English summaries October 6

n.b.k. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein Luca Vitone - Imperium. 20.09.14 to 09.11.14 Turned to dust By Raimar Stange "Porträts" by "four institutes of state power", writes the Neue Berliner Kunstverein / New Berlin Art Society about Luca Vitone's exhibition "Imperium", showing the Italian artist there. It concerns so-called "Dust Aquarelles / Watercolours", pictures that Luca Vitone, who incidentally, was represented last year in the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, painted with dust from vacuum cleaner bags which he acquired from the following four buildings: The German Central Bank, the German Federal Parliament, the Federal Court of Justice and the Berlin Pergamon Museum. The monochrome pictures "Spaces / Rooms", 2014, appear, and this is not actually surprising, very similar, simply through the intensity of the prevalent, varied brown tones of all four pictures. The four locations thus "portrayed", however, are cleverly chosen as they stand, after all, for economic, legislative, judicial and cultural power. Likewise, good to see are the minimalistic pictures in their severe yet in spite of that almost poetical impression. But the political aspiration of the exhibition – which incidentally also stresses the title of the exhibition which, if nothing else, alludes to Negri/Hardt's book "Empire" – needs to be questioned: how far, namely, do these four pictures really represent "portraits" of implied centres of power? So: tell me how your dust looks and I'll tell you who you are? Precisely this calculation of Luca Vitones doesn't work out - the political quality is unfortunately lacking in this concept. It's similar in the exhibition's other room in which the artist presents his olfactory sculpture "Imperium", 2014. In co-operation with the master perfume maker, Maria Candida Gentile, Vitone tried to compose the "Scent of Power" (nbk). What one smells in the brightly lit exhibition room brings, perhaps, the smell of fear to mind, or of musty offices. But finally, this work is no more successful than the hopefully tongue-in-cheek allegation that there is a typical stench of leadership. n.b.k. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein 10115 Berlin, Chausseestr. 128/129, Tel: +49 (0)30 280 70 20 Fax: +49 (0)30 280 70 19 Email: nbk@nbk.org www.nbk.org Opening hours: Tue – Fri 12.00 – 18.00 hours, Sat 14.00 – 18.00 hours < rotor > Society for Contemporary Art Territories 28.09.14 to 22.11.14 On the ceiling and beyond By Nora Theiss presents a multi-faceted, but at the same time compact exhibition within the framework of this year's Styrian Autumn. With "Territories", seven positions of artists are shown that deal with occupation, holding occupied, elimination and making use of rooms, landscapes and resources. As different as the displayed works are, they enrich each other at different levels. Already the entrance area to the gallery which is partially occupied by the work "53,31 m² barrier planks" by Ovidiu Anton, shatters the accustomed perception because the tribune built up here forms an extensive barrier which can, admittedly, be overcome but appears as extremely massive and forbidding. The courageous dare to get over it, for the losers, there is still an entrance through the stairwell. Meanwhile, climbing over the barrier doesn't just present a new standpoint, and therefore a new perspective, but also presents a unique opportunity to reach up to the ceiling of the metres-high old building. Behind this, further works open up, the aspects of territorial inclusion and exclusion, not only in the room but also to capture the language – Lerato Shadi's "Selogilwe", an elegiac, seven-hour video; the presumptuousness of the conquest in the literal sense of the word – Tim Sharp's "Chain Reaction", which conjures up associations of a crown of thorns –; transgressing the borders both public and private – Gaby Steiner's "Public Home" –; or the area of conflict of melancholic, sentimental pictorial language as opposed to brutal, territorial conflict – Gamlet Zinkovsky's cycle "Awaiting the War". The brutality of the territorial invasion brings Mark Boulos up to the commercial, capitalistic level by means of a video installation. His documentation from the Niger delta illustrates how the large oil firms enrich themselves through the mineral wealth of the African continent, thereby robbing the people living there of every basis of existence. The forcefulness of the juxtaposition of the pictures of ecstatic men in the Nigerian jungle on the one side and of the great crude oil selling exchange in Chicago on the other side gives ones goose bumps and promotes reflection. The dealings of humans with humans, with the earth which, according to Rousseau doesn't belong to any one person, and its resources is clearly articulated, thematised and represented in wonderful artistic works in this exhibition. One is tempted to reach for the ceiling and in so doing, to wish for changes. < rotor > Society for Contemporary Art 8020 Graz, Volksgartenstraße 6a, Tel: +43 316 688 306 Fax: +43 316 688306 Email: rotor@mur.at rotor.mur.at Opening hours: Mon – Fri 10.00 – 18.00 hours, Sat 12:00 – 16:00 hours Galerie Andreas Huber curated by_ Kristina Scepanski: Instrumental Assistance 03.10.2014 – 08.11.2014 A feel for the digital By Susanne Rohringer Within the framework of the track "curated by_", which this year bears the title "The Century of the Bed", the young German art historian, Kristina Scepanski, has arranged a contribution by Andreas Huber which is well worth seeing. The exhibition is entitled "Instrumental Assistance", and with this, contends that the bed should be thought of as part of our body. From the bed, a view and experience of a disembodied, digital world is made possible. To emphasize this assertion, we are met by a print by Camille Flammarion from 1893 at the entrance. A man is lying on his bed and is handling numerous projects and apparatus. The machines enable him to observe the world as a film on the opposite wall without his having to move out of the bed. To unite this conflict of physical passivity of someone lying prone with the abundance of perceptual possibility is the not too simple theme of this exhibition. And it is a theme that appears to have occupied the contemporary art since the beginnings of picture projection. The historic engraving leads the visitor further in the first room where the works of the young Berliner, Timur Si-Qui, are exhibited. There, the long aluminium plates on which material-like colours in grey and mauve have been applied, are to be seen. It portrays yoga mats which have been burnt on aluminium in the oven. Thus, the couch blends with the background so that a superfluous coloured impression is the only impression that remains. Here, too, the viewer experiences a loss of the haptic and the physical. In the same room, a film by the young New Yorker, Tabor Robak, further emphasizes this assertion. In the video "20XX", a science fiction city world is imagined with high rise blocks, flying objects, lights and advertising banners whose film sections are denoted by running drops of water. The water drops run down as on a glass plate in front of the world which cannot be entered but which lures us viewers as if by magic. Here, too, a longed-for place is imagined in a digital distance. The New Yorker, Jon Rafman, shows how such longed-for places might look in the digital era by means of videos and C prints. From the website, he got large museum pictures by famous artists such as El Lissitzky and his partner, Lybov Popova, by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, and mounted them as a type of all-embracing décor in an interior design. Inner spaces reminiscent of commercial interest were created whose decor can be found on fountain pens or matchboxes in many museum shops the world over. At the end of the exhibition, after so much abundance, the visitor is met with an inviting object by the American artist, Tom Burr. It's a red camping bed on which lies the open text in English "Against Interpretation" by Susan Sontag. One wants to sit down, linger and leaf through this book. In this essay, Sontag also criticizes some over-interpretation of art and asks that the sensory perception of art not be forgotten. A remarkable suggestion in light of our digital picture world. Galerie Andreas Huber 1040 Vienna, Schleifmuehlgasse 6-8, Tel: +43 1 586 02 37 Fax: +43 1 586 02 37 Email: art@galerieandreashuber.at www.galerieandreashuber.at Opening hours: Tue – Fri 11.00 – 18.00 hours, Sat 11.00 – 15.00 hours PSM Gallery Christian Falsnaes - Performance works 18.09.14 to 01.11.14 You are now leaving the comfort zone! By Eva Scharrer Christian Falsnaes (*1980 in Copenhagen, lives in Berlin) consequently radicalized the participatory moment of the performance work – thereby giving nothing away."Performance Works", Christian Falsnaes' second exhibition in the Berlin PSM Gallery, probably represents the most consequent answer to the ABC (Art Berlin Contemporary) Art Fair which is open in parallel. Whilst rather more viewing than buying is done at the ABC, there's nothing here to see without making an effort: for instance, the work doesn't develop "in the eye of the beholder", but only after the purchase agreement has been signed. The differently and complexly laid out performances cost between 800 and 10.000 Euro, whereby the realisation from one unique, intimate experience to a contractual licence is often sufficient to present a piece according to the script, as long as the set conditions for it are fulfilled and the buyer, as the new owner of the performance, has been primed by the artist ("Workshop", all 2014). He who doesn't want to buy can always try to present the works based on the instructions. However, these don't convey poetic pictures as, for instance, the "Instruction Pieces" by Yoko Ono, but simply the parameters that, for example, look like: "Fulfilling Your Expectations" is a performance that contains singing, dancing, painting, touching, logical speech, nonsensical speech, nudity, and a surprise. "Fulfilling Your Expectations" is shown only once, and only to the purchaser of the work. If – and only if – the work is purchased, Christian Falsnaes will show "Fulfilling Your Expectations" to the purchaser. Falsnaes moves the, for his work central aspect of the interaction with the public, over to the collector, whereby the authoritarian summons to participation which runs consistently through his work, is once again pointedly directed to the mechanism of the art markets – without a collector, the work does not even exist. Besides the market value of the immaterial and the dynamic of instruction vs. improvisation – aspects that, for instance, also play a role in the work of Tino Sehgal – it's all about seduction, hope, trust and co-operation here. But it isn't completed by payment for the work alone. Falsnaes' performances are not made for the passive consumption but always demand a decision, a leaving of the individual comfort zone. To let oneself in for this can result in interaction with strangers, collective painting of canvasses or carrying out absurd actions in front of the public, whereby one also runs the risk of suddenly standing completely naked at an art fair – as, for instance, in "Justified Beliefs", Falsnaes' statement contribution to this year's Art Basel. In the process of their creation, each of the five works offered here also involve other artistic media such as painting, drawing, photography or video. And thus, the gallery is at least not quite empty: the displayed score belonging to the work "Time/Line/Movement" has to be portrayed within a few minutes by the buyer at the time of acquisition and the "Original" then burnt, all of which is captured by photography. Die interpretation will be attached to the original. An interesting dynamic is thus created between the artist's control over his work and the simultaneous relinquishing of authorship to the consumer. PSM Gallery 10179 Berlin Köpenicker Strasse 126, Tel: +49 30 75524626 email: office@psm-gallery.com www.psm-gallery.com Opening hours: Tue - Sat 12.00 - 18.00 hours

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