translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
071209: Burger Collection: Conflicting Tales: Subjectivity
Burger Collection: Conflicting Tales: Subjectivity
Subtle debut
Bastian, Boros, Burger – what appears to be a short excerpt from a German telephone book, is actually the illustrious list of collectors that have recently opened a subsidiary in Berlin: Heiner Bastian in a Chipperfield building alongside the renovated Neue Museum, Christian Boros in an art-bunker topped by a penthouse close to the Deutsches Theater, and Monique Burger at the former premises of Arndt & Partner on Zimmerstrasse. Burger employed the same tasteful discretion with which she chose her Berlin address for the development of her comprehensive collection of more than 1,000 artworks. She doesn’t only focus on fashionable and marketable investment-art, but also on quieter and more difficult works by young unknown artists. The Berlin-debut is only the starting point of a four-part exhibition cycle, which is also headed towards Brussels, Mumbai, and Hong Kong, and is accompanied by a tight schedule of events including lectures, artist- and roundtable discussions as well as symposiums.
The forced intellectual claim is asserted through the motto under which the first part of the tetralogy is set: subjectivity. Curator Daniel Kurjakovic successfully stages fruitful confrontations: be it by juxtaposing the work of the Pakistani artist (and former pathologist) Nalini Malani “Listening to the Shades”, which attempts to merge myth and medicine, with the figurative vase paintings of Turner Prize-winner Grayson Perry or when Muntean/Rosenblum together with Collier Schnorr contemplate the contribution of poses and gestures for the creation of a subject, or if a painting by Norbert Bisky, the Grisaille paintings by Rafal Bujnowski and the drawings by Douglas Kolk are joined, visualizing the dangers of (foremost physically) growing up.
In the meantime, the Burger Collection itself is relieved of such adolescent antics. It seems to be in great shape and, with this exhibition, its social debut was definitely successful.
By Peter Kunitzky
Burger Collection
10117 Berlin, Zimmerstrasse 90/91, until 13.12.09
www.burgercollection.org
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