Berlin

In monumental form, the artist Genia Chef continues a theme he began in his work on the destruction of the Berlin City Palace, and presents his painting from the second cycle of the work “Gloria Novi Saeculi”.

Christoph Otto’s pictures from the series “Berlin Formations” (“Berliner Formationen”) were created in early 1990, at a time when people were streaming towards the Wall that had only just been overcome and when the abandoned squares of the metropolis radiated high symbolic value. Removed from reality, these formations take on their abstract form.

Saskia Breitenreicher’s pictures reflect photographs of classic Berlin postcard motifs. Her project “I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin” (“Ich hab’ noch einen Koffer in Berlin”) has, besides a romantic side, a critical contemporary dimension, as do the pictograms of Valerie Schwarz, who in her project “reSigNATION” makes evident the influence and power that traffic signs in particular exert over us.

The works of Mirko Tzotschew from the series
t-Scape deal with the perception of the city of Berlin. He starts from the premise that so much happens within the field of our perception that we cannot possibly take it all in. A process of selection takes place, which these pictures show.

The paintings of Nikola Irmer are stages for changeable identities. Models found through classified ads can be observed, seemingly by chance, in public space, or celebrate their role-plays within the seclusion of the studio. The layers and tonal registers of the painting create distance and closeness at once, demanding participation and respect.

Kerstin Wagener works amid the tension between a harsh outer world, a rough reality, and the seemingly sheltered inner world of one’s own home or an interior. She deliberately places herself in the midst of the turmoil between oppressive advertising, consumption and war on the one hand, and remote calm and protective seclusion on the other. The acrylic painting “Bathroom Battle” from the series “HOME SONG” is on loan from the Galerie Gerken.
In the newly created unique screenprints by Klaus-Peter Vellguth, the focus is on the four-point signal with the Ampelmännchen (the little traffic-light man).
This traffic control system, and the Ampelmännchen in particular, is often regarded as a symbol of German–German reunification and is frequently used and addressed by artists.

The opening will be accompanied by two video installations:

The installation “Dr. Gordon” by Judy Ross is a three-dimensional, walk-in piece of science fiction and a media overload. Videos are projected showing fictional and real views of Berlin. Drawing on literary and film classics such as “Neuromancer”, “1984” or “Blade Runner”, an ensemble of exuberant visual references emerges, accompanied by the narrator “Dr. Gordon” with his thoughts on surveillance and the dissolution of the private.
For “The Pleiades #1” (“Die Plejaden #1”), Mona Jas took her video work “Ideals” (“Ideale”), made in recent years, as a starting point. In it she pursued the question of whether there are still ideals of significance for our lives today and what can endure as an ideal. Over 60 filmed conversations resulted, in which she asked people from her circle to say something about their personal view of ideals.