'On Television, Beckett' curated by Gerard Byrne at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany

20 November 2024

Until 12 January 2025, the exhibition ‘On Television, Beckett’ at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, curated by the artist Gerard Byrne and Judith Wilkinson presents for the first time all seven groundbreaking teleplays that Samuel Beckett produced for Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Stuttgart between 1966–1985. The exhibition serves as testament not only to the iconic Irish artist’s outstanding practice, but also to a moment of experimental openness, risk-taking, and pioneering work on the part of German television broadcasters.

The exhibition also includes an additional television production by Beckett for the BBC, and displays important archival materials relating to Beckett’s time working with SDR. The exhibition’s display borrows, among other things, from one of the historical television recording sets in Stuttgart. In addition to the eight teleplays, which are shown as video projections in four cinema/theater like spaces, the exhibition includes numerous largely unpublished documents related to Beckett’s time spent in Stuttgart and his work at SDR. The presentation of these documents in the form of an essayistic frieze reflects the exhibition’s curatorial-artistic perspective on Beckett. Through the prism of the archive, Beckett is recognized as a visionary of the medium and a hands-on practitioner who directly engaged with the technical and creative process of making television. A selection of films and videos by Beckett, such as his first film Film (1965, Act.: Buster Keaton, Dir.: Alan Schneider), and other artists expand the contextualization of the television plays.

Find out more via Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart.

Image: Exhibition view “On Television, Beckett” at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, 2024, Photos by Johannes Ocker