FischGrätenMelkStand
curated by John Bock
2 July – 31 August 2010
Opening:
1 July, 2010, 8 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
curated by John Bock
With Franz Ackermann, Pawel Althamer, And Also The Trees, Heike Aumüller, BARarchitekten, Matti Isan Blind, Anna und Bernhard Blume, Brandlhuber+, Björn Braun, Pavel Büchler, Andreas Bunte, Matthew Burbidge, Nina Canell, Franziska Cordes, Björn Dahlem, Discoteca Flaming Star, Sean Edwards, FAT KOEHL, Martin Fletcher, Saul Fletcher, Karsten Födinger, Heiner Franzen, Mathew Hale, Raimund Harmstorf, John Hejduk, Gregor Hildebrandt, Anuschka Hoevener, Sergej Jensen, Stefan Kern, Martin Kippenberger, Harald Klingelhöller, Lachenmann, Ludwig Leo, Sergio Leone, Klara Lidén, Adrian Lohmüller, Lone Haugaard Madsen, Paul McCarthy, Sandra Meisel, Isa Melsheimer, Meuser, Matt Mullican, Ascan Pinckernelle, Julian Rosefeldt, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Michael Sailstorfer, Albrecht Schäfer, Christoph Schlingensief, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, Armand Schulthess, Andreas Slominski, Sven Temper, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kara Uzelman, Edgar Varèse, Vinyl Terror & Horror, Franz West, Ingrid Wiener, Iannis Xenakis, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Heimo Zobernig.
For FischGrätenMelkStand – the final project at Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin – the artist John Bock has developed a masterful meta-structure within which he installs works by 61 artists. An eleven-meter-tall walk-in steel construction creates a range of spatial situations over four levels, linking the individual works into a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk, or total artwork.
Unlike the classic white cube, this scenario offers the works on show anything but a neutral setting. Within a structure that is functional and grotesque in equal measure, the artworks fuse with the space that surrounds them. By this means, John Bock creates surprising poetic, formal, and thematic connections and contradictions that refer to pop culture, architecture, film, science, and everyday life, as well as to parapsychology, music, and fashion. Visitors to the show are invited to embark on their own voyage of discovery.
In his own works, John Bock deals with open structures for which he finds absurd forms with an inner logic that is both playful and compelling. By combining various media – sculpture, installation, film, performance – he creates a total artwork within which the artist himself often appears as a protagonist, explaining his cosmos in sprawling, surreal experimental set-ups. For FischGrätenMelkStand, John Bock reverses this principle, letting the viewer take his place in exploring the precarious structure with its bizarre installations and constellations.
EVENT
July 9, 9 pm, concert: And Also The Trees (UK)
EDITION
FischGrätenMelkStand will be accompanied by the release of a limited signed edition by John Bock.
OPENING HOURS
Daily 11 am – 6 pm, Mondays to 9 pm.
SAVE THE DATE!
On August 31, 2010, the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin will close.
Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin realized unusual exhibition concepts and facade projects with the city’s artists, offering a large audience access to the diversity and complexity of Berlin as a site of international artistic production. The privately funded project facilitated exhibitions, events, and publications in which over 800 artists took part in the two years of its existence.
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
