New Viewings #10
Curated by Angelika Richter
ABWESENHEIT – ABSENCE
Into the absence of the actual physical gallery space, non-material objects and installations are projected that feign their three-dimensional presence. This supposed presence plays with fragility like the room-filling balloon by Hans Hemmert, which denies access and visibility, but could burst at any moment and give room for new visions. Sabine Groß’s fragmented sculptures allow a view into her own interior. As shells placed in space like backdrops, they refer to the original and now disappeared pedestals and objects. Susanne Lorenz’s course offers a field for playful competition. But only one balance artist on the podium freezes in an acrobatic pose. The stand stays empty, the audience remains absent. Tilman Wendland’s space-specific practice here becomes a minimalist intervention into the photography of the exhibition space. By cutting out the walls and duplicating them as surfaces into the room, he combines the idea of space, installation and of the installation shot.
Sabine Groß
Sabine Groß, *1961, Ulm/Donau,
lives and works in Berlin
Sabine Groß deals with basic sculptural forms such as the cube, whose de-constructions she demonstrates. Her sculptures are presentations about presentations of bodies that are fixed as fine art.
Her Artbooks series, a sculptural continuation of the content conveyed by title and illustration, can also be understood in this sense. Through their simultaneous destruction and their transformation as three-dimensional object into a picture the ‚edited‘ books show a pointed re-reading of art history.
Hans Hemmert
Hans Hemmert, *1960 in Hollstadt,
lives and works in Berlin
Berlin-based artist Hans Hemmert is best known for his groundbreaking conceptual artwork, most notably his performative balloon sculptures.
His work has been exhibited at the MoMA in New York, the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (CGAC) in Spain and Shanghai’s Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. His works can also be found in many art collections around the world, including those of the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki, Malmö Konsthall, Berlin Landesmuseum, German Bundestag, and the Jumex Collection in Mexico City.
In times of the Corona pandemic, the balloon would be one of the safest places in the world. Quarantine par excellence. How would it be to live in such a balloon?
Susanne Lorenz
Susanne Lorenz, *1969 in Hannover,
lives and works in Berlin
In her artistic practice, Susanne Lorenz frequently invokes motifs of sport and hunting.
Using appropriate materials, such as the rubber granulate used for tartan tracks, she transforms sports architecture and landscapes into aesthetic spaces of experience. If it is a matter of interventions in public space, these sometimes invite direct use, such as her Badeschiff in the Spree in the middle of Berlin, which was built at the beginning of the 2000s and is extremely popular.
Tilman Wendland
Tilman Wendland, *1969 in Potsdam,
lives and works in Berlin
Tilman Wendland quotes and underlines the architecture of exhibition spaces and their peculiarities in large-scale installations made of paper, cardboard and wood.
As a structuring and expansion of space, they become a playful-critical commentary on the white cube.