art laboratory berlin

2012-02-20T13:41:00.003+01:00

Fresh from the Printers!

Controlling_Connectivity: Art, Psychology, and the Internet by Gretta Louw

2012-02-03T11:00:00.004+01:00

plan b ' Navigating the Everyday'

28 January - 11 March, 2012

Navigating the Everyday presents works by plan b, the British artist duo Daniel Belasco Rogers and Sophia New, and is their first solo exhibition in Germany. Since 2003 and 2007 respectively, Daniel and Sophia have been recording every journey they make every day using GPS devices. Additionally all areas of their digital communication (e.g. mobile phone text messages) are evaluated and processed artistically. Their work represents an artistic research by means of a digital archiving of their movements.

Over the years this practice has become part of everyday life, a form of private and personal 'sousveillance', in which the artists generate their own data, thereby reflecting the approach of those private and public agencies who collect all available data.

Since January 2011, the artists have also recorded their moods in writing three times a day. This mood diary enables them to compare their emotional life with the GPS traces of their movements and collected text messages. Presentation of the act of remembrance, in human and machine form, provides material for the two-channel video installation Narrating Our Lines, shown here in full for the first time. The video installation shows the artists viewing an animation of the GPS traces of their movements from 2007. With a temporal distance of three years, they then recall past events of their lives through these traces. On one screen, the viewer can see the artists, while on the other we see what the artists see - the GPS traces of their movement. A striking tension is achieved, while they (re)construct the common narrative of their lives.

In addition to this installation, additional objects are presented, which have resulted from their practice of collecting: an archive of their mobile text messages, lists of personal vocabulary based on the frequency of use, as well as journals of their fluctuating moods arranged by season, time of day and location of each of the artists.

Curated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz.

Special thanks to Peter Vasil.

In cooperation with the Transmediale, Mixed Reality Lab and University of Nottingham

With the generous support of Michael Schröder

Sponsored by Shortcut

2012-01-27T23:58:00.001+01:00

Vernissage of 'Navigating the Everyday' plan b (Sophia New and Daniel Belasco Rogers)
27 January, 2012

All images Copyright Art Laboratory Berlin 2012

Curated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz.

cooperation partners: transmediale; Mixed Reality Lab; University of Nottingham
supported by: degewo; fotoscout; SHORTCUT
special thanks to: Michael Schröder and Peter Vasil

2012-01-24T09:26:00.002+01:00

Time & Technology

plan b (Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers)
Navigating the Everyday

Vernissage: 27 January 2012, 8PM
Exhibition runs from 28 January - 11 March, 2012
Opening Hours: Fri - Sun, 2-6PM
Open also on 1 and 2 February, 2012 (during transmediale)

Vernissage: 27 January 2012, 8PM
Exhibition runs from 28 January - 11 March, 2012
Opening Hours: Fr - Su, 2-6PM
Open also on 1 and 2 February, 2012 (during tranmediale)

In the first half of 2012 Art Laboratory Berlin will present the exhibition Series Time & Technology, a reflection of how the radical technological changes of the last 20 years have influenced our perception of time and how we plan and structure our lives.

Curated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz.

In cooperation with:

2012-01-14T18:10:00.000+01:00

Current Art Practices on Time and Technology

14 January, 2012
3.30PM: Tour of the exhibition Controlling_Connectivity with Gretta Louw and Regine Rapp (curator)
4PM: Artists' talk Current Artistic Practices on Time and Technology with Gretta Louw, plan b (Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers) and Igor Štromajer; moderation: Christian de Lutz (curator).

In connection with the exhibition Controlling_Connectivity by Gretta Louw and the series Time and Technology Art Laboratory Berlin is presenting an artists' talk on the theme current art practices on time and technology featuring Gretta Louw and plan b (Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers) as well as the internet artist Igor Štromajer (www.intima.org). The talk will be introduced and moderated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz.

Controlling_ Connectivity a performance and exhibition by Gretta Louw researches the pervasiveness of internet-based social networking, as well as the obligation and opportunity for constant connection with these platforms as a paradigm for a severe and systematic disruption of normal, socially accepted patterns of life and interpersonal interaction during a self-documented performance.

In her work Louw seeks to explore to what extent an extreme use of the Internet and our belief in the online connectivity can have psychological consequences. Her inquiry questions self-censorship and socially acceptable forms of behaviour in the face of the constant pressure put in place by society's inexorable increasing need for connectivity

Her 10-day online performance (2- 12 November 2011) has laid the basis for an exhibition which includes screen capture footage, photographs and an installation.

* * *
Since 2007 the British artist duo plan b (Sophia New and Daniel Belasco Rogers) have been investigating the archiving of every journey they make using GPS. For a similar amount of time they have collected every SMS text message they have sent each other. For a year each has reported their mood three times a day. These archives are then evaluated and processed artistically, the outcomes of which are videos, objects, works on paper and performances reflecting and manifesting this intimate data.

Their first German solo exhibition Navigating the Everyday will open at Art Laboratory Berlin on 27 January, 2012 at 8PM as part of the current Time and Technology series in conjunction with the Transmediale program Vorspiel.

Controlling_Connectivity was made possible in part with a generous grant from the Abt-Straubinger Stiftung

Igor Štromajer, Gretta Louw and Christian de Lutz

plan b (Daniel Belasco Rogers & Sophia New)

All photos courtesy Art Laboratory Berlin

2012-01-10T19:19:00.006+01:00

Gretta Louw. Controlling_Connectivity
Photos from the exhibition

http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-24.htm

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

© 2012 Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de

photos © 2011-12 cdelutz for Art Laboratory Berlin unless otherwise noted

2011-12-19T14:42:00.003+01:00

Fundraising for Controlling_Connectivity the book:
http://www.indiegogo.com/ControllingConnectivity-Publication

The Project
Controlling_Connectivity was an art project by artist Gretta Louw, which used the pervasiveness of internet-based social networking, and the obligation as well as the opportunity for constant connection with these platforms as a paradigm for a severe and systematic disruption of normal, socially accepted patterns of life and interpersonal interaction during a self-documented performance. Taking to its natural extreme the notion that new technologies are increasingly dictating our social interaction, professional life, and have a far reaching effect on many other aspects of daily life, Louw completed a durational performance as she lived in the gallery space in complete isolation except for contact through various social networking sites on the internet.

For 10 days the artist was available 24 hr/day for discussions, emails, comments, or interviews - of both private and professional nature - for any internet user wishing to take part in the project. All necessary supplies were stored within the gallery and the windows were blacked out to ensure that the environment was not normalised by natural light or the social rhythms outside, but defined purely by the internet connection to external participants."
(Text from Art Laboratory Berlin)

Following the conclusion of the performance a solo exhibition in the gallery space, Art Laboratory Berlin, curated by Christian de Lutz and Regine Rapp, was installed. The new video, sound, and installation works are based on documentation from the performance and examine issues around societal and cultural change as a result of the development of internet technologies, as well as the increasing psychological pressure on individuals that result.

The Publication
The book brings together documentation of the project - images from the performance and the exhibition, as well as text contributions from participants and discussions with the artist - in a comprehensive analogue overview. The project is contextualised by critical essays from the curators Christian de Lutz and Regine Rapp, who examine the art historical context and contribution. Interviews with the artist provide insight into the internal, mental changes brought about by the project, as well as highlighting some of the most memorable experiences. Theoretical texts from art and media theorists, such as Dr Leon Tan, expand the relevance of the book as a significant assessment of where we as a society stand in relation to the internet and how these radical technological advancements are silently shaping us. Printed on high quality semi gloss paper (170 gsm), the limited edition book comes with a DVD video piece comprising edited screen recordings from conversations, interviews, and discussions recorded during the performance. Addressing topics from Performance Art to internet addiction, the potential of technological advancement to alter our perception of time and reality, and the ways in which the internet affects communication, relationships, and thereby even perhaps identity itself, the video piece is a fascinating record of current thoughts around the internet and its psychological, cultural, and sociological consequences.

Funding Needed
Funding is required primarily for the material and printing costs to produce the book and DVD. However it is also important to me to offer some remuneration to the writers for their efforts and skill.

'I would greatly appreciate your support to get this record of the Controlling_Connectivity project published. I believe this is not only an important conclusion to this project, in order to have a comprehensive, analogue record of a predominantly digital project, but also that it is a significant document of many different perspectives and theories around the dramatic impact of internet technologies - something that is at the very crux of the Information Age zeitgeist.'
- Gretta Louw

Pre-order the limited edition, signed and numbered artist's book incl. DVD and shipping with a donation of US$30. Or, even better, become a sponsor of the publication, or order yourself a high quality digital print from the project. Go to http://www.indiegogo.com/ControllingConnectivity-Publication

Further Details

For more information about the project and to see some existing documentation, visit: http://controllingconnectivity.tumblr.com/
More video documentation from the performance can be viewed here: http://vimeo.com/user7570190

The performance and exhibition part of the project was made possible by the generous support of the Karin Abt-Straubinger Stiftung.

2011-12-06T15:59:00.004+01:00

Opening of Gretta Louw's Exhibition Controlling_Connectivity on 25 November, 2011

all photos courtesy Art Laboratory Berlin

2011-12-02T18:38:00.001+01:00

Art Laboratory Berlin recommends:

THIS IS US! - Local and Global
(Fundraising event, 16:00 to 20:00, 4th December 2011)
A Fundraising event organised by Norma Wright with the able Assistance of Floyd Brothers in co-operation with:

Protestant Faith Fellowship - Pentecostal Church of Berlin e.V
Clear Blue Water e.V
Institute for Cultural Diplomacy e.V
Reachout e.V
StreetuniverCity e.V

Fund Concept

The situation in Berlin has lingered for too long and as such our treasured artists and entertainers are now at the point in which they required structured financial assistance in its various forms.

The mission of the fund is to support artists (in all genres) in financially difficult situations:

Death of family member/s, illness, inability to work, pay insurances, security deposit of apartment, key deposits etc.

It is hoped that this fund will develop into a ‘credit union’ that will empower, support and advise artists further to open businesses and create self-employment.

The fund raising event is to get a fund started on a good footing.

OUR STARTING GLOBAL TARGET IS 5.000€

Event Program

Some of the finest poets and musicians will be performing during a most interesting; thought stimulating; conversational; musical and last and not least a convivial atmosphere - radiating good vibes.

So please join us in this very practical endeavour on the 4th December 2011 (16:00 to 20:00) and please, please, please bring a friend.

ALL FOOD AND DRINK IS FREE WE SEEK ONLY DONATIONS TO HELP START THIS FUND!
Artists performing:

Eb Davis. Lenjes Robinson. Kat Baloun, Moses, Jeannine Mayani, Dr Drob, Jerome Gammon, David Dibiah, Allistair Noon, Ben Porter Lewis, Darnell Summers, Gordon Gatherer. Rasidii Graffiti,Anthony Baggette,Alex Rapp, Gary Wiggns,Phil Henderson, Mike Watt, Mc Jabber, Joe Di Carlo lionel Haas, Delia Miles, Constance Gertig, Gee, Aliya Williams (11 years) and more

Hour: 16:00 to 20:00

Date: 4th December 2011

Venue: Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Kurfürstendamm 207-8, Ku'damm (3rd floor Hochhaus)

Contact: Norma Wright - normw57 @googlemail .com

2011-11-24T10:58:00.002+01:00

Gretta Louw: Controlling_Connectivity
Exhibition following the online performance of 2-12 November,2011

Opening: 25 November, 2011, 8PM
Exhibition: 26 November, 2011 - 15 January, 2012
(winter break: 19 December, 2011 - 5 January, 2012)
Fri - Sun 2-6PM and by appointment

Artist talk with Gretta Louw: 14 January, 2012, 4PM

Screen shot: Controlling_Connectivity Remote Digital Performance: Berlin - New York, Gretta Louw in collaboration with Douglas Paulson, 2011

Screen shot: Controlling_Connectivity Remote Digital Performance: Berlin - New York, Gretta Louw in collaboration with Douglas Paulson, 2011

Photo still from the performance Controlling_Connectivity at Art Laboratory Berlin

Screen shot: Controlling_Connectivity

Art Laboratory Berlin would like to announce the exhibition project Controlling_Connectivity by the Australian artist Gretta Louw reflecting use of the latest forms of digital communication. Her 10-day online performance (2- 12 November 2011) has laid the basis for an exhibition which will include screen capture footage, photographs and an installation.

Controlling_Connectivity uses the pervasiveness of internet-based social networking, as well as the obligation and opportunity for constant connection with these platforms as a paradigm for a severe and systematic disruption of normal, socially accepted patterns of life and interpersonal interaction during a self-documented performance.

In her work Louw seeks to explore to what extent an extreme use of the Internet and our belief in the online connectivity can have psychological consequences. Her inquiry questions self-censorship and socially acceptable forms of behavior in the face of the constant pressure put in place by society's inexorable increasing need for connectivity.
(More information)

2011-11-09T10:53:00.002+01:00

Controlling_Connectivity Day 6, Art Clinic from Gretta Louw on Vimeo.

Gretta Louw - online interview at WerkStadt Kulturverein in Berlin - 7 November,2011

2011-11-07T20:35:00.000+01:00

Controlling_Connectivity Day 4 from Gretta Louw on Vimeo.

Conversation between artist Gretta Louw and Matilde Hoffman on the 4th day of the durational performance, Controlling_Connectivity.

The project takes place at Art Laboratory Berlin and is made possible through generous support from the Karin Abt Straubinger Stiftung.

2011-11-06T12:10:00.002+01:00

Interview by Hernan Cortes Gonzales, a participant from Argentina, on the first day of the Controlling_Connectivity durational performance.
More information at http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-event-12.htm

2011-11-02T23:50:00.001+01:00

Controlling_Connectivity Day 1

Gretta Louw at 12.55PM,just before the start of the performance

An online google+ hangout (viewed from the bar at c-base)

Controlling_Connectivity Day 1 from Gretta Louw on Vimeo.

Controlling_Connectivity uses the pervasiveness of internet-based social networking, as well asthe obligation and opportunity for constant connection with these platforms as a paradigm for a severe and systematic disruption of normal, socially accepted patterns of life and interpersonal interaction during a self-documented performance. Taking to its natural extreme the notion that new technologies are increasingly dictating our social interaction, professional life, and have a far reaching effect on many other aspects of daily life, Gretta Louw will complete a durational performance, living in the gallery space in complete isolation except for contact through various social networking sites and the internet.

For 10 days the artist will be available 24 hr/day for discussions, emails, comments, or interviews of both private and professional nature for any internet user wishing to take part in the project. All necessary supplies will be stored within the gallery and the windows will be blacked out to ensure that the environment is not normalised by natural light or social rhythms outside, but defined purely by the internet connection to external participants. A number of planned online events (the artist's 30th birthday, live talks with partners in New York, interviews with press) will be scheduled at intervals throughout the performance, with these social and professional pressures becoming progressively more difficult to fulfill as sleep deprivation and isolation take effect.

During the performance the artist will create and install the subsequent exhibition at Art Laboratory Berlin, with the aim of examining how extreme internet use and our reliance on online connectivity could affect psychological functioning; our ability to censor ourselves and continue to behave in a socially acceptable and comprehensible way under the constant pressure of inexorably increasing connectivity. (more at:http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-event-12.htm)

Selected events during the performance (CET= Berlin time):

02.11. 2011 - 12-13 hrs GMT (13-14 CET): google + hang out to mark the start of the performance.
03.11. 2011 - 19-21 hrs, CET: 30th birthday party online (google + hangout, twitter, facebook, skype)
04.11. 2011 - TBA: live skype chat with audience at Grace Exhibition Space performance art exhibition, Brooklyn. http://www.grace-exhibition-space.com/
10.11. 2011 - 21.30-23 hrs (3.30-5 CET): live skype chat with Flux Factory's monthly salon evening event, Flux Thursday.
11.11. 2011 - 22.30 hrs (4.30 CET): live discussion with Panoply Lab during their Conference of Work: Operations and Participations series on performance art. http://www.panoplylab.org/conference.html
12.11.2011 - 11-12 hrs Greenwich mean time(12-13 CET): google + hang out to mark the end of the performance..

Selected online venues:

http://controllingconnectivity.tumblr.com/
http://twitter.com/GrettaLouw
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gretta-Louw-Controlling_Connectivity/232846076767283
https://plus.google.com/111051021342350315664/posts
skype: controlling_connectivity

With the generous support of:

2011-10-19T14:09:00.002+02:00

An Article about Gretta Louw and Controlling_Connectivity on rhizome.org:

http://rhizome.org/editorial/2011/oct/18/performance-public-and-online-presence-gretta-louw/

2011-10-17T14:05:00.002+02:00

Gretta Louw - Controlling Connectivity
Performance and exhibition

Online performance 2-12 November, 2011
http://controllingconnectivity.tumblr.com/

Exhibition: 26 November, 2011 - 15 January, 2012
Fri - Sun 2-6PM (closed from 19 December, 2011 -5 January, 2012 )
Opening: 25 November, 2011, 8PM

In many ways participation in the elaborate communication networks that now underlie social interaction is no longer a matter of choice, since failure to participate is, in many demographics, akin to social withdrawal. Our decision to connect with and perform within online networks also plays an increasingly large role in determining professional success. The question, however, is what are the other effects of our growing reliance on online communication and community on our lives, culture, and society?

With the opportunity for connectivity and limitless access to information, comes the obligation to be increasingly available to receive and transmit; to be perpetually connected. The consequent erosion of true leisure time, the blurring of the traditional professional / personal, public / private dichotomies, and an information overload are creating hitherto unknown levels of psychological pressure.

Selected events during the performance (CET= Berlin time):

02.11. 2011 - 12-13 hrs GMT (13-14 CET): google + hang out to mark the start of the performance.
03.11. 2011 - 19-21 hrs, CET: 30th birthday party online (google + hangout, twitter, facebook, skype)
04.11. 2011 - TBA: live skype chat with audience at Grace Exhibition Space performance art exhibition, Brooklyn. http://www.grace-exhibition-space.com/
10.11. 2011 - 21.30-23 hrs (3.30-5 CET): live skype chat with Flux Factory's monthly salon evening event, Flux Thursday..
11.11. 2011 - TBA: live discussion with Panoply Lab during their Conference of Work: Operations and Participations series on performance art. http://www.panoplylab.org/conference.html
12.11.2011 - 11-12 hrs Greenwich mean time(12-13 CET): google + hang out to mark the end of the performance.

Selected online venues:

With the generous support of:

2011-10-16T18:27:00.003+02:00

VISIONS NYC afterthoughts by Bärbel Möllmann
10 September - 16 October, 2011

© 2011 Bärbel Möllmann

2011-09-26T11:21:00.002+02:00

Book Release Party - VISIONS NYC by Bärbel Möllmann:
30 September, 2011 from 8PM

In context of the ongoing show VISIONS NYC – afterthoughts,

Bärbel Möllmann: VISIONS NYC.
Portraits and Interviews from New York. Berlin 2011
272 pages, 136 color photographs
30 x 25 cm (closed), 30 x 50 cm (open)
Hardcover, 4-color images
Essay: Regine Rapp (German and English)
48 interviews (each 4 – 15 min.), 4 CDs

In the project VISIONS NYC the Berlin-based artist and photographer Bärbel Möllmann has gathered a series of amazing portraits and interviews with New Yorkers from Summer 2001, recording their individual plans, goals and dreams, and from Summer 2002 recording their reactions to the events of the previous year.

More information at : http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-events-archive.htm

2011-09-11T19:00:00.001+02:00

VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts

Exhibition introduction and Podium discussion "9/11… Ten Years Later"
Participants: Mark Donfried (director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy),
Howard McCalebb (artist and director of Dada Post),
Bärbel Möllmann (artist and photographer);
moderation: Christian de Lutz (Art Laboratory Berlin).
http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-archive.htm

Bärbel Möllman gives a tour of the exhibition

(from left Christian de Lutz, Bärbel Möllman, Mark Donfried, Howard McCalebb)

all photos by Filipa Rolaça ©Art Laboratory Berlin 2011

2011-09-10T18:55:00.000+02:00

US Ambassador to Germany Philip D. Murphy visits Art Laboratory Berlin

Ambassador Murphy speaks with Bärbel Möllmann about her exhibition VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts
all photos by Filipa Rolaça ©Art Laboratory Berlin 2011

2011-09-09T23:48:00.001+02:00

Vernissage of VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts
An audiovisual project by Bärbel Möllmann

On September 9, 2011

Bärbel Möllmann (center) all photos by Filipa Rolaça ©Art Laboratory Berlin 2011

2011-09-06T12:42:00.001+02:00

Bärbel Möllmann - VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts
10 September - 16 October, 2011
Opening: 9 September, 2011 8PM

Exhibition intro and podium discussion: Sunday, September 11, 2011
5PM: Exhibition Introduction
The artist Bärbel Möllmann and Regine Rapp (Art Laboratory Berlin) will give a tour of the exhibition

6PM: Podium discussion "9/11… Ten Years Later"
Participants: Mark Donfried (director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy), Howard McCalebb (artist and director of Dada Post), Bärbel Möllmann (artist and photographer); moderation: Christian de Lutz (Art Laboratory Berlin).

Bärbel Möllmann, View over NYC, 2002

In connection with the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2011, Art Laboratory Berlin invites you to the opening of the exhibition project VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts on 9 September, 2011 at 8PM.

In VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts the Berliner artist and photographer Bärbel Möllmann brings together her portraits of and interviews with various New Yorkers from Summer 2001 as well as additional portraits and interviews taken a year later.

In July and August 2001 Möllmann realized her project VISIONS NYC in the boroughs of New York. The original project dealt with the myth of New York as the city of dreams. Möllmann spoke to various New Yorkers about why they came to the metropolis and about the dreams they hoped to realize there: former editor of fashion magazine »Glamour« Estelle Ellis explained why New York is the city where it is possible to realize ones dreams; Matthew Gordon from Baltimore spoke of his career in New York as a filmmaker; and performance artist Michelle Carlo reflected on her dream to realize her own TV show.

At this point, Möllmann could not, of course, foresee the attack on the Twin Towers. Therefore, the terrible events of 9/11 can not be perceived directly in this project, whose theme is more about the visions and destinies of individuals. In VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts the events of 9/11 are marked as a historic turning point in interviews and photos produced both before and after September 11. The destruction of the World Trade Center spurred on the artist to return a year later and continue her project, to interview some of her subjects a second time, and to make new portraits and interviews.

For her visual implementation Möllmann chose a special form of photography - the camera obscura (pinhole camera). An extremely long exposure time creates a soft focus that places the portrayed and their environment at a certain poetic distance. The voices of the interviewees, heard over headphones, bring the viewer closer to those portrayed. Only voice and image together, in the words of Bärbel Möllmann, can create such a personal portrait.

The resulting works show quite personally and authentically how much the city of New York and its residents changed between 2001 and 2002; the previously expressed visions and dreams appear in a new, far more complex light.

In the exhibition selected positions from the project can be seen and listened to. A photo book, specifically designed by the artist as artist book, will appear in the Fall of 2011 parallel to the exhibition and provide an overview of more than forty portraits and interviews.

Bärbel Möllmann (born on 4 July, 1970 in Bocholt, Germany) is an artist and photographer. She has lived in Berlin since 2002.

2011-06-02T18:14:00.001+02:00

Wedding Present 2011
Art Laboratory Berlin and 7 other project spaces and a number of clubs will be open in this festival of culture and nightlife in Berlin's hippest district - http://koloniewedding.de/pdfs/flyer/wedding_presents2011.pdf?PHPSESSID=8f5ae92567ce61d9913d867104c14c98#zoom=150

At Art Laboratory Berlin: Artists in Dialog - Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi -
My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain open through 26 June 2011
More information here

2011-05-23T12:30:00.001+02:00

Images from the exhibition My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some thoughts on Pain
By Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi. Running through 26 June, 2011
Open on Friday May 27 until 10PM as part of the late night of Wedding Art Spaces

© 2011 by Rola Khayyat, courtesy Art Laboratory Berlin

2011-05-02T12:10:00.004+02:00

Photos from the Round Table Al Tahrir: The Day After, May 1st, 2011 at Art Laboratory Berlin.

Participants of the discussion (from l to r): artist Al Fadhil, political scientist Heiko Wimmen, ALB co-director Christian de Lutz, anthropologist Munira Khayyat and artist Aissa Deebi.

Artist Al Fadhil (l) and political scientist Heiko Wimman (r)

Anthropologist Munira Khayyat

all photos © 2011 Art Laboratory Berlin

2011-05-02T11:17:00.006+02:00

Photos from the opening reception for the Artists in Dialog: Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi
My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain.

Artists Aissa Deebi (l) and Al Fadhil (r) talking on skype several minutes before the exhibition opens with a work by Al Fadhil in the background.

ALB co-director Regine Rapp (front right) presenting the exhibition to the visitors.

ALB team member Kerstin Karge (r) and artist Aissa Deebi (m), whose work can be seen on the walls, talking to guests.

ALB team members Oleksandra Gomeniuk (r) and Rola Khayyat (l)

Artist Aissa Deebi (front left), anthropologist Munira Khayyat (m) and political scientist Heiko Wimmen (r)

ALB co-director Christian de Lutz (front left) and Regine Rapp (back center) talking with guests.

Visitors enjoying the show:

all photos © 2011 Art Laboratory Berlin

2011-04-21T09:31:00.002+02:00

Installation of My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on pain, the upcoming exhibition by Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi

ALB team member Rola Khayyat and Al Fadhil

Aissa Deebi (l) Rola Khayyat (m) Al Fadhil (r)

Aissa Deebi

all photos © 2011 Aissa Deebi

2011-04-15T09:25:00.002+02:00

Artists in Dialog: Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi
My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain
29 April - 26 June, 2011, Fri - Sun, 2-6PM and by appointment
Opening: Thursday 28 April, 2011 8PM

Round table discussion Al Tahrir: The Day After, 1 May, 2011, 3PM

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition project Artists in Dialog: My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain on 28 April.

The exhibition, the third in our ongoing series Artists in Dialog, is a discoursive dialog between the Iraqi Swiss artist Al Fadhil and the Palestinian-American artist Aissa Deebi, and explores the complex ties between the personal and the political in the theme of loss.

My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain was first conceived 2005 by the artists during a common artist residency in Taiwan. Both artists had lost brothers in respective conflicts in their countries of origin. Al Fadhil has lost two brothers to the wars in Iraq. Aissa Deebi's younger brother Nasim died in Israeli police custody in 1999. The medical report labeled the death a suicide, something the artist and his family dispute.

Al Fadhil, Saddam Hussein with the Artist's Father, March, 26 1983, 2011

The exhibition focuses on both the artists' personal experience of loss and the cultural aspects of mourning and grief: Fadhil comes from a Shiite Iraqi family, whilst Deebi is Greek Orthodox. By means of photography, video and installation the exhibition will explore the three deaths and their political and historical context.

Aissa Deebi, Fish Hill, flip photography, digital print, 2011

More information at: http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-archive.htm

In cooperation with:

With the generous support of:

Special Thanks from the artists and Art Laboratory Berlin to:

Makboula Nassar, photography assistant, Haifa
Osama Daoud, Project manger and producer, Cairo
Rasha Hillwi, Editor, Ramalah
Katie Siman, research assistant, Haifa
Samlan Natour, Writer, Haifa
Bruce Ferguson, Dean of Huss at the American University in Cairo

2011-02-20T23:57:00.012+01:00

Sol LeWitt_Symposium
19/20 February, 2011

Introduction (Regine Rapp)

Keynote speech (Gregor Stemmrich)

Paul Maenz

Paul Maenz

Jonathon Monk

Ken Wahl

Christian de Lutz, Jonathon Monk, Maru Ituarte

Volker Straebel

Afterwards at Relais de Savanne

More information at: http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-event-10.htm

Photos copyright 2011, Art Laboratory Berlin

2011-02-13T11:08:00.002+01:00

Sol LeWitt_Symposium

19/20 February, 2011
Venue: Glaskasten, Prinzenallee 33, 13359 Berlin (next door to Art Laboratory Berlin)

1970, Schematic Drawings for Muybridge II, 1964, New York: Multiples Inc.

An occasion in which all the artist books of Sol LeWitt are gathered into one exhibition invites further study. As we have done in previous exhibitions Art Laboratory Berlin would like to bring together artistic practice and scholarly debate, in this case in the form of a symposium. The complex nature of Sol LeWitt's artists' books specifically calls for examination by a variety of disciplines.

Beginning with a survey of the concept and the conceptual in LeWitt's work, continuing with a reflection on the medium of the book and the problem of authorship, the initial contributions will sketch LeWitt's art from art historical and literary perspectives. Additionally, contributions from the philosophy of art, musicology and mathematics will reflect on space and time, the question of a possible terminology and the phenomenon of serial geometric forms. Similarly, LeWitt's aesthetic production and his relationship to graphic design will be discussed. Finally, contributions from an artistic perspective as well as those of friends and collectors will illuminate practical and theoretical aspects of LeWitt's artistic work.

The symposium is open to the public and does not charge an admission fee (donations are welcome). The language of presentation corresponds to the respective announcements in the program; questions and contributions in both German and English, during the discussion, are of course possible.

The exhibition at Art Laboratory Berlin (Prinzenallee 34) will be open on 19 and 20 February from 12-8PM.

more at:
http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-event-10.htm

Program

Saturday, 19 February, 2011
The exhibition will be open from 12-8PM

14:00
Regine Rapp Art Historian, Art Laboratory Berlin
Welcome and Opening

Keynote
Gregor Stemmrich Art Historian, Free University Berlin
"smart enough to be dumb". Sol LeWitts Konzept des "Konzeptuellen"

15:30 Break

16:00
Annette Gilbert Philologist, Free University Berlin
"[To] be read as a complete thought". Zu Sol LeWitts Verständnis des Buchs als (künstlerisches) Medium

Manuela Schöpp Art Historian, Humboldt University Berlin
Sol LeWitts Konzept der Autorschaft in seiner Autobiography

17:30 Break

18:00
Paul Maenz Collector, Berlin
Sol LeWitt - 100 Dollar und die Folgen...

Ken Wahl Artist, Berlin/ New York
Embodying the Concept: Sol LeWitt and the Aesthetic Paradox

Jonathan Monk Artist, Berlin
The Location of Eight Points

20:00 Reception in Foyer
followed by a buffet in the restaurant Relais de Savanne, Prinzenallee 33

Sunday, 20 February, 2011
The exhibition will be open from 12-8PM.

14:00
Adrian Piper Artist and Philosopher, Berlin
Die Einheit in Sol LeWitts Œuvre

Volker Straebel Musicologist, Technical University Berlin
Werkbegriff und Partitur-Metapher in Sol LeWitts wall drawings

Michael Rottmann Mathematician and Art Historian, Free University Berlin
“To See the Program in it.” Zur Rolle der Mathematik in der seriellen Kunst von Sol LeWitt

16:00 Break

16.30
Sabeth Buchmann Art Historian and Critic, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien/ Berlin
(In-)Visible Things on Paper

Aissa Deebi Artist and Graphic Designer, American University Cairo
Sol LeWitt as a Conceptualist Designer. Theory and Practice in Post-war Graphic Art

18:00
Regine Rapp Art Historian, Art Laboratory Berlin
Conclusion

Location of the Symposium: Glaskasten (former Schmidt's Ballhouse), Prinzenallee 33, 13359 Berlin (right next to Art Laboratory Berlin)

Symposium concept: Regine Rapp, Art Laboratory Berlin

Organisation and realisation: Regine Rapp, Christian de Lutz, Christina Korzen, Heiko
Pfreundt, the Art Laboratory Berlin Team
Contact: presse@artlaboratory-berlin.org

In cooperation with:







Special thanks to Michael Schröder for his support of Art Laboratory Berlin this exhibition and its program.

2011-01-21T23:08:00.002+01:00

Sol Lewitt. Artist's Books
22 January - 13 March, 2011

Press conference 21 January, 2011

1996. “Black Squares”. Cologne, In "3rd ArtistBook International", 28,5x18cm
1973. “Cercles &lignes”. Paris, Yvon Lambert, 10,5x10,5cm

Christian de Lutz, Ramiro and Cinta Villapadierna

1988, Variations on I Am Still Alive On Kawara Firenze,
Exempla, Zona Archives; Lugo, Exit, 12 x 12cm

left 1972, Lines &Lines, Arcs &Arcs, Lines&Arcs, Amsterdam Art &Project, Bulletin 60 ;
rights- 1973, Quatre Dessins Muraux, Amsterdam, Art & Project, Bruxelles MTL,

wall drawing (WALL DRAWING # 233, „Location of a Triangle“, 1974 Sammlung Paul Maenz)

1974. Locations of Three Geometric Figures. Hamburg, Hossmann; Brussels,
Yves Gevaert, Societé des Expositions,

Emanuele de Donno & Giorgio Maffei

Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz

De Donno, de Lutz, Rapp, Christina Korzen, Maffei

All Photos © 2011 by Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de for Art Laboratory Berlin

2011-01-10T14:00:00.011+01:00

Sol LeWitt: Artist's Books
22 January - 13 March, 2011
Fri - Sun 2 - 6PM and by appointment

Opening 21 January, 8PM

The exhibition SOL LEWITT. Artist's Books opening at Art Laboratory Berlin on 21 January presents the complete oeuvre of 75 artists' books produced by the American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, dating from 1967 to 2002. This exhibition pays tribute to the unique bibliophile production of the artist, who died in 2007.

SOL LEWITT Artist's Books, a collaboration between Art Laboratory Berlin and Viaindustriae, in Foligno, Italy, has previously been shown in Paris, Sheffield, Istanbul and Ljubljana, and after Berlin the exhibition will travel on to Athens and New York.

In addition to an intensive exhibition program (gallery tours, talks and the possibility of visitors to study the artist's books in detail) Art Laboratory Berlin is also planning an inter-disciplinary symposium on the artistic practice of Sol LeWitt (in February 2011).

Upper row : (l) Sol LeWitt, Geometric Figures & Color, New York: Harvey N. Abrams, 1979 / (r) Sol LeWitt, Autobiography, New York: Multiples; Boston: Lois and Michael K. Torf 1980// middle row: (l) Sol LeWitt, Photo Grids, New York: Paul David Press; Rizzoli, 1977 / (r) Sol LeWitt, Lines & Color, Zürich: Annemarie Verna 1975 // lower row:(l) Sol LeWitt, Opening Series, Edinburgh: Morning Star Publications, 1994 /(r) Sol LeWitt, Cock Fight Dance, New York: Rizzoli & Multiples,1980

The American artist Sol LeWitt (1928 - 2007) was an influential figure in minimalism and is considered one of the most important representatives as well as co-founder of American conceptual art. The term "conceptual art" goes directly back to LeWitt: "If the artist carries through his idea and makes it into visible form, then all the steps in the process are of importance. The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product. All intervening steps - scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed works, models, studies, thoughts, conversations - are of interest. Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product." (Paragraphs, Artforum, June 1967)

LeWitt's intensive artist books production was extremely versatile: he used different designs and formats as well as varied techniques from color lithography to offset printing. Finally the phenomena of reproducibility was part of the concept: "Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced." (ibid.)

In cooperation with

and

Special thanks to Michael Schröder for his support of Art Laboratory Berlin and this exhibition.

2010-12-31T14:36:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year 2011

Art Laboratory Berlin wishes you all a Happy New Year 2011!

May all your wishes for health, love, happiness and fulfilling projects come true in the New Year.

We would like to thank all the artists who took part in our program this year. We would also like to thank all those people who made our program possible. And finally our thanks go to all our visitors and our virtual public for their great interest, the intense exchange of ideas and feedback.

May we all meet again at our next event – the opening of the show SOL LEWITT. Artist’s Books on January 21, 2011.

Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz

& the Art Laboratory Berlin Team

*************************

Art Laboratory Berlin wünscht Ihnen / Euch allen ein Frohes Neues Jahr 2011!

Mögen sich all’ Ihre / Eure Wünsche für Gesundheit, Liebe, Glück und gelingende Projekte im neuen Jahr erfüllen.

Wir möchten uns bei allen KünstlerInnen bedanken, die in diesem Jahr an unserem Ausstellungsprogramm teilgenommen haben. Unser Dank geht auch an all’ jene, die zum Gelingen aller Veranstaltungen beigetragen haben. Schließlich möchten wir natürlich unserem Publikum – vor Ort und virtuell weltweit – für das große Interesse, den intensiven Ideenaustausch und das Feedback herzlich danken.

Lasst uns wieder zusammenkommen an unserem nächsten Ereignis – der Eröffnung der kommenden Ausstellung SOL LEWITT. Artist’s Books am 21. Januar 2011.

Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz

& das Art Laboratory Berlin Team

2010-11-08T20:12:00.002+01:00

Stardust Boogie Woogie 29 October - 28 November 2010

2010-10-29T23:00:00.003+02:00

Stardust Boogie Woogie - Vernissage 29 October 2010

Tania Antoshina, Alisa, you fly like a young girl from the series Alisa and Gagarin

Marcela Iriarte, The Insects

Jane Mulfinger, Sunset Most Popular II

a visitor dresses at Siouxsie Sioux as part of Jessica Voorsanger's work Imposture series - Siouxsie Sioux
all photos copyright 2011 Art Laboratory Berlin/ de Lutz & Rapp

2010-10-28T09:17:00.001+02:00

Stardust Boogie Woogie
Tania Antoshina, Mo Foster, Marcela Iriarte, Christian de Lutz,
Jane Mulfinger, Bob & Roberta Smith, Jessica Voorsanger
Curated by Francesca Piovano

Opening 29 October 2009 8PM
Exhibition runs 30 October - 28 November 2010, Fri- Sun 2-6PM and by appointment
Finissage with a reading by Mo Foster: 26 November 2010 8PM
Special event: 30 November 2010 A reading by Mo Foster at the
East of Eden International Bookstore, Schreinerstr. 10,
10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain - www.east-of-eden.de

When Andy Warhol declared that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, he probably didn't realized how true that was going to be.

In a very short time the media industry has made it incredibly easy for people to become famous. It is no longer necessary to have a particular talent, nowadays absolutely any one who is prepared by whatever means to be entertaining, can become a 'celebrity'. Then mass media, along with popular culture, will see that celebrities are consumed as spectacle giving them a package of meanings that has nothing to do with their intrinsic value.

This is particularly true today in Western countries where the boundaries between stars and fans have dissolved: a celebrity is such, as long as fan clubs, gossip columns and TV reality shows say so.

It all started with the personality cult as advanced by the Soviet regime. At last the leader was no longer somebody anointed by divine rights, but somebody who was the icon of ordinary people. The Soviet leaders and popular heroes were, in a way, the other side of the coin of the Hollywood star system - both embodied dreams of a better life.

To explore the issues of celebrity cult and modern heroes and to put them in a multifaceted international context, the exhibition Stardust Boogie Woogie has brought together 7 artists from different countries and backgrounds. Their work is around the notion of stardom and its related lifestyle (Jessica Voorsanger, Jane Mulfinger, Marcela Iriarte), of socialist personality cults (Christian de Lutz, Tania Antoshina) and of popular culture (Bob & Roberta Smith, Mo Foster).

-Francesca Piovano

2010-09-07T15:53:00.004+02:00

Wunschgarten: Wild Urban Offshoots. Workshop 4.09.2010

2010-08-31T12:18:00.012+02:00

Artists in Dialog. Wunschgarten: Wild Urban Offshoots

Alex Toland

Myriel Milicevic

Photos 5 and 8 by Art Laboratory Berlin

2010-08-20T17:37:00.004+02:00

Artists in Dialog: Alex Toland und Myriel Milicevic - Wunschgarten: Wild Urban Offshoots

Opening 27 August 2010, 8PM

28 August 2010 - 26 September 2010,
Fri-Sun 2-6PM and by appointment

Workshop 4 September 2010, 2-6PM
(registration necessary - info@artlaboratory-berlin. org)

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Wunschgarten: Wild Urban Offshoots by the artists Alex Toland and Myriel Milicevic - the second exhibition in our ongoing series Artists in Dialog.

Each exhibition in Artists in Dialog takes the form of a discourse between two artists, whose work has a common point of contact (e.g. aesthetics, theme or process). Alex Toland and Myriel Milicevic both work on the border between art and life and environmental sciences. Toland considers the project 'habitat hacking' and Milicevic describes the project as 'reconstructing cross-species life worlds'. Together they have chosen the immediate area around Art Laboratory Berlin (the Soldiner Kiez) as a place to investigate interactions between the local human population and urban flora and fauna. The exhibition space will function as a laboratory for mapping, sketching, modelling and prototyping.

Wunschgarten is a series of dialogues: betweenthe artists and the local community, between city dwellers and nature, between urban planning and urban wilderness.

As cities creep further into wild landscapes, the wild moves into cities. Urban habitats are places where plants and animals take up residence alongside people. Too often though, space for nature is sealed off by concrete constructions, resulting in a marked divide between the space occupied by humans and the rest of the biotic community. The Wunschgarten is an exploration of the city's wild features and creatures, and a vision of utopian measures that reach beyond existing mitigation schemes and municipal green-space planning. The city becomes a garden of unexpected edible opportunities and ideas to incubate and explode.

The first offshoots of the Wunschgarten are found poking out of sidewalks and courtyards in Berlin's Soldiner Kiez, where the artists have redrawn the natural and urban landscape as a map that connects the area's human, animal, and plant populations. A common ground for interspecies exchange is found along the Panke and its lush riverbanks that spill out into the surrounding neighbourhood. (more information)

2010-06-27T14:51:00.003+02:00

Evolution Haute Couture
Talk und film screening mit Dmitry Bulatov
01 Juli 2010, 19h

Garnet Hertz (USA) "Cockroach-Controlled Mobile Robot", 2006

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to present a collection of documentary films about artworks recently created using the latest twenty-first century technologies: artificial life, robotics, bio and genetic engineering. The screening has been organized by the curator and artist Dmitry Bulatov in conjunction with the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad branch, Russia).

The films document artworks whose medium is living or lifelike matter, and the properties of living organisms and technologically reproduced artefacts are combined to produce the method. Art created under these new conditions of post-biology - that is, under conditions of artificially generated life - cannot avoid making this artificiality its explicit theme. We are thus again confronted with the question of the relationship between art and life in a completely new context defined by biological and abiological creations, works, and beings.

This collection is the first comprehensive overview of the current stage of contemporary techno-biological art. It provides a panorama of artistic strategies for granting and withdrawing the gift of authenticity. The analysis of these strategies opens up new possibilities for creative production and cultural commentary. In 2009 the Evolution Haute Couture project won the National Innovation Prize (Moscow, Russia), awarded annually for achievements in contemporary visual arts.

The film screening also coincides with the first volume of the anthology Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the Post-Biological Age. Edited by Dmitry Bulatov. Book plus two DVD-ROMs collection (45 video documentaries), KB NCCA, Kaliningrad, 2009. (ISBN: 978-5-94620-054-7). This publication is supported by The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, The Ford Foundation (The Moscow Office, Russia), The Dynasty Foundation (Moscow). Web site: www.videodoc.ncca-kaliningrad.ru/eng/

SCREENING PROGRAM

Bill Vorn, Emma Howes, Jonathan Villeneuve (Canada) "Grace State Machines" (7'40")
The Tissue Culture & Art Project (TC&A): Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (Australia) "NoArk" (7'51")
Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha (The Netherlands) "Morphology / Face-Shift" (10'45")
Ken Rinaldo (USA) "The Autotelematic Spider Bots" (10'56")
Stelarc (Australia) "Extra Ear: Ear On Arm" (5'12")
Joe Davis (USA) "Making Fire" (10'25")
Marcel-li Antunez Roca (Spain) "Epizoo" (3'21")
Erwin Driessens and Maria Verstappen (The Netherlands) "Tickle Salon" (8'16")
Julie Freeman (United Kingdom) "The Lake" (5'00")
Laura Beloff (Finland) "The Fruit Fly Farm" (8'42)
Marta de Menezes (Portugal) "DECON" (9'00")
Paula Gaetano Adi (Argentina) "Alexitimia - an autonomous robotic agent" (7'08")
Paul Granjon (France) "Sexed Robots" (4'18")
SymbioticA Group (Australia) and The Potter Lab (USA) "MEART - The Semi Living Artist" (7'28")
Floris Kaayk (The Netherlands) "Metalosis Maligna" (7'26")

The screening will follow a short introduction by Dmitry Bulatov, and afterwards there will be a panel discussion with Dmitry Bulatov, Elena Ryabkova (Museum of the World Ocean, Kaliningrad, Russia), and Christian de Lutz (Art Laboratory Berlin).

More information:
http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/home_eng.htm
http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-events-archive.htm

This project is presented in cooperation with the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad branch, Russia).

2010-06-12T23:44:00.002+02:00

Artists Talk by Heidi Hove and Jens Axel Beck

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to invite you to an artist talk with Heidi Hove and Jens Axel Beck in conjunction with our current exhibition Artists in Dialog: 2^-1/4-n/2x 2^1/4-n/2. The artists will talk about the project as well as other works they have done before.

"We have been invited to take part in Artists in Dialog, a new concept for an exhibition series initiated by Art Laboratory Berlin. Our contribution is a project, which can partly be described as an exhibition, and as an office/workshop. Within these settings, we have set up a system of rules for ourselves for engaging with the surroundings of Art Laboratory Berlin in Wedding, the exhibition space in itself and our individual practices.

"We have chosen to work with the A4 paper as a material and with a certain limited amount of office working tools, thereby creating a range of elements and projects to be displayed in the gallery.

"Working ad hoc and dealing with the unexpected limitations of the working tools in the office, we have started working on various projects that take their starting points in themes that we usually work with in our individual practices, but also where we think we can meet or clash - such as memory, history, traces, tags and surfaces as well as the standard vs. the individual." (Heidi Hove & Jens Axel Beck, Berlin, Mai 2010)

Both Heidi Hove and Jens Axel Beck are interdisciplinary artists, whose practice includes sculptural objects and installations as well as architectural, spatial and social interventions. A point of convergence in their work is a focus on daily life and the public and private spaces that we daily travel through. Their work examines how we navigate and organise ourselves in the world. Through simple and diverse manipulations, the daily and the recognisable are brought out of their regular condition. Thus common and ordinary objects are manipulated, copied and placed in new connections for the purpose of changing the meaning or perception of how we look and deal with these in our daily lives. In addition, humour plays an important role in their work, and it is often used to start a dialogue with the viewer.

2010-06-12T10:11:00.004+02:00

Artists in Dialog

2^-1/4-n/2x 2^1/4-n/2
Heidi Hove & Jens Axel Beck
29 May - 27 June, 2010
Artist talk 12 June, 2010

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to invite you to the exhibition 2^-1/4-n/2x 2^1/4-n/2 by the Danish conceptual artists Heidi Hove and Jens Axel Beck – the first exhibition in our new series Artists in Dialog.

(more information)

2010-05-24T20:40:00.001+02:00

Each exhibition in Artists in Dialog will take the form of a discursive examination between two artists, whose work has a common point of contact (e.g. in aesthetics, theme or process). The exhibition will be based around each artist interacting with the other's artistic position. It is our intention that their artworks come together not through a series of traditional curatorial (and hierarchical) decisions, but that the artists, working together, find a specific form of display for their own and each other's works. Thus, this form of exhibition as dialog will present an additional phenomenon: both artists will take part intensively in the curatorial aspect of the project, breaking down traditional barriers between artistic and curatorial production.

The exhibition title 2^-1/4-n/2x 2^1/4-n/2 is the formula for calculating the dimensions of the paper sizes in the ISO A series. At Art Laboratory Berlin the A4 will be the basic element for building up the exhibition. Literally speaking, the exhibition space will take form as a laboratory and office setting, where the artists will gather material and information from the Internet. Different materials will be printed out and copied on A4 paper. Both artists will go through each other's pile of papers and choose material for presentation. Their working progress will begin in the week before the opening (28 May) and continue in the days thereafter.
(more information)

2010-05-16T13:09:00.004+02:00

Exhibition views from
OFF FENCE. Art on the Californian-Mexican Border
http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-17.htm

works by Michelle Chong, Luis G. Hernandez and Ed Gomez.
(All photos in this post by Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de)

Find Yourself Here, by Michelle Chong
(also at http://michellechong.com/findyourselfhere/)

Americanista, by Ed Gomez

Los, by Luis G. Hernendez

Caution: the Freeway Interventions by Camilo Ontiveros

Caution: the Freeway Interventions by Camilo Ontiveros

TRANS-poster by Michelle Chong

Tijuana Girl Crossing by Katya Gardea Browne

Tijuana Girl Crossing by Katya Gardea Browne

(All photos in this post by Tim Deussen/ fotoscout.de)

2010-05-07T21:06:00.001+02:00

Artist talk with Michelle Chong from 25 April, 2010
now on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWqSeej-JYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mlnwv9IpgM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjgjNikCs-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSuwPotn-kU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0xdVvU542Y

2010-05-05T23:02:00.005+02:00

Talk by Michelle Chong, 25 April, 2009

OFF FENCE. Art on the Californian-Mexican Border is an artistic platform with five positions, exploring the cultural overflow, overlap and tensions in the border region of Southern California and Northwest Mexico.

The artists from Los Angeles and Mexico City each deal with the theme of the border and its effects on Mexican and Mexican-American identity in uniquely different ways. Michelle Chong and Luis G. Hernandez produce prints and net.art works which investgate ethnic identity from a linguistic perspective. The video and photography work of Ed Gomez and Camilo Ontiveros artistically reflect the political and economic impact of cultural disruption and division. The video work of Katya Gardea Browne processes physical and geographic structures and reflects the formal aspects of borders as such. (more Information...)

Exhibition view (left, Trans-poster 2010, Michelle Chong, right, Caution: the Freeway Interventions, 2005, Camilo Ontiveros)

Exhibition view (left, Americanista, Ed Gomez, 2008, right Los, 2009 Luis G. Hernandez)

Caution: the Freeway Interventions, Camilo Ontiveros, 2005

Caution: the Freeway Interventions, Camilo Ontiveros, 2005

Exhibition view (Tijuana Girl Crossing, 2008, Katya Gardea Brown)

Exhibition view (Tijuana Girl Crossing, 2008, Katya Gardea Brown)

Exhibition view (Find Yourself Here, 2009, Michelle Chong)

2010-05-05T22:55:00.001+02:00

OFF FENCE. Art at the Californian-Mexican Border
Vernissage 23 April 2009

Michelle Chong and Regine Rapp ( From Here to There, 2010, by Luis G. Hernandez in background)

(background Tijuana Girl Crossing by Katya Gardea Browne, right, TRANS Poster, Michelle Chong)

2010-04-20T10:01:00.003+02:00

OFF FENCE. Art on the Californian-Mexican Border
Michelle Chong, Katya Gardea Browne, Ed Gomez, Luis G. Hernandez, Camilo Ontiveros.

Opening: Friday, 23 April, 2010, 8 PM
Artist Talk with Michelle Chong: Sunday, 25 April, 2010, 4PM

The exhibition runs 24 April - 22 May, 2010
Open: Fri - Sun, 2-6PM

left Camilo Ontiveros, CAUTION: the freeway interventions (2005); right Katya Gardea Browne, Tijuana Girl Crossing (2009)

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to announce OFF FENCE. Art on the Californian-Mexican Border, an exhibition project produced in cooperation with the Los Angeles based curating team SHORT HOUSE. OFF FENCE is an artistic platform for exploring the cultural overflow, overlap and tensions in the border region of Southern California and Northwest Mexico.

The exhibition uses the city of Los Angeles, the largest urban center of this region as a starting point for working on themes of migration, ethnicity and cross-cultural influences between Mexico and Southern California. A major topic in the exhibition is the Mexico-US border itself.

The artists in OFF FENCE have each taken individual approaches to both the border and its implications for Mexican and Mexican-American identity. Michelle Chong and Luis G. Hernandez's works explore ethnic identity from a linguistic viewpoint. The work of Ed Gomez and Camilo Ontiveros deals with the political and economic effects of cultural rupture. The work of Katya Gardea Browne, an artist from Mexico City, explores the personal, physical and geographic structures that dominate the border region.
(more information)

In Cooperation with SHORT HOUSE, Los Angeles,

http://shorthouse.info/

2010-03-08T22:41:00.002+01:00

Sat 13 and Sun 14 March, 2010, 2-6PM

Presentation of the poster and storybook for "Princess I will follow you..."
by Birgit Szepanski
-part of the Printemps des Poètes Berlin 2010
&
Artist book presentation:
"Prinzenallee - ein Stück ohne Dialoge"
A Book Project by Birgit Szepanski and Regine Rapp

Princess - I will follow you...
is a poster intervention along Prinzenallee in Berlin- Wedding. With photographic motifs and text fragments (in English, German and Turkish) a visual path is laid along the street. This public text and image story plays with motifs, word and sound play, visual features and the name of the street:
Princess I will follow you....
(http://printempsdespoetes-berlin.blogspot.com)

In 2008 Birgit Szepanski created a complex site specific installation at Art Laboratory Berlin, which referred to the street Prinzenallee in Berlin-Wedding as part of the exhibition series Art and Text. Over a number of weeks the artist recorded traces of the street in her films, photographs and texts. In decidedly minimal formal language she was able to unfurl the street into the exhibition space by means of language, image and sound. In this newly released publication this is further expressed in the form of an artist book.
(http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-event-8.htm)

2010-02-21T22:09:00.003+01:00

Artist Book Presentation

Prinzenallee - A Play without Dialog.
A Book Project by Birgit Szepanski and Regine Rapp

26 February 2010, 8PM, Book Release Party
28 February 2010, 3-6PM, Book Presentation

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to invite you to a presentation of the recently published artist book "Prinzenallee - Ein Stück ohne Dialoge" ("Prinzenallee - A Play without Dialog").

In 2008 Birgit Szepanski created a complex site specific installation at Art Laboratory Berlin, which referred to the street Prinzenallee in Berlin-Wedding as part of the exhibi-tion series Art and Text. Over a number of weeks the artist recorded traces of the street in her films, photographs and texts. In decidedly minimal formal language she was able to unfurl the street into the exhibition space by means of language, image and sound. In this newly released publication this is further expressed in the form of an artist book. (more information)

Prinzenallee - Ein Stück ohne Dialoge, Photograph, 2008

Prinzenallee - Ein Stück ohne Dialoge, Exhibition View, 2008

2010-02-04T15:16:00.000+01:00

Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša
NAME Readymade

Performative Präsentation
3 February, 2010, 7-10 PM

all photos (c) 2010 Art Laboratory Berlin

Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša
NAME Readymade

Performative Presentation

The event will present the act of “Name changing” perpetrated by three Slovenian artists who in 2007 officially, with all the required papers and stamps, changed their names to the then prime minister of Slovenia , Janez Janša (2004-08). All Janez Jansas’ works, their private and public affairs, in a word their whole life, has been conducted under this name ever since. (more information)

2010-02-01T15:08:00.001+01:00

3 February at 7PM
Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša
NAME Readymade

Performative Presentation

Art Laboratory Berlin is glad to invite you to NAME Readymade, the performative presentation of Janez Janša. The event will present the act of "name changing" perpetrated by three Slovenian artists who in 2007 officially, with all the required papers and stamps, changed their names to the then prime minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša (2004-08). All Janez Jansas' works, their private and public affairs, in a word their whole life, has been conducted under this name ever since.

"When the three artists changed their names to Janez Janša, they in fact adopted a critical stand to the state. To the Slovene government, in which until recently all posts seemed occupied as it were by a single person - Janez Janša. [...] Through the multiplication of Janez Janša's name, the function of the prime minister has assumed, within this specific artistic action, a similar position as the Campbell soup cans in Andy Warhol's works." (Zdenka Badovinac, Name Readymade, October 2008)

Janez Janša will take us through a series of artistic, political, administrative and media oriented actions performed by himself together with Janez Janša and Janez Janša, with a particular focus on their latest personal exhibition entitled NAME Readymade. Works exhibited in this show (valid ID cards, passports, credit and bank cards, driving licences, birth and marriage certificates, and so on) were generated by reality itself.

Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša cut right through the midst of their own realities, using procedures typical for art - transformation, translation, representation and mimicry. They turned around the classical relational scheme between art and life as it was developed in the 20th century. Art in the previous century was defined by way of reality entering into artistic contexts without mediation (Badiou defines the 20th century as the 'passion for the real'), while Janša, Janša and Janša want to achieve the opposite, so that their methods cut deeply into their material lives and the lives of their immediate surroundings.

More information: Readymade - THE EXHIBITION, www.aksioma.org/name

Production
Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art and the Steirischer Herbst Festival in collaboration with Maska and Moderna galerijy Ljubljana.

With support by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana

2009-11-28T23:09:00.002+01:00

Workshop: "Copyright and related topics for artists. musicians, filmmakers and other creative producers" with Andreas Lichtenhahn (lawyer), in German.
29 November at 3 PM

2009-11-27T22:55:00.007+01:00

Vernissage of
Creative Rights - On Appropriation, Copyright and Copyleft

repetitions-revolutions-rituals by Azin Feizabadi

The Copyright Piece by Christian de Lutz

David Hammons. The Unauthorized Retrospective by Triple Candie

Planed (right) by Gilbert & George

Farkhondeh in front of Azin Feizabadi's work

The Creative Rights Library

Patrick Cariou vs Richard Prince from The Creative Rights Library

Creative Rights. On Appropriation, Copyright and Copyleft investigates questions concerning the use, re-use and misuse of images and information in the contemporary art world from artistic, legal, political and philosophical viewpoints.

Since the late 1970s appropriation of images and information by such artists as Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince has become a common and accepted technique, part and parcel of postmodernism's critical approach. Indeed it follows a tradition that goes back through pop art and nouveau realisme to Dada and cubist collage. Not without ethical, aesthetic and legal controversy, a number of law cases involving appropriation seems to have increased in recent years involving artists such as Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Shepard Fairey

The exhibition Creative Rights consists of three parts: The exhibition with four artistic positions, the Creative Rights Library with extensive material on the presented artists and other recent law cases as well as a workshop on the theme of copyright.

more at http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-16.htm and http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-archive.htm

2009-11-23T23:32:00.002+01:00


Image: Azin Feizabadi, from Repititions-Revolutions -Rituals

Art and Law IV
Creative Rights. On Appropriation, Copyright and Copyleft

Azin Feizabadi, Gilbert & George, Christian de Lutz, Triple Candie

The Creative Rights Library with documentation about Shepard Fairey vs AP, Richard Prince vs Patrick Cariou, Creative Commons, The Fair Use Projekt, Piratpartiet, etc.

Opening 27 November 2009, 8PM
Duration: 28 November 2009 - 7 February 2010
(closed 18 December 2009 - 3 January 2010)
Open Sat - Sun 2-6PM, exhibition tour 3PM

Workshop: "Copyright and related topics for artists. musicians, filmmakers and other creative producers" with Andreas Lichtenhahn (lawyer), in German.
28 November 2009, 15h (free, registration necessary: info@artlaboratory-berlin.org)

Creative Rights. On Appropriation, Copyright and Copyleft investigates questions concerning the use, re-use and misuse of images and information in the contemporary art world from artistic, legal, political and philosophical viewpoints.

(more information)

2009-11-21T18:26:00.012+01:00

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to announce
the Moscow exhibition of

Failed Organisms

Reiner Maria Matysik

November 26, 2009 – January 24, 2010
at
Laboratoria Art & Science
Russia, 105064, г. Москва
ул. Воронцово Поле, 10
8 (495) 917-32-57

Failed Organisms
originally shown in Summer 2008 at
Art Laboratory Berlin

http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/de-ausstellung-10.htm
http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-10.htm
http://www.reinermatysik.de/

Text to the exhibition Failed Organisms
at Laboratoria Art & Science Space, Moscow, by Regine Rapp

2009-11-02T23:41:00.006+01:00

Film Screening: Strange Culture,
http://www.strangeculture.net

(D: Lynn Hershman Leeson, 2007), followed by a Round Table. The case of Steve Kurtz will be discussed from legal, cultural-political and curatorial perspectives: Eberhard Schultz (lawyer), Mark C. Donfried (Institute for Cultural Diplomacy) and Christian de Lutz (Art Laboratory Berlin); Moderated by Regine Rapp (Art Laboratory Berlin).
Kino Arsenal, Potsdamer Platz 2, 10785 Berlin

Regine Rapp (Art Laboratory Berlin)

Eberhard Schultz (lawyer)

Mark C. Donfried (Institute for Cultural Diplomacy)

(photos above © 2009 Tim Deussen Fotoscout.de)

In cooperation with

2009-10-08T14:18:00.003+02:00

Opening of the exhibition SEIZED by Critical Art Ensemble &
Institute for Applied Autonomy

Steve Kurtz Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

Detail 'Bodies of Evidence' from SEIZED photo © 2009 Tim Deussenfotoscout.de

Steve Kurtz(CAE) and Richard pell Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

Detail 'Bodies of Evidence' from SEIZED photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

Detail 'Bodies of Evidence' from SEIZED photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

Detail from SEIZED (front room). photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

Detail from SEIZED (back room). photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

Detail from SEIZED (back room). photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

Regine Rapp (center) gives the introductory talk. photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

photo © 2009 Tim Deussen fotoscout.de

2009-09-30T23:15:00.002+02:00

Art and Law III
Seized - Critical Art Ensemble
& Institute for Applied Autonomy

Opening: 2. October 2009, 8PM
Artist Talk: 4. October 2009, 4PM
Exhibition duration: 3. October - 15. November 2009

http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-archive.htm

http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-15.htm

Photos from the installation of the exhibition:

'Body of Evidence' from SEIZED

Richard Pell installing 'Body of Evidence'

Steve Kurtz Installing 'Body of Evidence'

Steve Kurtz Installing 'Body of Evidence'

2009-08-30T23:58:00.005+02:00

Artists in Dialog

Alex Toland: Personal Dispersal Mechanisms.
An Interactive Urban Exploration.

Sunday, August 30, 2009,

gallery installation

interactive urban exploration

urban plants are 'adopted' by participants

a polaroid of human and plant is taken

back at Art Laboratory Berlin

Natural distribution mechanisms of plant species are often severely obstructed in the city. Tree sponsorship is a popular and effective way of re-greening city parks and streets. Individual sponsors become personally linked to individual trees while beautifying the neighborhood and creating new habitats for birds, mammals and insects.

Artist Alex Toland takes this idea a step further by creating species partnerships for a day and encouraging personal interspecies relationships as a potential distribution mechanism. As part of the series Artists in Dialog at ART LABORATORY BERLIN the artist will realize a collaborative walk and installation project by leading a group of Berlin residents through part of the green corridor along the Panke and make personal introductions between individual people and plants. (more information)

2009-08-30T15:42:00.000+02:00

Artists in Dialog

Alex Toland: Personal Dispersal Mechanisms.
An Interactive Urban Exploration.

Sunday, August 30, 2009, 4pm
(starting at Art Laboratory Berlin)

The US-American Environmental Artist Alex Toland creates artistic works at the borderline of art and ecology, ethnobotany, and urban architecture.

For Art Laboratory Berlin on August 30, 2009, she will lead a group of Berlin residents through part of the green corridor along the river Panke and make personal introductions between individual people and plants. Along the walk each participant will “adopt” a species for the day, which will hopefully lead to a longer friendship between man and weed, future recognition of the species and further interest and communication with others about the value of urban nature.

At the end of the walk the human portraits will be installed alongside the plant receptacles and descriptions at ART LABORATORY BERLIN, visually linking human diversity to plant biodiversity as a cultural asset.

For more information see http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/
and http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-event-5.htm

2009-08-03T15:14:00.003+02:00

----------------------------------------------
SAVE THE DATE: 2 October 2009
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Opening of the exhibition
Art and Law III
Seized - Critical Art Ensemble
& Institute for Applied Autonomy

More information to follow shortly

2009-07-22T23:06:00.003+02:00

All images copyright 2009, Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz

Strike Anywhere
Screening of a new video by Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hayashida
(2009, 32 minutes, English without subtitles)
At Artillerie (Exerzierstr. 10, 13359 Berlin) in cooperation with Art Laboratory Berlin

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 at 9 pm
Introduction by Christian de Lutz, Art Laboratory Berlin
Followed by a discussion with the artists

2009-07-20T18:59:00.001+02:00

At Artillerie (Exerzierstr. 10, 13359 Berlin) in cooperation with Art Laboratory Berlin

Strike Anywhere
Screening of a new video by Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hayashida
(2009, 32 minutes, English without subtitles)

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 at 9 pm
Introduction by Christian de Lutz, Art Laboratory Berlin
Followed by a discussion with the artists

artillerie and Art Laboratory Berlin are pleased to present Strike Anywhere for the first time to a Berlin audience, following screenings at the Luleå Art Biennial in Sweden and the Kran>>Film Space in Brussels. The latest collaborative work by the experimental filmmaker Benj Gerdes and the poet Jennifer Hayashida, Strike Anywhere is a video essay that takes as its point of departure Swedish “Match King” Ivar Kreuger, whose privatization of financial crisis management strategies bears a direct relation to late-twentieth century policies implemented by the IMF and WTO.

Between 1917 and 1932, Kreuger capitalised on shifts in global financial markets to control over 200 companies and establish matchstick monopolies in at least 34 countries. At the height of his success, Ivar Kreuger was worth approximately 30 million Swedish kronor (the equivalent of 100 billion USD today) and had matchstick monopolies in at least 34 countries. The project is both a prehistory of neoliberal economics and an allegory about social relations and desire in the wake of global capitalist expansion and excess. (more)

2009-05-29T23:11:00.001+02:00

Ztohoven, Media Reality, television still, 2007

Artist talk with Ztohoven member Prokop Bartoníček following the screening and German premiere of the documentary On Media Reality, by Vladimir Turner (2008)

Opening of Art and Law II: Ztohoven - Media Reality, 29 May, 2009

The Prague based artist collective Ztohoven use their work, often interventions in public space, to scrutinise the creditability of mass media and advertising. In their action Media Reality, which took place on 7 June, 2007, they ‘hacked’ into the Czech weather channel ČT 2 and added the image of an atomic explosion to the live image of a mountain valley. The channel pressed charges under laws against “indecent behavior” and the “diffusion of false information”. In two separate legal actions members of the group were acquitted. At the same time, Ztohoven were awarded the first NG 333 prize for contemporary art from the Prague National Gallery, in connection with Media Reality.

Besides showing the work Media Reality and related court documents, Art Laboratory Berlin will present the German premiere of the film On Media Reality, which documents the legal and artistic aftermath of the action. (more information)

Vladimir Turner, video still, On Media Reality, 42', 2008.

2009-04-24T21:00:00.003+02:00

Artists in Dialog: Paola Yacoub

Paola Yacoub's Presentation is the first of Art Laboratory Berlin's new series of artists talks, presentations, performances and events:
Artists in Dialog

Paola Yacoub will present a running thread through various works, mainly photographs and montages, produced in different geographical areas ranging from Southern Lebanon to Berlin via Sweden and China.The common point is skepticism as it was introduced in visual arts in the U.S.A. at the beginning of the 20th century.

In a fast food restaurant 'Beautifull Heart' in Shenzhen, China, a flat screen continuously transmits news and entertainment channels. Information becomes like decoration. One looks at the screen only from time to time, often not at all, and rarely with attention. We do not know if we agree on postures in front of the screen and on what we see.

A dialogical encounter between two video clips of the same screen in the same fast food restaurant but at different moments were made by Paola Yacoub and by Yao Zhiyan.These plasma screens in fast food restaurants and cafés show the social modality of a contemporary gaze.

Paola Yacoub is a graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and currently a PHD candidate in visual arts at Goldsmith's college, London. Among other venues she has exhibited in the 2002 Sao Paulo Biennale, the 2003 Venice Biennale and was part of the DAAD artists program in 2004/2005 in collaboration with Michel Lasserre. She lives and works in Berlin.

2009-03-22T17:00:00.000+01:00

Lecture by Maksim Neroda (CAT)

The exhibition Monstration shows video works and documents of this and other actions and reflects the public reaction by legal documents and mass media reviews. Maxim Neroda, one of the founders of the group, presents in his lecture the series of 'monstrations' and also additional actions by CAT.

2009-02-20T20:00:00.014+01:00

Art and Law I: CAT -Monstration

Art and Law I: CAT -Monstration

Opening 20.02.2009, 8PM
21.02.2009 - 29.03.2009
Sat. und Sun. 2-6PM
(also Fri. 27.02. and 27.03., 8-11PM)

The CAT (Contemporary Art Terrorism) collective from Novosibirsk creates situations in public space, which lay bare the absurdity of the way in which political power functions. Unprepared passers-by were drawn into the process of creating critical artistic statements. For organizing a May Day monstration - a counterpart to a classical May Day demonstration - in which marchers carried individual banners with apolitical, often poetic or non-rational slogans, the artists were sentenced to pay a fine. The exhibition Monstration shows video works and documents of the public reaction by means of legal documents and mass media reviews.

2008-11-28T20:00:00.016+01:00

29.11.2008 - 04.01.2009
Curators from East and Central Europe III:
Mari Laanemets
Hier wäre das Leben leicht
(There, Life Would Be Easy)

Opening: Friday 28.11.2008, 8PM
Hours: Sat. and Sun. 2 - 6PM;
closed 27.12 and 28.12.2008

Hier wäre das Leben leicht (There, life would be easy) The exhibition revolves around issues of design, of the construction of surfaces we are surrounded by in everyday life: from textiles to texts, to street and city. One of the underlying intentions of the exhibition is to reflect on how these formal constructions organize our behaviour, give our lives a scheme, a program, and on the sedimentation of ideology in forms.
Participating artists: Kadi Estland, Anton Koovit, Sirje Runge, Killu Sukmit, Tere Recarens and Florian Wüst.(more)

2008-10-24T20:00:00.011+02:00

Curators from East and Central Europe II: Elena Sorokina
Subjective Events, Sometimes Recorded

curator's talk and workshop (Elena Sorokina) 24.10.2008

24.10.2008 - 16.11.2008
Curators from East and Central Europe II:
Elena Sorokina
Subjective Events, Sometimes Recorded

Opening: 24.10.2008, 8PM
Sat. and Sun. 2 - 6PM;
also open 31 October from 8PM -11PM
Tour of the exhibition: 02.11.2008, 3PM
Workshop 24.10.08

In everyday language, an event is a notion that embraces two different meanings - a happening violating limits or, in the opposite, invigorating them. One is destructive, the other restrictive; one is closer to the chaos of a revolution, the other to a meticulously performed ceremony with a set of rules. The work in the exhibition focuses on the second meaning: initially, it comments on contemporary rituals or pronounced interest in social codes, which often re-emerge in times of crisis and insecurity. Through recording, staging, or enacting some examples of today's ritualistic behavior the artists examine how the so-called "flexible personalities" engage in a performance of specific and mainly self-imposed rules. (more)

2008-08-30T20:00:00.007+02:00

Art and Science III
Reiner Maria Matysik - Failed Organisms

Artist's talk and workshop: 31.08.2008

30.08.2008 - 28.09.2008
Art and Science III
Reiner Maria Matysik - Failed Organisms

Opening: 29.08.2008, 8PM
Artist's talk: 31.08.2008, 5PM
Tour of the exhibition: 28.09.2008, 3PM

The Berlin artist Reiner Maria Matysik (born 1967, Duisburg, Germany) works in manifold ways with concepts for future organisms. In the course of the last years he has created his own new system of post-evolutionary life forms at the borderline between art and biology. In his installations, videos, actions and publications the term "biological sculpture", coined by Matysik himself, plays a vital role. (more)

2008-05-30T20:00:00.009+02:00

Art and Science II
Marcus Ahlers -Transposed Nodes

21.06.2008 - Children's workshop: SOLAR-ÖFEN

Zum kreativen Umgang mit Sonnenenergie
(SOLAR OVENS Working creatively with solar Energy)

30.05.2008 - 29.06.2008
Art and Science II
Marcus Ahlers - Transposed Nodes

Opening: 30 May, 2008, 8PM
Artists' talk: 14.06.2008,
5 PM Tour of the Exhibition: 20.06.2008. 3PM

The artworks of Marcus Ahlers (born 1974) functions on the borderline of visual arts and science. On one hand they explore visual metaphors for the human body in its surroundings, making reference to social and architectural space. On the other hand they are receptacles for electro-chemical reactions, which take place within them. (more)

2008-03-29T20:00:00.009+01:00

Art and Science I
Dmitrij Bulatov - Senses Alert

Artist's talk and workshop: 29.03.2008

29.03.2008 - 04.05.2008
Art and Science I
Dmitrij Bulatov - Senses Alert
Artist's talk and workshop: 29.03.2008, 5PM
Open Friday 27 April from 8PM
Tour of the exhibition: 27.04.2008, 3PM

Contemporary Art already long ago turned away from a solely anthropocentric point of view. Currently in Science Art, it is concerned, among other things, with ecological phenomena and is investigating the existence of newly emerging life forms; Art and Science have been combined. The Kaliningrad based artist Dmitrij Bulatov views the contemporary art scene as a kind of petri dish of living material for his investigations. Coming from his own artistic experience he has investigated this sphere and explored its dynamics and spatial vectors. In connection with his scientific research and artistic practice, Bulatov has staged an active evolutionary dramatisation of ‘post-biological’ forms whose paradoxical development may completely change our idea of the surrounding world. (more)

2008-01-26T20:00:00.003+01:00

Eastern and Central European Curators I: Denisa Kera and Pavel Sedlak
Cosmopolitics - New Media Art from the Czech Republic

Artists Talk 1.02.2008

Workshop with Denisa Kera (curator): Curating New Media: 27.01.2008 5 PM

26.01.2008 - 2.03.2008
Eastern and Central European Curators I: Denisa Kera and Pavel Sedlak
Cosmopolitics - New Media Art from the Czech Republic
Workshop with Denisa Kera (curator): Curating New Media: 27.01.2008 5 PM
Artists Talk 1.02.2008 8PM
Tour of the exhibition 2.03.2008 3PM

The Czech new media art scene could be characterized by a latecomer strategy which in recent years is turning its disadvantages into a source of advantage. As video art and other trends from the 1980s and 1990s were never strong in the Czech art academies, young artists feel free to experiment and often develop very promiscuous relations to different traditions, trends and technologies. (more)