 In her exhibition „Happy New Year my love“ Maryam Najd shows new works that document her continuing interest in the observation of a constantly changing, often chaotic world - a world that is almost manically concerned to preserve its borders and yet simultaneously obsessed with crossing them. In this sense, it is possible to see Maryam Najd’s „Non Existence Flag Project“ as the visualisation and reinterpretation of a somewhat nostalgic, traditional system of symbols (of sovereignty), which ignores nationalisms and seeks to establish a harmonious, borderless union of art. For her series „Flags“, Najd calculated the percentages of all the colours in the world’s state flags, mixed a palette of colours to match this and used it to produce one monochrome painting per country. In this way, she produced an aesthetically pleasing series of paintings, which invite the viewer to take a new look at the world’s states and their symbols.
Najd’s latest painting „Happy New Year my love“ reveals the simultaneous use of representation and abstraction that is characteristic of her work. It combines the floral symbols - flowers or leaves -, which are each attributed like national flags to a specific country, in order to produce a cheerful, extremely colourful bouquet: also paying reverence, with twinkle in her eye, to the Dutch master Jan Breughel. Another characteristic of Najd’s work is the typical way in which she masks figurative elements using a thin layer of white paint like a veil, thus temporarily hiding things that would otherwise be immediately recognized.
Maryam Najd is a grantee of the Flemish government, Brussels in the context of our International Studio Programme.
http://www.maryamnajd.com
Maryam Najd - „Happy New Year my love“
20th January - 12th February 2012
Tue - Sun, 2 - 7 pm
Opening + OPEN STUDIOS: Thursday, 19th January 2012, 7 - 10 pm |
 ARTISTS TALK
Guido van der Werve and Matt Mullican - "The Art of Endurance" (in Englisch)
2nd February 2012, 7 pm
Künstlerhaus Bethanien GmbH,
In the exhibition spaces - Kottbusser Str. 10,
10999 Berlin
Two artist personalities who deal in different, performance-oriented ways with the topics of melancholy, life, death, the romanticized figure of the creative artist, and the controllable and the uncontrollable meet in Matt Mullican and Guido van der Werve. Perception, self-questioning and insight are the artistic means they employ, adopting “uncharacteristic” methods such as hypnosis or sport.
In conversation with journalist and cultural manager Sabine Kienzer, light will be shed on Mullican’s understanding of the world and his investigations into the relations between reality and our perception of it; also on van der Werve’s self-questioning, in the sense of an enduring interconnection with the world and with ourselves. Afterwards, both artists will be available for a panel discussion with the audience.
Guido van der Werve’s creative work consists of films and videos of performances and actions, for which the artist – who has also completed musical training – often composes special soundtracks. His works deal with a wide range of cultural topics, although the artist always critically and sensitively questions their function as access to an experience of the world. His films are characterised by the artist’s own activities as a performer; he always appears as a protagonist in his works, often exposing himself to tremendous physical hardships and dangers, as in the video film „Number 8: Everything is going to be alright“, for example, in which van der Werve walks across frozen Finnish seas only a few metres in front of a huge icebreaker, or when he completes a 28-mile marathon from a New York gallery to the grave of composer Rachmaninov in order to lay a bouquet of camomile blossoms on it. These are filmic compositions that include lyrical and musical elements and deeply move the viewer with their wonderful, but equally melancholy images.
The exhibition „Emotional Poverty“ shows a selection of the artist’s recent works, including the documentation of van der Werve’s climb up Aconcagua, or „Effugio C, You’re always just half a day a way“, a 12-hour HD-video showing how the artist - wearing running gear - circled his house in the Finnish town of Hassi for twelve hours without interruption (2011).
Guido van der Werve is a grantee of the Mondriaan Fonds (formerly Fonds voor beeldende kunsten, vormgeving en bouwkunst), Amsterdam in the context of our International Studio Programme.
http://www.roofvogel.org
Guido van der Werve - „Emotional Poverty“
20th January - 12th February 2012
Tue - Sun, 2 - 7 pm
Opening + OPEN STUDIOS: Thursday, 19th January 2012, 7 - 10 pm |
 In her previous art work Aleksandra Domanovic has been concerned primarily with the means of distributing and receiving images and information; she has investigated the way in which their tone and significance alters in different types of context and against the background of varying historical conditions. In her works Domanovic created odd-seeming systems of order and associative chains, and disclosed the geopolitical importance of Web domains. Most recently, her main interest has been in the multifaceted way in which image culture and information flows have influenced the post-war landscape in former Yugoslavia. Domanovic's latest works, now being shown in Künstlerhaus Bethanien, are closely connected with her own biography and link many of the artist's childhood memories to political events during that period. Many of the new works also focus directly on the special ties that Yugoslavia always cultivated with the states of the Arab world, illuminating those relations and the associated cultural permeation in the light of the ideological and political changes now occurring in the Maghreb and Middle East: for example, Domanovic has adopted one of the typical anti-fascist monuments of former Yugoslavia and now presents its four raised, abstracted fists in the shape of reliefs, whose surface she has covered in tadelakt, an ancient, traditionally tested means of sealing stone and ceramic surfaces, used especially in the city of Marrakech.
Aleksandra Domanovic is currently participating in our International Studio Programme. http://www.aleksandradomanovic.com
Aleksandra Domanovic
20th January - 12th February 2012
Tue - Sun, 2 - 7 pm
Opening + OPEN STUDIOS: Thursday, 19th January 2012, 7 - 10 pm |
 The exhibition "PH Express" shown by Ayoung Kim focuses on the two-channel video projection "PH Express: Over Tranquil Waters". A selection of other printed and installation works is grouped around this projection. Kim's video is an excursion into the history of the colonial power Great Britain and its presence in Korea in the 1880s, constructed in the style of a theatre play with a satirical tendency: the feverish British efforts to extend their sphere of influence in the Pacific, so forestalling a possible Russian dominance resulted, among other things, in the occupation and fortification of the small Korean Pacific port, Port Hamilton.
In her work Ayoung Kim discloses the wave of political and hectic diplomatic activities in the whole of Europe that followed this situation - while the British garrison in Port Hamilton, far away from those political events, was waiting in a state of quasi-exile and permanent boredom. By using exclusively authentic historical material as the basis for her script, and having characters from different social backgrounds discuss the events in various places, Kim shows the way in which news media functioned in those days and how, for example, a butterfly effect occurred.
But the work can also be understood as a metaphorical commentary on news media in general, as well as suggesting new ways to interpret reporting in the border area between fact and fiction.
Ayoung Kim is a grantee of the Arts Council Korea, Seoul in the context of our International Studio Programme.
Ayoung Kim - "PH Express"
20th January - 12th February 2012
Tue - Sun, 2 - 7 pm
Opening + OPEN STUDIOS: Thursday, 19th January 2012, 7 - 10 pm |
 "Intermezzo Opera" is the first part of a trilogy of works by Rosas Project, a kind of nomadic ensemble that artist Marinella Senatore founded in Berlin in 2011. It brings together professionals and laymen from the fields of dance, music, writing, theatre etc. and offers them a permanent platform for collaboration. "Intermezzo Opera" is a novel opera in the tradition of melodrama, produced as a joint work with participation by more than 240 Berliners, including the works orchestra of the BVG, opera singers, pensioners, students, schools of cosmetics and hairdressing, actors, choreographers and others.
Marinella Senatore involves entire communities in a continuing creative process that she initiates. She has already collaborated with social groups as diverse as retired Sicilian miners and a group of rappers from Harlem. In her projects the viewer becomes a participant, the hierarchy between the artist as author and the audience as recipient is questioned and re-evaluated, the audience becomes the co-author, actor, stage hand, camera team or director etc. By linking personal experiences with collective processes, facts with fiction, history and chronology, Senatore's work promotes the development of an archive of collective narratives, which cause a new type of community spirit to evolve.
Marinella Senatore is currently participating in our International Studio Programme.
Marinella Senatore - "Intermezzo Oper"
20th January - 12th February 2012
Tue - Sun, 2 - 7 pm
Opening + OPEN STUDIOS: Thursday, 19th January 2012, 7 - 10 pm |
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