tribute to corners
opening: Friday 13 January 2012 - 6-10 pm
finissage: 27 January 6-10 pm
open: Wed 13 - Sat 20 3-6 pm，Wed 25 - Thu 26 - - 4-7 pm
Belén Alarcón
Miguel Angel Fernandez
Antonio Paucar
Julia Schmid
Curated
by Delphine Marinier
Belén Alarcón, Eclipse, 2011,
Video, 14 minutes 17 seconds
Belén Alarcón is
a Spanish artist living and working in Berlin. Most of her works can be
considered as minimalist explorations of her natural as well as artificial
environment. In her video, she recreates the conditions of the astronomical
phenomenon named eclipse by obscuring progressively the sunlight projected on a
wall through a keyhole.
Not only the
video, but also the installation itself is a metaphor of an eclipse. The
projected image (the celestial object) is temporarily obscured by passing into
the shadow of the spectator’s body who becomes the actor of the suggested
astronomical event. In that way, Belen
proposes a redefinition of the surrounding space: the combination of
the video and the installation generates a new dimension in which the
viewer can get lost.
Miguel Angel Fernandez, Erinnerung und Vergessen,
2012,
Ceramic, bathroom sponge, 6x14,5x10
cm
The soap-dish in ceramic and the
bathroom sponge hung on a corner of the room propose a meditation on memory, be
it individual or collective, and therefore with what defines us as human.
Antonio
Paucar, Die Linie des Weins, 2012
Wine decanter, straws, wine glass,
Dimensions variable
Antonio Paucar was born
in 1973 in Huancayo, Peru. He lives and works in
Berlin. His installation is made of a wine decanter connected to a glass of wine by straws linked together.
This installation may be an allegory of
the human machinery: vital organs are symbolized by the glass and the decanter,
blood by the wine and arteries and veins by the straws.
The channeling of the wine from one
organ to the other thwarts every possibility of escaping from the pre-traced
way of our lives. At the same time, the perpetual filling with wine allows a
continuous renewal and regeneration of the carafe and the fluid - and therefore
of life.
The installation is placed in a corner, symbol of finiteness
and rationality. Corners or right angles, as well as artificial creations such
as Antonio’s installation, are not present in the nature. By associating magical
and rational elements, Antonio explores the fundamental contradictions of human
beings between the primitive and organic necessity of living and the
instinctive fear in view of the irrevocability of death.
Julia
Schmid, Hölderlin. Hyperion, 2011-2012
Paper,
India ink, medium
density fiberboard, Lack, 215x45x30 cm
Julia
Schmid is a German artist based in Berlin. At first glance, her works Überschreibungen
look like dense and indecipherable manuscripts. In the shown work, it is
the result of a tireless exercise of systematic copying word for word and lines
on lines Hölderlin’s famous work Hyperion on parchment paper. Julia’s Überschreibungen
may also be the result of a quest for a deeper affective and intellectual
contact with the original text.
In
his work One-Way Street, Walter
Benjamin mentions the art of copying: “The power of a text is different when it
is read from when it is copied out. […] Only the copied text thus commands the
soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers
the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut
through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows
the movement of his mind in the free flight of daydreaming, whereas the copier
submits it to command. […]”
Regardless of any interpretation, trying to decode Julia’s
manuscript will make the observer experience some renewed
visual sensations and emotions. This fine art piece can be appreciated
primarily or solely for his imaginative, aesthetic, or intellectual effects.
Texts: Delphine Marinier/Peter Krilles
