Archiv der Kategorie: Visual & Iconic

Ausblick vor dem Palais Bellevue in Kassel auf die Karlsaue | © Norbert Bayer
Sound & Vision, Spacial, Visual & Iconic

Balken im Auge

Die Ausstellung «Concepts of Visual Poetry Confronting Real Times» in Kassel portraitiert eine Generation von chinesischen Künstlern und Künstlerinnen aus Hangzhou, die eindringlich von Krisen und Konflikten erzählen und nicht nur mittels ihrer universellen Poesie ausdrucksstark von ihrer Zeitgenossenschaft zeugen.

Xu Jiang 许江: «Depths Of Winter 冬 远», Tuschezeichnung, 16-teilige Serie, jeweils 58 x 78cm, 2005 | © Xu Jiang 许江

Xu Jiang 许江: «Depths Of Winter 冬 远», Tuschezeichnung, 16-teilige Serie, jeweils 58 x 78cm, 2005 | © Xu Jiang 许江

Unter dem zunächst spröde anmutenden Ausstellungstitel «Concepts of Visual Poetry Confronting Real Times» versammelte die Kunsthistorikerin und Kuratorin Ursula Panhans-Bühler im Kasseler Palais Bellevue, das auf einer Anhöhe am Rande der Karlsaue liegt, Werke von 17 Künstlerinnen und Künstler der China Academy of Art in Hangzhou (中国美术学院) inklusive deren Präsidenten. Ganz dem Motto der Hochschule verpflichtet, das «Sich tatkräftig zusammentun; das Bestehende erforschen, um Neues zu schaffen» (團結 奮進 求實 創新) lautet, wurden für diese Ausstellung, die das komplette Haus über drei Stockwerke einnimmt, Positionen und Techniken ausgewählt, die zum einen fast ausschließlich experimentelle Videoarbeiten sein wollen und sich zum anderen auf eines der ältesten und am verbreitetsten Genres der Kunstproduktion überhaupt beziehen – die Darstellung von Landschaft.

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Spacial, Visual & Iconic

Berlin Artweek 2017: Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann at Galerie Noah Klink, Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld and Reto Pulfer at Bärenzwinger & «Festival of Future Nows 2017 → ∞» by Olafur Eliasson

Here are three carefully selected picks from this week’s Berlin Artweek 2017. By chance all of them include plants, refer to organisms and exhibit nature somehow – other connections surely can be found.
Always remember: «The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness» as John Muir put it.

Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann from Hamburg presents his exhibition «Dr. Perversi» at the recently opened Galerie Noah Klink during Berlin Artweek 2017. | Photo: Norbert Bayer
Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann from Hamburg presents his exhibition «Dr. Perversi» at the recently opened Galerie Noah Klink during Berlin Artweek 2017. | Photo: Norbert Bayer
Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann from Hamburg presents his exhibition «Dr. Perversi» at the recently opened Galerie Noah Klink during Berlin Artweek 2017. | Photo: Norbert Bayer
Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann from Hamburg presents his exhibition «Dr. Perversi» at the recently opened Galerie Noah Klink during Berlin Artweek 2017. | Photo: Norbert Bayer
Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann from Hamburg presents his exhibition «Dr. Perversi» at the recently opened Galerie Noah Klink during Berlin Artweek 2017. | Photo: Norbert Bayer
Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann from Hamburg presents his exhibition «Dr. Perversi» at the recently opened Galerie Noah Klink during Berlin Artweek 2017. | Photo: Norbert Bayer

Berlin Artweek 2017 is in full swing and Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann from Hamburg presents his exhibition «Dr. Perversi» at the recently opened Galerie Noah Klink until 10th of October 2017.
Frohne-Brinkmann who won the New-Positions-Prize of the artfair Art Cologne in 2016 presents an environment which cites waiting rooms of doctor’s offices. He refers to the furniture, the plants and the art usually found in these places of transit. On the wall he hang drawings modeled after the ones which are applied to patient’s bodies before plastic surgery and on the shelves he arranged sculptures of carnivorous plants made from clay. (I already mentioned before that clay is heavily trending again.) ⠀
The almost symmetric drawings bring to mind the images of the notorious and controversial Rorschach test used in psychological treatments which tries to analyze the patient through his or her perception of given inkblots images which are a priori without any given message. ⠀
While the Rorschach test is used to examine a person’s psyche, working with clay is also used a form of therapy. It is said that this non-verbal and playfull method has a balancing effect and strengthens the self-confidence and autonomy through the expression of feelings. ⠀
Frohne-Brinkmann combines the targeted perfection of optional beauty surgeries with the decay of the carnivorous plants to comment in a nonchalant way on the phase of a young artist in which he works constantly on his inner and outer personality while waiting until he gets called up, because the «artworld will see him now» – and one way or another gets swallowed up by it. •

[Click on the images to get to the gallery mode.]

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Performative, Spacial, Visual & Iconic

A Glimpse Inside The Exhibition Of documenta 14

Let’s focus on the 14th edition of documenta which is still on display in Kassel until September 2017.

The artwork «Ardoises magiques, Magie» by Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924 - 1976) shown at Neue Galerie

The artwork «Ardoises magiques, Magie» by Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924 – 1976) shown at Neue Galerie

This is the work «Ardoises magiques, Magie» by Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924 – 1976) shown at Neue Galerie. It consists of a publication with the title «Magie» and an old fashioned magna doodle or etch-a-sketch as the title puts it already with his initials. ⠀
Sigmund Freud already described the second part in his essay about the «Wunderblock» (German for etch-a-sketch or magna doodle): With the «Wunderblock» a pen leaves traces which can be easily erased over and over by lifting the upper paper from the ground plate. Although the writings or drawings made on it are always erased on the surface trough the covering paper. Nevertheless on the main board small, almost invisible marks remain. These marks Freud was interested in when he compared this special device to a human mind which is confronted with a bunch of information which stays primarily unnoticed or unconscious, but are important for the subliminal in that what follows. ⠀
When Broodthears puts this tool next to a journal with the title «Magie» – notably in German – he may refer to this essay of Sigmund Freud, which reveals that there is not so much pure magic in our subconscious as we might think. ⠀
Or the other way round, connected to «Art et Politique» also mentioned on the journal: That magic is not only at work in art, but also in politics – even more if it is denied and presented as pure logic and a form of cybernetic systems theory. And that politics leave its marks for longer that we might think, even if it turned out wrong and got erased on the surface. •

A still of the six-channel video installation «Realism» from 2017 by Polish artist Artur Żmijewski (*1966) shown as part the 14th edition of documenta at Neue Neue Galerie (Neue Hauptpost) in Kassel

A still of the six-channel video installation «Realism» from 2017 by Polish artist Artur Żmijewski (*1966) shown as part the 14th edition of documenta at Neue Neue Galerie (Neue Hauptpost) in Kassel

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Life in Franconia as seen through a window of Kunstpalais Erlangen which shows an exhibition by Juergen Teller | Photo: Norbert Bayer
Archeological & Archival, Photography, Visual & Iconic

Enjoy your life, Juergen Teller & Franconia!

Juergen Teller, who opens a show in April at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, was born in Erlangen where he has an exhibition at Kunstpalais Erlangen which is still on display there. 
⠀
It’s an intimate show dedicated to his mother Irene, his family and friends and the area he comes from: Franconia. The exhibition is defined by a simple set-up which underlines the private and easy-going approach of both the artworks and the show. It touches on all the different fields Juergen Teller works in: Fashion photography, personal portraits, conceptual works and the mise-en-scène of stars.

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Archeological & Archival, Photography, Visual & Iconic

My view on art & culture in March 2017 in my private pictures & meandering words

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The entrance to the stage workshop of Volksbühne in Weissensee

The entrance to the stage workshop of Volksbühne in Weissensee

This is the entrance to the stage workshop of Volksbühne in Weissensee. ⠀
Volksbühne – so many memories are connected with it. ⠀
The fist time I was there was for the concert of the back then new band Tocotronic in August 1996. I didn’t live in Berlin and the internet as we know it now didn’t exist yet, so we just tried naively to get rest-tickets. Luckily it worked out and I didn’t have a reason to complain like the title of their back then just released album «Wir Kommen Um Uns Zu Beschweren» said it.
Many evenings to be remembered followed there. Also some sleep is envolved here, that comes with theatre productions lasting five hours or more. But over the years I got trained. How good the training was will be tested when I will hopefully get to see the latest staging of «Faust» by Frank Castorf which I was told goes at least for 8 if not for 10 hours even. ⠀
I will deeply miss the challenges the Volkbühne put me in – if the rumours of the announced changes will really become true. ⠀
In January I called them, because I had to cancel a ticket. The music they played while I was on hold was the word «Danke», sung by the choir of Volksbühne in a version of a German Christian hymn written by Martin Gotthard Schneider and one of the first songs in the genre later called new spiritual song. With the lines missing the message it seems to say: «Thanks for nothing!» – and rightly so, because we have to say thank you! ⠀
DANKE, VOLKSBÜHNE! • ⠀

«Radula» from Stockholm played in Berlin's formerly squatted club «Ausland» in Prenzlauer Berg

«Radula» from Stockholm played in Berlin’s formerly squatted club «Ausland» in Prenzlauer Berg

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Archeological & Archival, Photography, Visual & Iconic

My view on art & culture in February 2017 in my private pictures & meandering words

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Hanne Lippard's exhibition «Flesh» at KW Berlin

Hanne Lippard’s exhibition «Flesh» at KW Berlin

Finally I made it into the exhibition of Norwegian artist Hanne Lippard at KW Berlin called «Flesh», which was run over at the opening weekend and which is set in an attic style space reachable though a spiral staircase located in the center hall. In this environment paved with flesh-coloured carpet banal phrases and self help techniques are bent together by Hanne Lippard to form an acoustic artwork which fills the empty environment with an extra low ceiling in which it is set. Putting words, homonyms and homophones on top of each other she piles up a wall of sound to break through for the visitor. We become the listener to a surrealistic piece which preaches peace and peaks in appeasement, while we stare out of the windows to gaze over the roofs into the lives of the others. «If not now then when?» •

«alien matter», an exhibition as part of the 30th Transmediale-Festival in Berlin – here I am inside the artwork «Video Palace #44 – The Hidden Universe, 2017» by Joep van Liefland | Photo: Unknown helping hand @ HKW – Thank you! ❤

«alien matter», an exhibition as part of the 30th Transmediale-Festival in Berlin – here I am inside the artwork «Video Palace #44 – The Hidden Universe, 2017» by Joep van Liefland | Photo: Unknown helping hand @ HKW – Thank you! ❤

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„Discreet“ von Travis Mathews | Foto: Deias & Ideias Produções Artisticas
Sound & Vision, Visual & Iconic

Reise an die Ränder des Geschehens

In Travis Mathews’ Film «Discreet» ziehen Traumata, die von sexueller Gewalt und Alt-Right-Einstellungen herrühren, weite Kreise bei den Opfern.

Fett brutzelt der Bacon zu Beginn von Travis Mathews neuem Film «Discreet» in der Pfanne. Im Lauf des Films wird sich herausstellen, dass der umherziehende Alex (gespielt von Jonny Mars) ihn für seinen früheren Vergewaltiger John (Bob Swaffer), der jetzt Pflegefall ist, zubereitet. Viel ist passiert seit seiner Jugendzeit, man erfährt es aus den disparaten Schnipseln, die der Regisseur uns in klar strukturierten Bildern liefert.

Alex, der in seinem Van umher zieht und die von der Moderne geprägte amerikanische Landschaft mit ihren Autobahnen und Brücken in glatten Bildern abfilmt, erfährt erst Jahrzehnte später von seiner alkoholabhängigen Mutter, dass sein Vergewaltiger noch lebt. Sie hatte ihm erzählt, dieser sei tot, in der Hoffnung, er könne seine Missbrauchserfahrung besser hinter sich lassen. Doch leider ist dies nicht derart einfach und Alex leidet noch immer an posttraumatischen Belastungsstörungen. Er findet in den Videos von Mandy (Atsuko Okatsuka) und ihres Unternehmens «Gentle Rythms» Zuspruch, in denen sie mit ihrer zarten, über absurde Geräusche gelegten Stimme positive Banalitäten wispert, wie z.B.: «It’s o.k., it’s gonna be o.k.».

Aufgrund seines neuen Kenntnisstands möchte er jedoch endlich alles komplett verarbeiten und fährt zu seinem Vergewaltiger, einem mittlerweile wehrlosem Greis, gibt sich dem Betreuer gegenüber als Verwandter aus und zieht bei ihm ein. Er nimmt seine Heilung selber in die Hand und konfrontiert sich mit dem Ort des Geschehens und damit seiner eigenen Geschichte. Durch die fehlende professionelle Hilfestellung und Rachetaktiken wird er nun selbst mehrfach zum Täter.

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Werewolf Ashley McKenzie Grassfire Films FB
Sound & Vision, Visual & Iconic

Un­an­ge­kündig­te Züge

Der Film «Werewolf» von der kanadischen Regisseurin Ashley McKenzie skizziert achtsam das Unangekündigte und zeichnet die schleichenden Wandlungen der Protagonisten nach.

Wer mit einem Film über Ex-Junkies nach Berlin kommt, beweist Humor oder Abgebrühtheit – lebt diese Stadt doch vom Mythos des High-Seins und Dabei-Seins und ist verliebt in die zahlreichen Filme darüber. Nur hier bekommt man wie selbstverständlich das paradoxe Unterfangen hin, einen Film (in dem es ebenfalls um Drogenabhängige geht) im Wettbewerb außer Konkurrenz antreten zu lassen.

Die 1984 geborene kanadische Filmemacherin Ashley McKenzie ließ sich jedoch zum Glück davon weder einschüchtern noch beirren und stellte bei der Berlinale in der Reihe «Forum» ihren ersten Langfilm «Werewolf» vor, der bereits den Grand Prix Focus QC/Canada beim Festival du nouveau cinema in Montréal gewonnen hat und unter die zehn besten kanadischen Beiträge beim Toronto International Film Festival kam. Bei ihr geht es jedoch nicht darum, Drogenerfahrungen und Rausch zu verpoppen oder zu verherrlichen, denn bei ihr sind die beiden Protagonisten Nessa (gespielt von Bhreagh MacNeil) und Blaise (Andrew Gillis) bereits in ein Methadonprogramm eingestiegen. Sie leben in einer ländlichen Gegend im Osten Kanadas in einem Wohnwagen im Wald und schlagen sich damit durch, die Vorgärten von Hausbesitzern zu mähen; das dafür nötige Benzin klauen sie aus deren Autos. Somit dreht sich ein Teil des alltäglichen Lebens und des Films um den lebenswichtigen Rasenmäher, der am Laufen gehalten werden muss, und die ermüdenden Anbiederungsversuche an die Einwohner, damit das Überleben gesichert ist. «Sie würden nicht einen Tag in meinem Leben aushalten!» schreit denn auch Blaise einmal bei der Methadonvergabe einen der Apotheker an.

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Since yesterday on my classic iPod (yes, I'm still using these devices) and already in heavy rotation: The first EP of EXIT SOMEONE from Montréal formed by the power couple June Moon and Thom Gillies of Vesuvio Solo. Their stylish release with cosy sounds is called «Dry Your Eyes» – some comfort is definitely needed these days. Or as they express it: «Love In The Days Of Rage». EXIT SOMEONE just gets to the point!
Since yesterday on my classic iPod (yes, I’m still using these devices) and already in heavy rotation: The first EP of EXIT SOMEONE from Montréal formed by the power couple June Moon and Thom Gillies of Vesuvio Solo. Their stylish release with cosy sounds is called «Dry Your Eyes» – some comfort is definitely needed these days. Or as they express it: «Love In The Days Of Rage». EXIT SOMEONE just gets to the point!
«Belong anywhere» is the name of an exhibition curated by Hate Magazin in cooperation with Anna Gien and Nina Hollensteiner and it's displayed at ACUD Studio and an AirBnB appartment – the slogan of the brand marks the title. The super young curators blend the gallery space together with the private sphere and ask about the sellout of the artist and the burnout of private and public economic strategies. It's up to the visitor to decide which of the exhibited pieces belong to which category and to which to turn the attention to. In the image the post-it is officially the artwork by Jessica Mester who put a series througout the space. But if you want to define it the other way round and say that exactly this post-it doesn't belong to the series – who in a totally borderless economic system, a trait which defines the art market also, would say you're not free to do so? Or to claim that the flat wasn't an AirBnB apartment even...
«Belong anywhere» is the name of an exhibition curated by Hate Magazin in cooperation with Anna Gien and Nina Hollensteiner and it’s displayed at ACUD Studio and an AirBnB appartment – the slogan of the brand marks the title. The super young curators blend the gallery space together with the private sphere and ask about the sellout of the artist and the burnout of private and public economic strategies. It’s up to the visitor to decide which of the exhibited pieces belong to which category and to which to turn the attention to. In the image the post-it is officially the artwork by Jessica Mester who put a series througout the space. But if you want to define it the other way round and say that exactly this post-it doesn’t belong to the series – who in a totally borderless economic system, a trait which defines the art market also, would say you’re not free to do so? Or to claim that the flat wasn’t an AirBnB apartment even…
«Canova und der Tanz» @ Bode Museum Berlin - Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757 - 1822) made three variations of dancers which are on display together for the first time in Berlin's Bode Museum. He had a passion for dance and was sick of gravity – so let's dance and lift our souls!
«Canova und der Tanz» @ Bode Museum Berlin – Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757 – 1822) made three variations of dancers which are on display together for the first time in Berlin’s Bode Museum. He had a passion for dance and was sick of gravity – so let’s dance and lift our souls!
AFTER THEORY?! Philipp Felsch takes us on a powerful and entertaining trip through West-Germany's post-war theory-landscape told along the history of micro-publisher Merve Verlag. A must read, especially for those who know Heidi Paris of Merve Verlag as professor at Kunsthochschule Kassel – so little did we understand back then!
AFTER THEORY?! Philipp Felsch takes us on a powerful and entertaining trip through West-Germany’s post-war theory-landscape told along the history of micro-publisher Merve Verlag. A must read, especially for those who know Heidi Paris of Merve Verlag as professor at Kunsthochschule Kassel – so little did we understand back then!
ART BREAK - Gemäldegalerie Berlin
ART BREAK – Gemäldegalerie Berlin
«Tanzt, tanzt, sonst sind wir verloren!» Byebye Pina Bausch, danke Martin-Gropius-Bau!
«Tanzt, tanzt, sonst sind wir verloren!» Byebye Pina Bausch, danke Martin-Gropius-Bau!
60 YEARS «INTERBAU 1957» – Reconstruction Hansaviertel
60 YEARS «INTERBAU 1957» – Reconstruction Hansaviertel
Lucia Moholy @ Bauhaus Archiv Berlin | «Die Fotografie ist weiblich» – as Gunter Sachs put it – that's also true for the photographic style of Bauhaus. Lucia Maholy (1894–1989) captured the spirit of the Bauhaus – her photos of the Bauhaus buildings and products shaped the image of the institution. She was also one of the first to write a history of photography for its centenary, published by Penguin in 1939.
Lucia Moholy @ Bauhaus Archiv Berlin | «Die Fotografie ist weiblich» – as Gunter Sachs put it – that’s also true for the photographic style of Bauhaus. Lucia Maholy (1894–1989) captured the spirit of the Bauhaus – her photos of the Bauhaus buildings and products shaped the image of the institution. She was also one of the first to write a history of photography for its centenary, published by Penguin in 1939.
R.I.P. JOHN BERGER (1926 - 2017) | «How to resist a state of forgetfullness» in: John Berger: «Ein Selbstportrait», 2016 published by Berliner Festspiele in Edition 21
R.I.P. JOHN BERGER (1926 – 2017) | «How to resist a state of forgetfullness» in: John Berger: «Ein Selbstportrait», 2016 published by Berliner Festspiele in Edition 21
Still a great overview: "World In Your Hand - On The Everyday Culture Of The Mobile Phone" published 2010 by Spector Books
Still a great overview: „World In Your Hand – On The Everyday Culture Of The Mobile Phone“ published 2010 by Spector Books
After the 9th Berlin Biennial art institution KW Berlin not only starts into a new season, but into a new era: Krist Gruijthuijsen is following Ellen Blumenstein as new director and he will also curate himself together with a team. As kick-off he invited the artists Ian Wilson and Hanne Lippard and arranged a bunch of performances all through the opening weekend. On top of that Pogo Bar, which was located in the cellar of KW during the 1990ies, will be revived as «Bob’s Pogo Bar» and provide weekly events – predictably the art scene and the incrowd will flock to it.
After the 9th Berlin Biennial art institution KW Berlin not only starts into a new season, but into a new era: Krist Gruijthuijsen is following Ellen Blumenstein as new director and he will also curate himself together with a team. As kick-off he invited the artists Ian Wilson and Hanne Lippard and arranged a bunch of performances all through the opening weekend. On top of that Pogo Bar, which was located in the cellar of KW during the 1990ies, will be revived as «Bob’s Pogo Bar» and provide weekly events – predictably the art scene and the incrowd will flock to it.
Exhibition of the month: «Nach Berlin» by Candida Höfer at nbk Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. The exhibition of photographs and projections mark a restart for the well-known photographer who is notorious for shooting libraries and other spledid interiors of all kinds, because for this exhibiton she left behind her well-known territories to strive for the yet unknown aspects of her work – at least for her audience. She magically develops a nostalgic fascination for textures and structures and the subtle rhythm of overlaying images of public and semi-public spaces seem to rhyme like the lines of a poem. Her conceptual images put her into the role of a Walter Benjamin-like «flanêuse» and us in the position of the strolling voyeur. The space-place relationship developed by her photographs takes us on a trip deep into the center of the constantly transforming ephemeral and the futile inbetween. Therefore «Nach Berlin» («To Berlin» or «After Berlin») can also be understood in a temporary aspect – and mark a transition for all of us.
Exhibition of the month: «Nach Berlin» by Candida Höfer at nbk Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. The exhibition of photographs and projections mark a restart for the well-known photographer who is notorious for shooting libraries and other spledid interiors of all kinds, because for this exhibiton she left behind her well-known territories to strive for the yet unknown aspects of her work – at least for her audience. She magically develops a nostalgic fascination for textures and structures and the subtle rhythm of overlaying images of public and semi-public spaces seem to rhyme like the lines of a poem. Her conceptual images put her into the role of a Walter Benjamin-like «flanêuse» and us in the position of the strolling voyeur. The space-place relationship developed by her photographs takes us on a trip deep into the center of the constantly transforming ephemeral and the futile inbetween. Therefore «Nach Berlin» («To Berlin» or «After Berlin») can also be understood in a temporary aspect – and mark a transition for all of us.
60 YEARS «INTERBAU 1957» – Reconstruction Hansaviertel
60 YEARS «INTERBAU 1957» – Reconstruction Hansaviertel

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Archeological & Archival, Photography, Visual & Iconic

My view on art & culture in Januar 2017 through my private pictures

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