OLAF METZEL: GELBES MAUERSTÜCK

All images: Olaf Metzel "Gelbes Mauerstück" at Wentrup Berlin (4th of March - 19th of April), Courtesy Galerie Wentrup, Berlin  © Olaf Metzel

It all started in the late 70s during the 'German Autmn', when policemen entered Berlin's art academy UDK and devastated several studios of the art students. Among them was Berlin-born Olaf Metzel – at that time with a major focus on classic italian art. His interests and forms of expressions changed after that event: he chose vandalism and documented the selective destruction via video. Contrary to many artists, who have unsuccessfully tried to provoke, to appeal for revolution or who miscalculated their audience's economy of attention, Metzel managed several times to cause an outrage. There is always a taste of riot surrounding his art. His public sculpture "Turkish Delight" (2007) in Vienna for example, which showed a naked girl wearing a headscarf, was tipped over and caused a massive amount of hate mails. In 1987, Metzel placed the public work "Randale-Denkmal", consisting of steel barriers and supermarket trolleys, at Joachimsthaler Platz in West-Berlin – exactly the spot where policemen and protesters clashed many times. After conservative dissenting votes, the work was relocated to an industrial party area in the former east. 

INTERVIEW: MIE OLISE

All images: Mie Olise, "Between the Stratum and the Unstable" at DUVE Berlin, March 7 – April 17, 2014, Courtesy Mie Olise and DUVE Berlin

Massive roller coasters, dramatic vessels and houses lifted by scaffolds – Mie Olise, a 1974-born artist from Denmark  – strategically dissembles the constructions of large architectural objects, in order to use their most basic composition as motifs for her art. Each project, often including paintings and wooden installations, is carefully researched and accompanied by a profound background story – whether it is real or fictional. Having studied both, architecture and art, Mie still intertwines the aesthetics of both disciplines with each other. In her current show *Between the Stratum and the Unstable* at DUVE Berlin, she investigates the visual and architectural language of the native Indians and experiments with other media, such as yarn and fabrics. In an interview, she answered us questions about her practice, her inspiration and her daily working routine.

INTERVIEW: JESSICA SANDERS

all images: copyright and courtesy Jessica Sanders

Sugar, salt and beeswax – Jessica Sanders, a young artist based in Brooklyn, New York mostly employs organic materials for her collection of cross-genre art works. Time changes the appearance: the materials break or melt, so that the process in itself becomes the final work. Her sculptures and paintings carry a similar aesthetic, that is both, minimal and corporeal. In a short interview Sanders answered us some questions about her artistic process and her interest in material's tactility.