on view

PRESS RELEASE

on view: students of UdK Berlin – a curated selection of class Prof. Valérie Favre and Prof. Ai Weiwei

exhibition 14.9. – 5.11.2016
opening Wednesday 14 September 2016, 7 – 9 pm
performance Handeln ist sterben lernen #IV by Simon Pfeffel (Concept)
and Katja Goetz 7 – 8 pm

We are delighted to present on view: 9 talents of UdK Berlin:
6 students of class Valérie Favre and 3 of class Ai Weiwei were selected to create a common exhibition concept. 9 young talents – students and master class students – who provide a fresh and personal view on their art.

The exhibition starts with Phillip Langer’s Liebesbrief, a scupltural wall work which exposes these emotional moments somewhere between conviction, hesitation and affection. Maybe the relation is already over, the memory is fading – the Liebesbrief (love letter) serves as the only material manifestation of the experienced chaos of emotions: „Into the uncertain, stimulating, folding, painting (over), moistening, burning, taking a break, falling in love, hating, sleeping – everything on the material.“

On the right side there is Maria Martini’s painting Walden II – influenced by actual happenings and impressions the artist creates pictorial parallel worlds that invite to get involved, to forget conventions and traditions and to follow the abstract lightness.

Just in front – maybe visible only at the second glance – you find Philipp Köstermenke’s work Heizkörper 1: 16 canvases, screws and dowels look surprisingly similar to a real radiator. In this way, Köstermenke ironically connects the canvas as the classic image carrier to a supposed functionality. And to emphasize once again: „The radiator doesn’t really work.“

In the next room, just above Philipp Köstermenke’s Heizkörper 2, and also in the central room, you find hi scopex and o.t. by Felix Schröder. Both works balance between photographic imagery, drawing and collage – and connect these disciplines in an unbiased, personal and humorous way.

Examination of the material and questioning of traditional methods are also visible in Paul Bendau’s works Wäsche 10 and Wäsche 3. For the artist, the painted canvases is not the result but a starting point: He takes them off the stretchers and washes them at 90 – 95° in a washing machine. Layers of paint get washed away, only traces of the former painting remain.

In the central room Karolin Schwab’s Folded Circle Painting (Black) attracts the view. Another work of her can be found in the last room. Both works are characterized by the questioning, folding, shaping and altering of the canvas as the classic image carrier and give an impression of the possibilities of form creation in contemporary painting.

On the right side there is the photgraphic series Muttertochter by Fee Hollmig: What the title suggests, emerges at a second glance. The portraits are composed of two halfs of different faces. Mother and daughter allowing views on the traces of time. What surprises: two of the depicted daughters are sisters – despite the different impression, one of the halfs of the faces belongs to the same mother.

Also Johannes Fuchs works on the topic of childhood, especially on memories: His blankets set in an installative order, are embroidered with colorful fabric and motives that remind former cuddle blankets und create an ironic moment between past and present.

Memory is also the subject of the poetic works of Liang Zhipeng. His wooden wall sculpture In Case of Missing is in its form an allegory of materiality (the bristles oft he brush are made of finest clean coal) and supposed functionality.

Zhipeng’s installation consisting of Metal Mental, Cube Dot and the photographic work Zuckerschrift in the back part oft he room questions the actual methods of documentation and archiving and the enormous volume of data in the digital era. Sugar crystals, that have been placed and photographed by the artist over a long period of time, resemble in their singularity and totality a cryptic font.

on view: is already the second show of our exhibition series with young artists of the Berlin art academies. The series will be continued, annually changing between Universität der Künste and Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin.

The performance Handeln ist sterben lernen #IV of the artists Simon Pfeffel (concept) will take place in the gallery’s courtyard at the exhibition opening at 7 pm.

Further dates for the Berlin Art Week:

Thu 15.9. POSITIONS BERLIN Art Fair 6 – 7pm (Claudia de la Torre)
Fr 16.9. POSITIONS BERLIN Art Fair 6 – 7pm (Katja Goetz)
Sun 18.9. LAGE EGAL Raum für aktuelle Kunst Danziger Str. 145, 10407 Berlin, 3 – 4pm, (Katja Goetz)

Press contact: Miriam Schwarz [email protected]
Opening hours: Tue - Fr 12 am – 6 pm, Sa 12 am - 4 pm and by arrangement