Süden
Villa Romana: Art, music & performance
August 27–September 8, 2013
Deutsche Bank KunstHalle
Unter den Linden 13/15
10117 Berlin
www.deutsche-bank-kunsthalle.de
Prizewinners from Germany and international guest artists: For years, the Villa Romana artists’ house has brought various generations, art scenes, and nationalities together in Florence. Now the exhibition, music, and performance program Süden is bringing the Villa’s lively atmosphere to Berlin, in the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle. The program is being curated by Angelika Stepken, who has directed the artists’ house since 2007.
A focal point of Süden is an exhibition of works by this year’s Villa Romana Fellows—Shannon Bool, Mariechen Danz, Heide Hinrichs, and Daniel Maier-Reimer. Danz can also be experienced as a performer in a concert by her band UNMAP, which combines cool New Wave sounds with electro soul and melancholic singing.
The exhibition is embedded in a comprehensive program reflecting the changing social realities of the Mediterranean region. Bärbel Küster is presenting the project Lampedusa. The Day After, on which the Milan photo artist Armin Linke also worked. The island of Lampedusa between Sicily and Tunisia is one of the first ports of call for boat people from Africa. In addition, Mirene Arsanios and Setareh Shahbazi are presenting a mixture of talk, workshop, and performance. Arsanios is a cofounder of the Beirut Project Space 98weeks research project. They and the other guest artists presenting their work in the KunstHalle—Eman Hamdy (Egypt), Enkelejd Zonja (Albania), and Sofiane Zouggar (Algeria)—will surely address the issue of how current political developments in the Arab world are impacting contemporary art.
Süden also features a number of Italian artists, theater companies, and performance groups. The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowksi and Thomas Richards has realized Electric Party Songs, an homage to the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, specifically for the KunstHalle, while the performance group Kinkaleri from Prato honors William S. Burroughs with Fourthousand | All!.
The final event in the series is the text-sound-film and cooking performance “Hot Feet” by Wichtel und die Wuchteln. The group consists of an interesting mixture of artists. Oswald Wiener is a theorist for the Wiener Gruppe, one of the most radical art associations in postwar Europe. Ingrid Wiener has participated in performances by the group and founded legendary restaurants such as Exil in Berlin. Rosa Barba is an artist and filmmaker, Klaus Sander a music producer, and Jan St. Werner a founding member of the band Mouse on Mars.
You can download the Süden program here.
For more than a century, the Villa Romana has been a very special artists’ house that has repeatedly made a name for itself. Since 2006, it has developed into a forum for contemporary art in Florence.
With the Villa Romana Fellowship, Deutsche Bank Foundation’s sponsorship of promising young artists is particularly apparent. The Villa Romana Fellowship is not only the oldest German art prize but also the longest-standing cultural commitment of Deutsche Bank and its foundations. The bank has sponsored this renowned contemporary art award in Germany since the end of the 1920s. The biggest private sponsor of the Villa Romana Association is the Deutsche Bank Foundation. It is also funded by other foundations, companies, and private individuals and receives substantial support from the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Every year, four visual artists who live in Germany receive grants to spend ten months in Florence. Many of the former fellows are represented in the Deutsche Bank Collection.
What began in 1905 with a generous loan from the bank to the artists and fundraisers around Max Klinger enabling them to buy the property and continues today with financial and personal commitment is now, following the presentation of the Villa Romana Fellows in 2008, being carried on in the KunstHalle. Experience a very special exhibition of the “south” in Berlin.
More information at deutsche-bank-kunsthalle.com and db-artmag.com.
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