INSIDE
SCORPIO’S GARDEN
Group Show Compiled by Kirstine Roepstorff
September 25 – November 15, 2009
OUTSIDE
Bettina Pousttchi
ECHO
September 2009 – February 2010
OPENING
September 24, 2009, 9 pm
Schlossplatz, Berlin-Mitte
phone: (+49) 30 25 76 20 4-0
fax: (+49) 30 25 76 20 4-19
office [at] kunsthalle-berlin.com
SCORPIO’S GARDEN
Compiled by Kirstine Roepstorff
The exhibition Scorpio’s Garden is a subjective snapshot of the current Berlin art scene, bringing together works and performances of more than 30 international artists.
With Scorpio’s Garden, the artist Kirstine Roepstorff (*1972) metaphorically interprets Berlin as a garden, thus highlighting the city’s role as a platform for intellectual exchange and artistic production – a place where images, ideas and concepts find a favorable medium in which to grow, proliferate and compete with each other. The works selected for Scorpio’s Garden take up motifs of development and growth, decline and decadence, control, spontaneity and sexuality. They reflect the dynamic competition distinguishing the art scene in this city, which is still making an effort to work its way out of the ruins of a traumatic century.
Neither a retrospective nor an outlook, the exhibition reflects Berlin’s continuing appeal to artists from all over the world and their activities in this city. Its official birthday (the first mention of the city in a document is Oct. 28, 1237), as well as the day on which the Berlin Wall came down (Nov. 9, 1989), fall under the sign of Scorpio, which in the year’s cycle of growth and decay stands for destruction, disintegration and dissolution, and thus, at the same time, for providing the potential for renewal.
Works by
Monica Bonvicini | Enrico David | Jason Dodge | Elmgreen & Dragset | Isa Genzken | Julian Göthe | Karl Holmqvist | Alexandra Hopf | Judith Hopf | Laura Horelli | Anna-Kavata Mbiti | Shahryar Nashat | Henrik Olesen | Kirsten Pieroth | Lotte Reiniger | Dean Sameshima | Dash Snow | Josef Strau | Suzanne Treister | Susanne Winterling | Amelie von Wulffen
Performances & Lectures by
Nevin Aladag | assume vivid astro focus | Gerry Bibby | Juliette Blightman | Kerstin Cmelka | Simon Fujiwara & Tim Davies | Karl Holmqvist | Judith Hopf | Fiona James | Sergey Karamyshev | Douglas Kløvedal | Warren Neidich | Gustav Opland | Yorgos Sapountzis | Elvis Schlaegel | Egill Sæbjörnsson & Marcia Moraes
ECHO
New project for the façade by Bettina Pousttchi
Just a few months after the last remnants of the Palace of the Republic were removed, visitors of Schlossplatz can now experience an eerie feeling of déjà vu. Bettina Pousttchi‘s (*1971) photo installation Echo covering the entire façade of the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin evokes memories of the just recently demolished building. Yet Echo is not a true-to-scale or true-to-life reconstruction of this socialist magnificent building. The motif for the circumferential black-and-white photograph is comprised of 800 individual posters. The depiction reducing the historical façade to its essential structural components is based on archive pictures. By means of image processing and further elements, the artist creates a number of disturbing moments. Digitally generated lines are reminiscent of CCTV cameras or early TV images – or of a furtive view through the slats of a lowered blind. With this mise-en-scène, Bettina Pousttchi reflects on the individual’s ability to remember and also the suggestive role that the medium of photography plays. As an allegedly simulated historical architecture, Echo directly references the changes in the surrounding urban landscape.
PERFORMANCES / EVENTS
The performances included in the show Scorpio’s Garden and additional events will take place on Mondays during the course of the exhibition. The evenings will be rounded off by the already well known Montags Bar.
CATALOG
The catalog Scorpio’s Garden will appear during the exhibition. With a text by Patricia Ellis, German / English, 60 pages.
EDITION
On the occasion of the exhibitions, editions by Jason Dodge, Bettina Pousttchi and Kirstine Roepstorff will be available.
OPENING HOURS
Daily 11 am – 6 pm, Thursdays to 9 pm.
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PRESS CONTACT
Bärbel Hartje, phone: +49 (30) 25 76 20 4-31, fax: +49 (30) 25 76 20 4-19, press@kunsthalle-berlin.com, www.kunsthalle-berlin.com
