2 Exhi­bi­tons – What would I die for and Spielraum

Inspi­red by the Ber­lin Gal­lery Weekend 2016, gal­lery owner Isa­bel Bern­hei­mer was pre­sen­ting two par­al­lel exhibitions.

What Would I Die For

is a repre­sen­ta­ti­on of the ulti­ma­te sacri­fice someone would die for. The exhi­bit fea­tures works of five con­tem­po­ra­ry artists pre­pared to take place during Gal­lery Weekend.

Jan Kuck

The­se include the XXL-sized glass Con­su­mers’ Cock­tail by Jan Kuck. The for­mer phi­lo­so­phy stu­dent and now mul­ti­me­dia artist pres­ents a gran­dio­se com­po­si­ti­on that con­ta­ins repro­duc­tions of luxu­ry cars, bran­ded wat­ches and Nes­pres­so cap­su­les, thus embo­dy­ing eph­emeral objects that an avera­ge modern day con­su­mer would die for. Kuck has always been sen­si­ti­ve to the topics of con­sump­ti­on and over­pro­duc­tion, and will take part in the coming Archi­tec­tu­re Bien­na­le in Venice with a maje­s­tic car­pet instal­la­ti­on addres­sing the­se topics.

Chris­to­pher Thomas

On the other side from the Con­su­mers Cock­tail, renow­ned pho­to­grapher Chris­to­pher Tho­mas cho­se for this show an unu­su­al pho­to­graph of a giant breast-sized model that under­lines the abun­dance of sexu­al con­tent in today’s society.

Gos­ia Warrink

Of gre­at inte­rest and aes­the­tic is the high-end lip­stick sculp­tu­re pre­sen­ted by Gos­ia War­rink. The Ber­lin desi­gner visua­li­zes the aspect of modern femin­in­i­ty – a lar­ge sto­mach fil­led with the amount of lip­stick a woman today con­su­mes in her life­time. The kit­chen sca­les show the weight of the lip­stick con­su­med – about six pounds (2.7 kg). Ano­ther work pre­sen­ted by War­rink, Cake Chan­de­lier is a com­bi­na­ti­on of steel cake lay­ers, an alu­mi­num bak­ing form, a power cord and elec­tric bulbs.

Andre­as Blank

Sculp­tor Andre­as Blank pres­ents his inno­va­ti­ve visi­ons in a room of objects made enti­re­ly of marb­le. The instal­la­ti­on con­sists of two tower-like con­s­truc­tions made of trans­port cra­tes, palet­tes, and pedes­tals that are put upon each other at the door ent­rance of the room and resem­ble a gate. The view­er is asto­nis­hed by the maje­s­tic size of this gate, remin­ding one of a small ver­si­on of the Ishtar Gate. After a clo­ser look it appears that the gate is made of ordi­na­ry objects rela­ted to the trans­port of art that are not art its­elf. Howe­ver, in this case they actual­ly act as art pie­ces made of the most high qua­li­ty marb­le and alabaster.

Alex­an­der Deuble

Final­ly, the­re is Alex­an­der Deub­le who gives tri­bu­te to the end­less the­mes of love, money and future with his LED light-objects. His work (S)triptychon uses the his­to­ri­cal for­mat of the Midd­le Ages and puts it into cur­rent con­text. Three inter­ac­ti­ve LED light objects react to sound. The artist was inspi­red to crea­te this pie­ce by light instal­la­ti­ons in strip clubs. He refers to the essay Strip-Tease writ­ten by French wri­ter Roland Bar­thes in 1954 in his book, Mytho­lo­gies. Deub­le expres­ses the idea of every artist strip­ping his soul when his work and ide­as embo­di­ed in it put onto public dis­play. In the modern con­text the clas­si­cal for­mat of tri­pty­chon turns into (S)triptychon. Each object has its logos, a star, a heart and a dol­lar sign that are only visi­ble if one approa­ches the objects closer.

SPIELRAUM

Danie­le Sigalot

The solo show SPIELRAUM by Blue & Joy artist Danie­le Sig­alot occu­p­ies four rooms of the agen­cy. The Ita­li­an artist pres­ents some of his new signi­fi­cant art­work. A monu­men­tal con­cen­tric struc­tu­re of alu­mi­num that gives the name to the exhi­bi­ti­on wel­co­mes the visi­tors in the main room. The SPIELRAUM sculp­tu­re is sus­pen­ded from the cei­ling and, loo­king like a reinter­pre­ted chan­de­lier, illu­mi­na­tes the room with its more than a thousand colorful paper pla­nes, thus it is Sigalot’s famous signa­tu­re pie­ce. The other three rooms depict the artist’s ico­nic works such as the three open let­ters to the art, to the future and to the desti­ny. The totem paper-towers of good and bad ide­as, “a refe­rence to crea­ti­vi­ty at all cos­ts, which often fails to pro­du­ce the desi­red out­co­mes,” says cura­tor, Valen­ti­na Galos­si. In the last room is a soon-to-be tim­e­l­ess instal­la­ti­on, “This Work Will Last a Thousand Years.”

A sepa­ra­te room in the agen­cy will also show­ca­se the works of artists Sebas­ti­an Klug, Mila­na Schoel­ler, Tat­ja­na Naff von Sass and Ria Kebu­ria, Johan­na Fünfrock.

The art pie­ces that we fea­tured for the Gal­lery Weekend are gre­at remin­ders of the trap of exces­si­ve con­su­me­rism we as human beings are easy to fall vic­tims for,

says Isa­bel Bern­hei­mer. “It is our inten­ti­on to give young aspi­ring artists the oppor­tu­ni­ty to depict absur­di­ties of our socie­ty in their art and make visi­tors con­scious about it.”

Under the mot­to “I live and brea­the art,” the agen­cy and its lea­der, Isa­bel Bern­hei­mer, coope­ra­tes with up-and-coming as well as estab­lished artists crea­ting inno­va­ti­ve show con­cepts while rely­ing on years of expe­ri­ence and artis­tic know-how.

Info
Ber­lin Gal­lery Weekend
April 27 – May 31
Tues­day – Satur­day 12:00 – 19:00
Mon­bi­joustr. 2, 10117 Berlin

The artic­le in German