If you have chosen - perhaps due to theoretical suspicions - not to imagine the fourth dimension before now, Shin il Kim still offers some insights into a more reserved, but equally challenging interim sphere. The artist, who was born in South Korea and lives in New York, actually works on the 2 1/2th dimension, using this term to refer to an oscillation between the second and third dimension that one might best call a transitional stage between drawing and three-dimensionality.

Kim produces this missing link between the dimensions by pressing colourless outlines in layers of paper and subsequently filming them on video. What emerges is a picture puzzle composed of the visible and the invisible, which is certainly suited to art-historical analysis. Inspired by the figurative drama in Raffael's "Transfiguration of Christ", Kim constructs models of the main figures of the painting in order to set them in motion, transpose them into the video medium, project them back onto paper, and finally to translate them into video loops that he then stages as a walk-in spatial installation. In this way, a critical stocktaking of belief and superstition, concept and authority emerges - almost as a side effect.



The Transubstantiation, Studio 1,
January 27th – February 12th 2006,
Opening: Thursday, 26. January 2006, 19 h

Lucas Lenglet’s spatial scenarios often remind us of operative base camps, protective set-ups for use in case of catastrophe, or temporary military hides - or they display the materials and objects characteristic of such places. With "tools for rescue/tools for hiding", Lucas Lenglet has now realised an installation filling an entire room of the Künstlerhaus; the visitor enters it as if stepping onto a stage.

Inspired, among other things, by Goya’s painting, "El incendio de noche" (1793), which shows the horrified inhabitants of a city or village running to escape a fire at night, Lenglet has created a formalised topography over the extensive area of Studio 2. This assembles tools and instruments for protection and rescue in the form of various objects and architectonic structures.

"tools for rescue/tools for hiding" almost appears to be a response to an event that has already taken place; Lenglet’s strategy is the "formalisation of violence" (Suzanne van den Ven).

Examining the arrangement in Studio 2, the viewer may fall prey to doubts: Lenglet’s protective devices certainly give the impression that they could unexpectedly transform, at any time, into obstacles - becoming a trap for all those who have entrusted themselves to them. Lenglet consciously refrains from any political or moral statement, merely collecting together instruments and tools in order to demonstrate the fragility and relativity of concepts such as "security". Those with power over its tools are always the people to define the meaning of security and to determine those who may enjoy it.



tools for rescue / tools for hiding, Studio 2,
January 27th – February 12th 2006,
Opening: Thursday, 26. January 2006, 19 h

Statements on the current situation in Bethanien and the cultural situation in Kreuzberg by Stéphane Bauer, Leonie Baumann, Gerrit Gohlke, Matthias Mrowka, Christoph TannertStart: 6.30 pm


Open Studios:

With Charif Benhelima (B), Michel de Broin (CAN), Erla S. Haraldsdóttir (IS), Claire Healy (AUS), Yoshiaki Kaihatsu (JP), Shin il Kim (ROK), Jannicke Låker (N), Lucas Lenglet (NL), Tea Mäki-pää (FIN), Ahmad Motiee (IRN), Jesper Nordahl (S), Arturas Raila (LT), Egill Saebjörnsson (IS), David Schutter (USA), Sancho Silva (P), Althea Thauberger (CAN) und Kerry Tribe (USA) erwar-ten Sie am 26. Januar 2006 ab 19 Uhr (1. +2. OG).


Live DJs: Harald Fricke – High points from 50 years of electro-acoustics / Christoph Tannert – International progressive rock of the 70s / Egill Saebjörnsson - From Black Mountain to African Field, recordings + live

7 - 10 pm, 1st + 2nd floor, DJ programme from 9 pm



Open Studios 2006, Foyer,
November 0th – November 0th ,
Opening: Thursday, 26. January 2006, 19 h