Artistic programme 2023: The Material Revolution

E-WERK Luckenwalde is pleased to announce details of the 2023 artistic programme—The Material Revolution—opening April 29 to coincide with Gallery Weekend Berlin. E-WERK will bring UK based artist Kira Freije to Luckenwalde for her first German institutional exhibition, screen a series of films in collaboration with CIRCA by legendary land artist Agnes Denes, pioneer of the ecological art movement, alongside a special performance and sound installation by the German musician FM Einheit (Founding member of Einstürzende Neubauten) in collaboration with Vinzenz Schwab, in combination with a special performance on Saturday 29th at 4pm with limited capacity. Reserve your tickets here.

The opening preview will take place on Saturday, April 19 (12–6pm) with a preview for media on Friday, April 28 (2–5pm) to coincide with Berlin Gallery Weekend. The public preview on Saturday, April 29 will include a performance by FM Einheit at 4pm that day.

The Material Revolution: April 29–July 16, 2023  
The Material Revolution is a devotion to the political agency and silent power of materials to ignite systemic change. The programme will pay tribute to artists who refuse ingrained materialistic laws in order to reclaim meaning—from the subversive potential of metal in feminist discourse to the physical and radical reclamation of urbanised territories with abolished agriculture and the building of instruments from industrial waste to produce new sonic territories. 

Kira Freije: The Throat is a Threaded Melody
The Throat is a Threaded Melody by Kira Freije presents a collection of new figurative metal sculptures by the artist, made specifically for E-WERK’s Turbine Hall. Meandering pathways formed within the space host cinematic interjections of human archetypes. Themes of power and powerlessness jostle with the prosaic infrastructures of the street and interior. Beacons stream past to momentarily reveal the bustle and frequency within the human relationships at play. Throughout the exhibition lies contradictory energy between material production and emotional rigour. Employing cold forming metal working with sand casting to formulate figures in various states of action or contemplation, Freije warps traditional and light industrial metalworking techniques. The figures on view are both emotionally and industrially constructed into reflective beings with a surreal possession of the cadence of daily ritual. 

Agnes Denes: Another Confrontation
E-WERK in collaboration with CIRCA presents Another Confrontation—a series of videos created by pioneering environmental artist Agnes Denes who has worked at the intersection of land-art, eco-feminism, mathematics and philosophy for over fifty years. Another Confrontation traverses over 1000 years of humanity (1982—3022) to highlight Denes’ focus on ecology, her fear of our present environment’s decay and hope for future survival. Through three acts from the past, present and future including: Wheatfield–A Confrontation (1982), Tree Mountain–A Living Time Capsule and 2022 Questionnaire and Time Capsule, the video works comment on the mismanagement of world hunger, food and energy; highlights the importance of collective global action; and culminates in a global survey about humanity, the responses of which have been buried in a time capsule to be opened in the year 3022, a thousand years from now. Another Confrontation originally premiered on the CIRCA global platform of digital billboards in 2022 to mark the 40th anniversary of the moment Denes first sowed the seeds of her prophetic public artwork, Wheatfield–A Confrontation in May 1982.

FM Einheit and Vinzenz Schwab: High on the wind (A multi-channel sound installation) 
The sound and material researcher FM Einheit was a founding member of the legendary experimental music group Einstürzenden Neubauten. Founded in West Berlin in 1980 the group is synonymous with the refusal of musical tradition and laws. FM Einheit’s self-made instruments are created out of industrial waste which, through skilled, affectionate and respectful handling, become portals to new musical worlds and sounds. By instrumentalising the urban and natural landscape, Einheit harnesses the sound of stone, metal, sand, water, flesh, cities, forests and oceans, to create radically visceral new compositions. Vinzenz Schwab’s work moves between the fields of electroacoustic composition, live electronics, film music and sound design. Within the framework of The Material Revolution, Einheit and Schwab have composed a sound installation for E-WERK Luckenwalde that combines sonic samples from the industrial landscape of E-WERK, such as the 1913 mechanical conveyor belt, self-engineered wood chip machine and clanking engine room with a real-time instrumentalisation of the building—making the historic brown coal power station reverberate with sound. 

​Performance: Swing in—Swinging out 
Saturday, April 29, 4pm (1 hour)

Einheit will also perform live on Saturday 29th April at 4pm, alongside collaborators Siegfried Zielinski, Rica Blunck, Saskia von Klitzing and Volker Kamp. Reserve your tickets here.

Supported by
The Approach, London
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects New York

For media and PR  information, contact: Nicola Jeffs, nj [​at​] nicolajeffs.com / T +44 7794 694 754