usually imperceptible, opening a meditative dialogue between body, time, and architecture. In “Matthias, Helge and Asta” (2025), shown to the public for the first time, Matthias Brandt poses the disarming question: “Have you failed?” Helge Schneider and Asta Gröting respond without words—through glances, gestures, and pauses—letting silence speak. The work recalls Samuel Beckett’s dictum, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better” (1983), and reframes failure as a generative principle. In this understated choreography of language and silence, Gröting continues her exploration of human vulnerability, mutual perception, and the spaces between words. Her sensitivity to interspecies relations resonates in “Primate and Human” (2023), where close-up shots of orangutans momentarily overlap with the face of a human infant. This tender juxtaposition confronts us with ethical questions about kinship, empathy, and our responsibility toward our biological relatives. In “Cherry Blossom – Dawn and Dusk” (2022), a cherry tree in full bloom is filmed in one-second intervals across an entire day. Played in time-lapse, the trembling branches, darting insects, and shifting light stages an almost hypnotic meditation on transience, cycles, and renewal. Day dissolves into night, and life is rendered in its fleeting yet enduring rhythms. “Wolf and Dog” (2021) stages an encounter between two species with a shared ancestry. The playful trust of the domestic dog contrasts with the poised vigilance of the wolf, their interaction accompanied by the deep, resonant timbre of a bass clarinet. The human hand offering food becomes a symbolic marker—illustrating the historical divergence between domestication and wildness, trust and survival. In “First Drink” (2018), Gröting returns to the intimacy of everyday rituals. Eight individuals are shown preparing their first drink of the day, each framed within a still life of cups, vessels, and kitchen tools. These modest gestures reveal habits, origins, and identities, while the composition recalls the symbolic arrangements of still life painting. The work transforms routine into ritual, intimacy into universality. Her video “Things” (2018) introduces a surreal choreography of fruit, flowers, an octopus, and other objects floating against a bright sky. The slowed motion endows these ordinary things with an aura of strangeness, compelling viewers to reconsider the overlooked beauty of consumption and the material world. The oldest work in the exhibition, “Touch” (2015), highlights Gröting’s sculptural approach to film. Against a dark void, she silently caresses the faces of eleven close acquaintances, her own figure visible only from behind. The tactile act of “sculpting” faces through touch becomes an intimate, wordless dialogue, revealing human fragility and closeness through gesture alone. Together, these works illuminate Gröting’s enduring pursuit: to render perceptible the invisible structures that shape life, to give form to silence, breath, and touch, and to open new ways of seeing both the human condition and our shared existence with the world around us.
Photo: Asta Gröting, Cherry Blossom – Dawn and Dusk, 2022 Videostill, 4K UHD video with sound, loop 6:29 min © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Info: Curator: Svenja Grosser, Städel Museum, Schaumainkai 63, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Duration: 5/9/2025-5/7/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun, www.staedelmuseum.de/
