János Fodor is a realist - of the brief, self-contained moment. Generally, his films are sequences composed of numerous snapshots pinpointing the unusual in moments of everyday urban life. Fodor develops short clips conveying single ideas, without dwelling for long on formal questions or sentimental observations. Using a combination of irony and sympathy, the artist strolls among urban furnishings and public transport, window displays and signs of all kinds, and so observes the diversity of those who inhabit urban spaces.

"In Fodor's works, reflecting surfaces distort reality in a creative way, leading weather vanes on churches to bend and shimmer, while fluttering plastic packaging - left behind on a row of brand-new street bollards - brings to light a spiritual truth." (M. and R. Fowkes)

János Fodor's exhibition in Studio 3 presents a series of digital snapshots and a collection of found installations, situations and actions, as well as smaller objects, drawings, video and sound. All of these have one common denominator: they have some reference to Berlin, and they are concerned with an investigation into urban space.



Studio Ausstellung/Studio Exhibition, Studio 3,
June 23th – July 9th 2006,
Opening: Thursday, 22. June 2006, 19 h

Since we began advertising exhibitions like consumer goods, art has had to make an effort to look smart. Most recently, for example, the products MOMA and GOYA permeated the market to the same extent as OMO and ARIEL, so that one can almost refer to self-defence when an artist conceals his critical standpoints behind the most matchless of all blockbuster titles: Monet: A Retrospective.

For Serkan Özkaya's subject matter is far from Impressionist painting, but as a critic and analyst of the art business, he knows which key words cause the international exhibition business to respond greedily. Özkaya's sculpture "Goldenboy", which forms the focus of his exhibition in the Künstlerhaus, is a life-size sculpture that appears to be hanging itself, but simultaneously unites the various stages of physical agony. Together with this "Archive of Movements in Time", he is presenting photographs and a video work, which already attracted attention at the 9th Istanbul Biennial.

A double exhibition has thus emerged in Studio 2 on Mariannenplatz: the concrete exhibition that the visitor finds and the exhibition imagined by a harmony-seeking audience that delights in retrospectives when announcements in the events magazines and daily newspapers promise a survey of Monet's oeuvre.



Monet: A Retrospective, Studio 2,
June 23th – July 9th 2006,
Opening: Thursday, 22. June 2006, 19 h

Willoughby Sharp and Pamela Seymour Smith are guests of the Berlin Artists' Programme of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, whose studios are situated at Bethanien. Sharp and Smith are opening their joint exhibition "Together" in Studio 144, parallel to the exhibitions of the International Studio Programme.

The duo has been collaborating artistically since the end of 2003, primarily on projects in the field of digital video and photo production.
For this exhibition, Seymour Smith will be showing a selection of her digital photos for the first time; combined with texts by Flannery O’Connor under the title "Mystery and Manners". She also presents a selection of documentary photographs from the exhibition "Who is Willoughby Sharp?", which was shown at Kunstpunkt Berlin up until 10th June.

Willoughby Sharp presents a sculptural work entitled "Beuys Lives", which includes the DVD of a Beuys interview carried out by Sharp in the year 1971 and the two live rabbits Joseph and Josephine.



Together, Studio 144 , 1. OG,
June 23th – July 9th 2006,
Opening: Thursday, 22. June 2006, 19 h

As from the 23rd June, the exhibition can only be viewed by appointment. Please contact the telephone number 614 88 47 or the artists’ joint e-mail address.