Magda Beger presents two prints from her degree: a series of etchings, with portraits and still lifes. To give the prints the presence they require, she has black glazed frames made. Occasion to discuss the highly complex field of framing. Spacers, passepartouts, the distance from glass to paper, and the balance of shades of white open up an unexpected scientific depth.
After taking our thoughts out to sea, wrapping them in longing, letting them bounce on a shiny surface, Irene Fernández Arcas lets our senses immerse in her work. While the cyanotype, of deepest marine blue, is a good way to follow the gaze of unfulfilled longing into the deep, a color pencil drawing charms by twinkling from afar. A video, underscored by a low bass and synthesizer tattle, adds a synaesthetic dimension to the work field.
Kiwan presents us with the current state of his new work. A rotund, organic fusion of ellipsoids drives around the room on a robotized rack. So far, it darts across the room in a forward and backward motion, and with a reach that‘s hard to calculate. It is still a little too fast, Kiwan says, but he is still working on the programming, to master speed and radius.
Janis and Annemarie have no fear of contact on the final metres of catalogue production. Quite a strain – and the bookbinder had been clear from the start: a machine binding would have been a lot faster. But owing to the ambitious idea of creating the cover based on the principle of the Swiss Brochure – a particular kind of lay flat brochures –, the thread-stitched block has to be glued by hand. What‘s great about that: the front cover can be opened together with the spine, so that the whole block is visible. This way, opening the catalogue is much improved.
Something every experienced visitor of contemporary art exhibitions will agree with: video art can be a pain. The way in which it is brought to bear in exhibitions is oftentimes vexing to the spectator who seeks a full view, and who is frequently thrown into the middle of a complex narrative, whose meaning he can hardly ascertain if he missed its beginning.
No problem for Ann-Charlotte Gerlach. She is well-versed in the difficulties of the medium, and has thought up something very special for her video work. From a stack of boxes, an architectural form emerges, which can be entered by way of a single step. At the top, a bench invites the viewer to stay. This structure is not just an eye catcher, it catches the viewer: once you have settled in on the comfortable bench, you don‘t want to get up anytime soon.
It is great when insights have a framework. But the frame which Gintare Simutyte gives to her new pictorial insights leads a life of its own. Contrary to the common art of framing, her side bars reach onto the paper – the frame leads, quasi subito, into the image space, supporting the windowlike character, which is also important to the motivic leading.
Worthy of further discussion in Gintare‘s collage work are also aspects of durability and conservation. Particularly in the case of untested collage materials, ballpoint and felt tip pens, it is important to take care that the work does not develop in unexpected ways. It isn‘t always due to artistic intention when after the sale of a work, spots of acid burn holes into the paper, or when sheets are not to be found in the collection inventory after having disintegrated fully. Here, forsightfulness is in order.
Yehudit Yinhar is making good progress with her leaflet project. They are published weekly, usually referring to current political themes. Now, she is faced with the question how work that is meant for public space could take place in a gallery space. This conflict has the potential of putting space into question, and to achieve, by way of connection and entanglement of contexts, a new form, corresponding to the symbiosis of art and political activism.
Little compares to the adrenaline rush on the court: The serving player is leading, 5-2 in the third set, the match seems decided. But then, the first serve is out, the second hits the net. A lucky passing shot of his opponent sets him back to 0-30. Irritated by this sudden resistance, he serves another double fault. A return, unattainable to the far-away server, touches down just behind the net. The service game is lost. After the 5-3, nothing seems to work out anymore. The opponent, sensing the turnaround, moves up a gear.
This or something like it must be the course of Rahel Goetsch’s imaginary tennis game when she creates a drawing in competition with herself that is not to be underestimated. Herself a passionate tennis player, she is familiar with the subtleties of the sport, and even court maintainance finds its equivalent: as a soloistic serpentine.
Oskar Zaumseil is presenting his new drawings, the work of this semester. His approach is fully intuitive: he creates a plan on the paper, which is then filled in. That can be rather taxing. What results, though, is energy, concentration, a body of drawing which one can’t help but love.
Acute, in the throws of ultramarine fever, Manuel Tayarani is working on new drawings and objects. Plastic, clay, paper, ruler: A cursory glimpse of his work space is cause for brisk associations. Here’s a space for drawing, kneading, pasting, cutting, pulverizing, atomizing – in front, behind, above, below. And for speculations on how all this could possibly be attached to the wall.