BONN: KENNETH ANGER

Both images © artfridge.de

After taking a walk through the Videonale 14 at Kunstmuseum Bonn, I went to the auditorium where the American video artist and 86-year old avant-garde pioneer talked to film critic Daniel Kothenschulte and presented his newest works "Aircraft 1-3". 

Having a thing of the evil, satanism and bad boys in general, Kenneth Anger revolutionised film-art, when his black-and-white homoerotic horror-porn "Fireworks" premiered in California in 1947. Among Anger's most famous video works are "Lucifer Rising", "Scorpio Rising" or "Invocation of my Demon Brother" and he is the author of the famous gossip book Hollywood Babylon. 

COLOGNE: UNIQUE PATTERNS

from the top: (1) installation view, (2-3) sculptures by Philip Seibel, (4) installation view, (5-7) photographs by Johanna von Monkiewitsch, (8) installation view, (9-10) Andri Bischoff, (11) installation view; images by artfridge and Chaplini Gallery

Since decades, people have tried to demonstrate a uniqueness in their style, however knowing that their appearance is always shaped by trends. We are cut from the same cloth - its the small details that elevate a style to be unique. But how does this work for contemporary art? The current group show at Chaplini Gallery in Cologne approaches questions on the ambivalent relationship of uniqueness and repetition, by exhibiting three young positions, whose works explicitly manipulate repetitive patterns into a unique art piece with only a small artistic intervention. 

THREE DEE / TWO DEE

all images courtesy and copyright Victoria Stusiak (threedeetwodee.tumblr.com)

London photo blog Three Dee / Two Dee by Victoria Stusiak
threedeetwodee.tumblr.com

vastusiak.tumblr.com

ARTIST WATCH: OLIVER PARZER

All photos by Oliver Parzer, belonging to the series 'Surrounded by nothing but our own imagination', courtesy and copyright Oliver Parzer

The 1985-born German photographer Oliver Parzer couldn't have chosen a better title for his silent and scenic Berlin documentation 'surrounded by nothing but our own imagination'. After spending some years in Melbourne, where he studied photography, Parzer returned to Germany and now captures his delicate impressions of the capital. I love to look at his work.

oliverparzer.com

LONDON: KRIS MARTIN

Kris Martin, White Cube Mason's Yard, London, 18 January - 16 March 2013; Images from the top: Kris Martin, "Lost Wax II"; "Lost Wax XIV"; "Untitled"; "Untitled" installation view; all works done in 2013 © Kris Martin, Photo: Ben Westoby, Courtesy White Cube 

With a solo show by 1972-born Belgian artist Kris Martin, White Cube Gallery starts the new year at Mason's Yard in London. As far as I'm concerned, I was a bit prejudiced, before visiting his current exhibition. Classifying his work into particular categories, such as the bigger, the better; flashiness and straining after effects; over-aestheticised high-gloss objects fetishised to pure goods for sale – I simply pigeon-holed Kris Martin, when I recalled his huge and half-inflated hot-air balloon, his golden oversized and shiny globe stand, his collages with advertisements of luxury watches, or a highly-polished Christian cross. However, the conceptual sculptor currently proves quite impressively that I was entirely wrong.

INTERVIEW WITH RALF DEREICH

Located a quiet backyard of Berlin’s hectic Neukölln neighbourhood, Ralf Dereich’s studio lies in the middle of Turkish fruit stores, one-euro-shops and hidden mosques. His working space seems settled, even though every wall displays a colourful and large painting-in-process. Also Ralf appears settled: He speaks reflective, self-critical and just as self-confident about his artistic practice. While shades of green and pink, indicated penises and breast brighten up his paintings, he considers concentration and an individual language just as important to him, as the search of an indefinite ‘something’. During a cosy coffee break, Ralf Dereich tells me about his escape from the art-alienated Rhineland-Palatinate to Berlin, about subconscious and aware working processes, and about the turning point, when he considers a painting to be cool. Click here or on the image to read the interview in English and/or German language.

PARADOX OF TEHRAN

From the top: (1) Skyline of Teheran, photo by Daria Kirsanova; (2) Sara Asefi, Installation view ‘Out Of Time, at Azad Gallery; (3) Elnaz Khoobroo, Installation view of ‘Out of Time’, Azad Gallery; (4) Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar, ‘Tulips Rise from the Blood of the Nation’s Youth’, 2008; all three images © the Artists, courtesy Azad Gallery, Tehran, Iran; (5) Installation View ‘Extraterrestrial’, Group exhibition at Aun Gallery, Tehran, Iran; (6) Nazgol Ansarinia, ‘Subtractions/Refractions’, 2012. Installation views at Aun Gallery, courtesy Aun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

The common knowledge about Iran’s current situation includes mostly negative headlines. We hear about the abuse of human rights, nuclear weapons, war. But there is much more to this country. One of the exciting things about Iran is Tehran’s contemporary art scene – a little bubble of relative freedom, a closed community in a huge chaotic metropolis of 12 million people. There are numerous contemporary art galleries in Tehran and new ones keep on opening. I will introduce four spaces, which are those with the most exciting exhibition program. 

BERLIN: RETURN OF THE OBJECT

From the top: 2x 'Sad Eis' sculpture by Sarah Ortmeyer, 'Garden Painting' by Frederik Vaerselv, 2x 'Solid Objects' by Sanna Marander, curtain 'Ce n'est pas une brioche' by Carl Palm, video work by Priscila Fernandes

Back in the 90s, art theorist Hal Foster wrote his book on The Return of the Real, referring to Jaques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory on the untouchable, unimaginable, immaterial order of the 'Real'. At Invaliden1 current group show The Return of the Object, curator Stefanie Hessler returns to the very touchable, the fetish of the object, investigating in a new philosophical trend: Speculative Realism. This movement doubts pretty much all older philosophies and the belief in science. It returns to a purely self-sustainable material order and denies all hierarchies between objects and subjects. 

Hessler's exhibition juxtaposes five contemporary positions demonstrating different handlings of materiality in (art)-objects. Subliminal and humorous, Sarah Ortmeyer's sculptures 'SAD EIS' manipulate our common object-based triggers of happiness, by replacing the expected pastel-colours of two huge ice-cream sculptures with black, white and grey. Frederik Vaerselv 'Garden Painting', on the other hand, projects the object's self-sustainability and the artist's withdrawal on a wooden panel, which he left outside of his studio where berries and birds left their traces on the object's surface. These two art pieces seem to demonstrate most clearly, how Stefanie Hessler wants to explore material fetishism. 

Another nice installation has been done by Sanna Marander, who placed colourful small objects on the floor, which appear quite random and play with the idea of a collection - its beginning, its evolving and its place of display. The place of display also has an importance in Carl Palm's curtain piece 'Ce n'est pas une brioche', which originally functioned as a room seperator for group shows. A little more complicate and perhaps a little too complex in its approach, is Priscila Fernandes origami video piece, which intends to evoke desires for the non-existing object. 

ROMKA.MAGAZINE #7

 

From the top: Gábor Arion Kudász — Hungary; Christopher Sharp - England, Uk; (Text) Christopher Sharp - England, Uk; Taiyo Onorato — Germany; Sonya Dyakova — England, UK;  Jan-Dirk van der Burg — Netherlands; Aaron MacDonald — Canada; Detail) Iris Janke - Germany; images courtesy the artists and romka magazine

We live in a generation where instagram, pinterest, facebook and other photo suppliers reveal the daily visual dairies of thousands of strangers. We are overwhelmed by other people's privacy, feeding our voyeuristic greed. The Leipzig-based romka.magazine seems to have picked up on that trend, celebrating the purity of snapshots. Developed in a book series, the magazine shows the favourite photos from lots of professional and amateur photographers, including a little story about each picture. 

With a minimalist and clear design, their seventh issue juxtaposes nostalgic photos of grandparents, of the photographers' youths, loved ones, random experiences or landscapes. The small stories take the reader to a scenic moment, like in the case of the little girl in the subway on Iris Janke's picture (above):

"We were all together on the subway. Alexander, Nicolas, Milena and me — the whole family. It was Sunday, totally crowded and my daughter Milena was so excited when this blonde Romanian girl with her dog came in and sat down next to her. I photographed the two of them together and this is the last picture I took before the girl and her dog got off the subway."

Other great shots are for instance by Christopher Sharp, who submitted a portrait of his grumpy grandmother (image and text above) or Jan-Dirk von der Burg's fantastic image of him and his mother standing next to their giant marihuana plant. romka.magazine leaves space for the ephemeral, for the inconspicuous - it highlights the exclusiveness of emotional value and delivers a comforting justification to why we seem to love looking at other peoples' private pictures and obviously our own dusty photoalbums - nostalgically tripping down memory lane.

INTERVIEW: ANDRÉ SMITS

For his ambitious project ‘Artists in the World. The Never Ending Art Trip’ the kind and open Dutch artist André Smits has addressed himself to a giant task: taking pictures of all the artists that he can get a hold of - with the crucial difference, that he only photographs from the rear view. Possessing a collection of over 1500 back-portraits, which are publicly archived on his project’s website artistsintheworld.com, André always follows contact recommendations of artists, curators or gallerists  from only one person per trip - his so called ‘guide’. Consequently, his network gets larger and larger each day, everyone is somehow connected with each other and André documents this process with doodles that he paints on the walls of his country house. When André visited me here in Berlin, I wanted to know what drives him to do such a crazy and similarly brilliant mission. Find the interview below.

BERLIN: TILL DEATH DO US PART

Installation views of the exhibition "Der Tod nimmt sich einen Tag nach dem anderen." by Ralf Schmerberg at Mindpirates Vereinsheim Berlin, courtesy Ralf Schmerberg; Video "Ich kann Dir die Welt nicht zu Füssen legen" of the POEM series by Ralf Schmerberg, courtesy Ralf Schmerberg

The enormous space of Mindpirates Vereinsheim in Berlin is an attraction itself: An old mill by the Spree, restored, still furnished by some few tools from the past. This location is constantly used for several projects, such as exhibitions, concerts, parties, dinners or performances. Every event is connected to each other. Sound and video installations become a part of a temporary interior, where people stay and spend time. At Mindpirates Vereinsheim, I always get the impression that I am losing my sense of reality, being trapped in a fantasy world - a paradise for creativity.

The current exhibition "Der Tod nimmt sich einen Tag nach dem anderen" ( Death takes one day at a time) showing a retrospective by Mindpirates founder, video-and photo artist Ralf Schmerberg, is directed to his Berlin, to friends and partners. Filling the exhibition space and his private studio on the top floor, this is is a home match in every sense.

125 photographs, commercial and artistic videos, sound installations and project excerpts: A blast of imagery and poetry. Born in 1965 in Ludwigsburg, Schmerberg started to work as a filmmaker and photographer in 1990 in Berlin, always shifting between art, advertise and activism. The photos, which often document colleagues, making-of moments and portraiture from his commercial jobs, attest to a dionysian and surreal lust for life. Despite the morbid title, Schmerberg's work opposes death. 

The beautiful short film "Ich kann Dir die Welt nicht zu Füssen legen" from his POEM series is one of my favourite works from the show: The video, which is number 5 out of 19 films that he dedicated to Poetry, combines Heiner Müller's words with a room filled with burning wedding dresses.

Schmerberg's distinct aesthetic tolerates a battle between silence and noise, it is colourful and enthusiastic. There is no room for misery and exhaustion.