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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.