Gallery Weekend: House of Children becomes House of Art
3 May 2009, 11 am – 6 pm – seven Berlin galleries invite seven partners into the architectural icon built by Hermann Henselmann on Strausberger Platz
Strausberger Platz 19
D-10243 Berlin
www.7mal2.com
7x2 is a special exhibition project during this year's Gallery Weekend in Berlin. On 3 May from 11 am to 6 pm seven young galleries each invite an international or national partner to exhibit together on seven floors of the former House of Children on Strausberger Platz. Constructed between 1952 and 1953, the building was planned by architect Hermann Henselmann for the former showcase street of socialism, Stalinallee (now Karl-Marx-Allee) in East Berlin. Due to its representative design and its detailed interiors, this communist tower is today considered a unique example of Socialist Realism.
The following Berlin galleries and their partners will show here for a one-day event on 3 May 2009:
Croy Nielsen – Tulips & Roses, Vilnius
Galerie Ben Kaufmann – Tres Cruces, Montevideo
Galerie Sandra Bürgel – BolteLang Zürich
Lüttgenmeijer – Vessies de Lonny, Los Angeles
PSM – Katharina Bittel, Hamburg
Sommer & Kohl – Francesca Minini, Mailand
Tanya Leighton – White Columns, New York
Croy Nielsen has invited Tulips & Roses from Vilnius, presenting a young Lithuanian artist, Liudvikas Buklys. Buklys' central piece is an 18th century painting exhibited in a cardboard shipping box. This painting, a portrait of an unidentified nobleman, comes from Buklys' father's collection. The work drifted into Lithuania sometime in the early 90s – a time when a lot of valuables were conveyed in the region without any real regulations and inspection. Now this uncertain painting is a tangible document without a clear historical origin. Croy Nielsen presents a new sculpture by Thomas Kratz as well as a performance by Nina Beier and Marie Lund entitled "The History of Visionaries": a young, newly reformed socialist is paid a salary to be present at different times during the exhibition to discuss his conviction with any person who might approach him. Upon arrival he will hang his jacket on a clothing hook, a sign next to it explaining that he is identified by the matching trousers he wears.
Galerie Ben Kaufmann presents two British artists – Ben Cottrell (*1972 in Cardiff) and Robert Orchardson (*1976 in Glasgow). Cottrell's collages, paintings and sculptures are a play between the conscious and the unconscious. He creates fictions and myths, which operate both physically and psychologically and uses worlds of horror and fantasy, which he projects onto ideas of nature. Orchardson recalls utopian tendencies in his abstract sculptures. Symbols from science fiction and futurist design belong imperatively to his practice. Tres Cruces, an artist collective from Montevideo in Uruguay, shows the film "X". The title is to be understood as a crossing, and therefore one sees images of street crossings, housing blocks and images from nature. Flashbacks and montages, which are always fragmentary, show a metaphor for the breakages in global value systems.
Sandra Bürgel presents with Raphael Danke, Alex Frost, Martina Heinz, Jean-Michel Wicker and Klaus Winichner a part of her gallery programme. On April 30, the artist duo Instituto Divorciado invites to the exhibition "We improve your work" in the gallery space. Complementary to this group show that deals with the possibility of improvement of art, the artists of 7x2 will take measures for beautification, or, in other words, make arrangements that represent wealth. BolteLang from Zurich will show two artists – Dagmar Heppner and Vanessa Billy. Dagmar Heppner investigates the position of the individual in society. Foremost she is interested in the moment when the personality of the individual breaks down. Heppner finds furniture-like objects and walls to show this process. Vanessa Billy's works float in a space between matter, spirit and words. Her materials betray differing origins. Billy's concern is with balance and gravity, with attempting to stay in position.
Lüttgenmeijer will show a new sculpture by Jason Dodge. It deals with a ten-year penpalship between two men from Austria and Germany. In it, Dodge sees physical tangencies, an architecture of understanding. Searching for the emotional line between both letter writers is the essence of the work. Vessies de Lonny from Los Angeles bring the Irish artist Aaron Pasternak to Berlin. Born 1980 in Limerick, he is raised in an anarchist commune. Later he was pulled into organising an anti-capitalist demonstration against the Bank of Ireland. When Pasternak designed the poster for the demonstration, he was discovered by Laurence Weiner urging him to become an artist.
The galleries Katharina Bittel and PSM have found an appropriate link in Oystein Aasan. He will include works by Nathalie Czech and Max Frisinger (Bittel) and Sophie Erlund and Daniel Jackson (PSM) into the presentation of his display units. Aasan is known for his thorough research into picture archives and how he organises found material into new display forms.
On their floor, Sommer & Kohl and Francesca Minini will show two young Italian artists. In her films and collages, Deborah Ligorio (*1972 in Brindisi) addresses the misunderstandings between human beings and natural systems. She deals with fundamental relations between science and philosophy. Riccardo Previdi (*1974 in Milan) develops his own vocabulary from architecture, design, film and history. Revolutionary and utopian ideas, as well as a good dose of humour, play an important role in his installations and objects. Both artists will use the unique locality of the space as a starting point for a spontaneous collaboration experimenting with the presentation of their works.
Tanya Leighton introduces the work of Colombian artist Lucas Ospina, who will present several drawings under the title "You Are Insatiable" referring to the Kafka text "Before the Law". (> "What do you still want to know now?" asks the gatekeeper. "You are insatiable.") Finally, White Columns will present a newly commissioned work by the New York-based artist Trisha Donnelly. Over the past two years White Columns has been commissioning artists to make new work on a regular office photocopying machine. The resulting Xerox prints are produced in signed editions. To date fifteen prints have been published with artists including: Wade Guyton, Rita Ackermann, Josh Smith, and many others. White Columns is New York's oldest alternative space, it was founded by the artists Jeffrey Lew and Gordon Matta-Clark. In 2009 White Columns' will celebrate its 40th Anniversary.
Further participating in the project are resident Sammlung Haubrok (exhibition "collected things connected", curated by Jonathan Monk) and graphic design agency Lambl/Homburger (Strausberger Platz 17, "The Telephone Book" USA, 1971). The magazine Texte zur Kunst, whose offices are also located in the building, show their editions (including the most recent ones by Mary Heilman, Seth Price and Franz West) and offer a unique opportunity to see the architecture of the space.
Should you like to receive further information, please do not hesitate to contact the four initiating galleries:
croynielsen@7mal2.com
benkaufmann@7mal2.com
luettgenmeijer@7mal2.com
sommerkohl@7mal2.com
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