At Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Mladen Bizumic is showing two acts of a "Spatial Opera", which relates facets of contemporary geopolitics to architectural phenomena.
The production presents contributions by other artists, musicians, theorists, and - in one case - his mother. In Berlin, Bizumic also follows his principle of referring to the urban environment and the history of the place where he is living and working. "How If - A Translation In III Acts" makes the area between Künstlerhaus Bethanien and PROGRAM, the location for the third act of the opera in Berlin’s Invalidentraße, into an integral component of the project.

"ACT I Freud Museum (for her) 2006-2007" consists of a glass showcase containing fragments from various buildings in Vienna, accompanied by a piano piece and a “psychoanalytical poem” written by the artist’s mother. "ACT II Sister Cities of Berlin (Paris) 2007" is a video installation showing Paris street lights, seen through the glass door of a building as if through a distorting prism, while a voice from the off tells a story about the Paris suburb Le Kremlin-Bicetre, later switching to an interview with two French artists who live there. Finally "ACT III", which Bizumic is showing at PROGRAM, is a multi-channel video project on which the artist has been working since 2004; in this, an image of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and one of an avalanche on Mount Cook in New Zealand merge into a constantly metamorphosing Rorschach blot, thus reflecting UNESCO’s cultural policy.



How If - A Translation in III Acts, Studio 2,
March 30 – April 15 2007,
Opening: Thursday, 29. March 2007, 19 h

Act III at PROGRAM: Initiative for Art + Architecture Collaborations, Invalidenstrasse 115, Berlin-Mitte

Takahiro Suzuki has been running his IKIRO project for ten years now: day after day, he writes the Japanese word "Ikiro", a rough equivalent to "live!", in various contexts ranging from museums to public space. Takahiro Suzuki has already travelled to numerous countries with this project, writing his "IKIRO" in places as diverse as temples in Nepal and galleries in New York. The imperative word "live!" is both a challenge to the reader and a form of personal summons for the artist, which he passes on to his audience. Takahiro Suzuki has now declared the "IKIRO" project his life’s project, and it will continue until his death.

Site-specific characteristics also flow into Suzuki’s "IKIRO" performances and installations. For the presentation in Studio 1, for example, he has produced a large-format "IKIRO" painting using dark soil that he dug himself from the park area in front of the Bethanien building. At the same time, he combines the changing history of his exhibition location at Berlin’s Mariannenplatz with a visual documentation of his life’s project "IKIRO" – a combination of opposites and parallel realities that become one during the daily practice of the exhibition: the artist will write the word "IKIRO" on one sheet of rice paper after another, using brush and Indian ink; in this way, his installation will continue to grow with every day of the exhibition.



IKIRO - Be alive, Studio 1,
March 30 – April 15 2007,
Opening: Thursday, 29. March 2007, 19 h

Nicolás Robbio uses simple things for his work. A table, a chair and a range of everyday objects become "objects of general knowledge" - transformed into metaphors of meaning. The general quality of the objects is not their objective, everyday nature, but the way that they bear universal meaning above and beyond the boundaries of time and space. The artist deconstructs his objects into the fine, multiple and mobile elements from which they are composed. He takes them apart as if attempting to discover exactly what constitutes the object’s innermost essence. This approach helps him to make clear to the viewer that it is impossible to be aware of objects in their full complexity, whether they are seen or merely imagined. Robbio employs a wide range of artistic means with apparent ease. He is now showing a part of his work, encompassing photography, video, drawing and site-specific installations, in Studio 3 of the Künstlerhaus.



Avalanche, Studio 3,
March 30 – April 15 2007,
Opening: Thursday, 29. March 2007, 19 h

From March 17th to 28th 2007 gallery Invaliden1 in Brunnenstraße 22 in Berlin will show another solo exhibition of Nicolás Robbio.