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In connection with the Berlin Festival and the Kunstherbst
in Berlin, the Berlin cultural scene is focusing on eastern Europe
this year. With its large retrospective exhibition of the painters’
collective Irwin, Künstlerhaus Bethanien is showing one of
the most interesting standpoints of Slovenian art, and at the same
time one that has been least shown in Germany to date. |
Irwin does not only stand for a highly contentious debate
with the historical experiences, myths and claims to meaning throughout
art history. Irwin is also an embodiment of the "retroprinciple",
a process of montage that plunders the store of material contained
in 19th and 20th century western and eastern European art, and -
in particular - combines motifs from the art of the totalitarian
systems with those of the great avant-garde movements. Thus a fictive
"eastern modernism" is presented within Irwin's ponderous
framework, a modernism whose synthetically constructed interfaces
question the schemata of western art history.
(Opening: 25th September 2003)
www.irwin-retroprincip.de |
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Attila Szücs' painting always has something dreamlike
about it. The objects and scenes depicted may appear vaguely familiar
to the viewer, he may feel he has already experienced the unspectacular
scenes – but they open a speculative sphere to the imagination:
Szücs’ pictures evoke the history of painting in order
to place it - with a more subjective bias - in the viewer’s
hands. As Iván András Bojár points out: "Szücs'
paintings are based on photographs. He finds, collects and investigates
images which interest him, carrying this conserved disquiet about
with him in his memory until suddenly, out of the blue and after
a few sketches, the images allow themselves to be transposed into
painting". "A photo is the mechanical reproduction of
the spectacle of reality. In Szücs’ pictures a selection
takes place, and the interesting elements of this ‘reality-spectacle’
emerge for him."
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"Much as he may
wish to remain true to the mechanical image, the act of painting
brings personal aspects into play. Despite his efforts at realism,
in Szücs' work the image develops into an opinion." (Bojár)
(Opening: 25th September 2003) |
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This year Künstlerhaus Bethanien's stand at
the ART FORUM BERLIN will be staged by Roland Boden, who is presenting
a specially conceived installation, Pizza Cowboy.
Roland Boden, born in 1962, studied at the Technical University
in Dresden. He lives and works as an artist in Berlin and Rome,
where at present he is a fellowship holder at the German Academy
Villa Massimo.
Künstlerhaus Bethanien is grateful to the Philip
Morris art promotion fund, which has kindly sponsored
this year’s participation at ART FORUM 2003.
At our stand, fair visitors also have the opportunity to watch
videos made by the present grant holders of the International
Studio Program and to view any of the numerous recent publications
issued by the Künstlerhaus.
You will find us at Stand 111 in the Palais am Funkturm from
4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on 30th September, and from 12 noon to 8 p.m.
from the 1st to 5th October.
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