How can experiences that have been shaped through time and contact with discrimination, violence and/or catastrophic events, that are resulting in displacment and isolation, be discussed? How can we as artists make parallels to our artistic work visible? How can an inclusive idea of mental health be created rather than finding solutions to overcome trauma in an instant? 

#backgroundnoise

at Common Place, Beijing, China

We/You are almost there! This is what we often tell ourselves or others in order to encourage or remind them that once we reach “there”, we or our actions will enter into a state different from the current one. But this“there”, as a destination, does not only imply the temporal division between future and present, it also implies a spatial division - the difference between our current position and that of our destination. Almost Human is a response to and an analysis of the divisions between the existence of those that are human and those pseudo, quasi, and non-human: how these divisions manifest and are justified. Can we truly say that NASA astronauts in space, who are almost entirely dependent on inorganics to sustain their continued biological existence, still live human lives? And what of those on Earth who likewise depend on inorganics such as pacemakers and prosthetics to go about their daily existences? No matter the answer, the question we cannot escape is: how reliable is our current assessment of the division between organics and inorganics, and indeed is it possible to reconstruct this division that determines our aesthetic experience?

The artists of Almost Human –Linhan Yu, You Gu, Zhé Wang, responded to this question of division according to their differing individual aesthetics and personal experiences. But their responses do not correspond with “there” as a destination, as destination implies an end that unavoidably precludes the disclosure of the question. On the contrary, their responses explore what it fundamentally means to be human, and build upon this base by examining this question from the deeper perspective of mundane life.

Zum Thema „Geruch in der Gegenwartskunst“ zeigt der Bremer Verband Bildender Künstlerinnen und Künstler (BBK) seine Jahresausstellung 2021 in der Städtischen Galerie Bremen

"Smell it! Geruch in der Kunst" ist ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt zum Geruch in der zeitgenössischen Kunst. Dazu gehören: GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, kek Kindermuseum, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen, Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Städtische Galerie Bremen, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Zentrum für Künstlerpublikationen. Im Kontext einer Entgrenzung der Kunst möchte die Kooperation dabei der aktuell immer wichtiger werdenden und zugleich nur wenig erforschten Auseinandersetzung der Kunst mit Geruch begegnen. Kern des Projektes sind zehn individuelle Ausstellungen, eine wissenschaftliche Vortragsreihe sowie ein gemeinsames Vermittlungsprogramm im Zeitraum von Mai bis Juli 2021.

Das sind die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer:

Esther Adam, Claudia Christoffel, Peter de Cupere (Belgien), Anja Fußbach, Brian Goeltzenleuchter (USA), Bernadette, Barbara Haiduck, Susann Hartmann, Anneli Käsmayr, Laura Pientka, Jana Piotrowski, Mari Lena Rapprich, Anne Schlöpke, Stephan Thierbach, Maki Ueda (Japan), Clara Ursitti (GB), Martin Voßwinkel, Zhé Wang und Doris Weinberger.

Das Spektrum der geruchsbezogenen künstlerischen Projekte der 19 vertretenen Positionen ist thematisch und medial sehr breit. Es beinhaltet tatsächlich riechende „olfaktorische“ Kunstwerke und Arbeiten, die zu bestimmten Zeiten so benutzt werden, dass eine direkte Geruchsebene entsteht, durch Kochen, durch Rösten, durch eine aromatherapeutische Beratung. Außerdem finden sich Werke in der Ausstellung, die Geruch nur gedanklich evozieren oder über das Riechen als besondere sinnliche Betätigung reflektieren.

Eine Besonderheit der Ausstellung „Olfaktor“ ist, dass es bei allen Kunstwerken explizit um den Geruch in der bildenden Gegenwartskunst geht, in der das Thema bisher trotz zunehmender Beschäftigung in jüngster Zeit ein absolutes Nischendasein gefristet hat – auch wegen der starken Betonung des Visuellen in der westlichen Kunstgeschichte. Umso beeindruckender zeigt „Olfaktor“, wie sich die Bremer Kunstszene dem Thema annimmt, und umso stolzer ist die Städtische Galerie Bremen über die Zusage der internationalen Künstler*innen Peter de Cupere, Brian Goeltzenleuchter, Maki Ueda und Clara Ursitti, vier absoluten Pionieren der olfaktorischen Kunst.

OLFACTORY ART SYMPOSIUM July 9-10th:

https://artandolfaction.com/olfactory-art-symposium-with-smell-it/

ARTE until September 18th:

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/101082-007-A/twist/

Online Exhibition

in cooperation with @kunstraumdigital

We are still facing difficult times, and our relations and connection to one another are being challenged more than ever. The fact that even the physical space of the exhibition as a platform for interaction has been omitted stresses the necessity to reflect on the connection to ourselves, others, the society we live in, and to search for new ways of interconnectedness.

While the physical exhibition “Parkverbot” will be happening and documented, there will be no visitors allowed in the actual gallery space. Therefore the group of artists is creating inclusive emerging online channels to access the exhibition in various ways. Merging the physical and digital space. They are facing new challenges in working together, presenting their works and trying to interact with the viewer through a digital lens, finding ways of connecting in a hybrid format. Also, their works and forms of installations approach the concept of relation from different perspectives and are incorporating challenges faced while planning an exhibition during a pandemic. Inquiries are emerging surrounding the importance and dilemmas of intimate relations. The interactions between people, places, objects and emotions are continuously being subjected to the tests we all know too well by now.

Whilst being confronted with several constantly changing prohibitions we still need to find a way of moving within these restrictions. Parking is temporary, the concept of waiting to move forward but yet not standing completely still and the inevitability of proceeding elsewhere and eventually arriving.

Schaufenster-Ausstellung: Positionen von 4 jungen Videokünstlerinnen aus China

Noch bleibt unser Kunstraum für den Publikumsverkehr geschlossen, wir laden Sie jedoch herzlich ein, unsere zweite „Schaufenster-Ausstellung“ von außen zu erleben! Vom 20. Februar bis 11. April 2021 werden Videoarbeiten von vier Medienkünstlerinnen aus China in den Galeriefenstern des Kunstraums präsentiert. In einem zweiwöchigen Rhythmus werden die individuellen Positionen jeweils als Solopräsentation gezeigt.

In unterschiedlichen Ansätzen werden Einblicke in das Alltagsgeschehen und in das familiäre und soziale Umfeld einer Generation geschaffen, die durch ein Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Familientradition und Globalität geprägt sind.

Die Videoarbeiten laufen täglich von 13 bis 20 Uhr im Schaufenster des Kunstraums.

Ort: Kunstraum des Konfuzius-Instituts, Pirckheimerstraße 36, 90408 Nürnberg

Zeitrahmen: 20.02. - 11.04.2021, täglich (MO - SO) von 13:00 bis 20:00 Uhr

20.02. – 06.03.2021: Qi Yafei 齐亚菲 (1987) Lebt und arbeitet in Oslo.

07.03. – 18.03.2021: WangNewOne 王新一 (2014 online gegründet) Lebt und arbeitet in Shanghai.

19.03. – 30.03.2021: Era Tsao 曹嫣然(1992) Lebt und arbeitet in Nürnberg.

31.03. – 11.04.2021: Zhé Wang 王哲 (1988) Lebt und arbeitet in Berlin.

The group show presents four young female Asian artists that explore concepts of identity through their artistic work. Taking a step back from the ordinary, the show invites its viewers to nurture a critical view of what brings us together and what keeps us apart. In an attempt to further the examination, the exhibition aids the viewer in positioning an awareness on questions about identity and on what terms it is of compelling importance in today’s world.

Once the practical and daily roles we assume are laid aside, the unmistakable common ground is left to be here and now. Time and space are our lifelong companions, whether we have it minute capacities and share only a small portion of it with others, or whether we reside comfortably and inattentively enveloped in it. Yet the nexus of time and space also comprises an intersectionality of nation, community, faith and social status generating a universal condition of what it is to be human. We discover the unique circumstances of our existence on both sides of an artwork as beholders as well as the makers and the artists of it. As we become conscious of our personal stance to these conditions, we also find ourselves entangled with the past, the present and the future. How we accept and relate to this dynamic and on what terms we confront and question its reality is a task, if not always apparent, widely implicated in our actions.

In search of identity, like a future without a past, the work is unfinished without the awareness of what bridges gaps or separates us in a world of ever complicated global connectedness. The task at hand is to determine our roots and to develop an understanding of our inheritence and to acknowledge the ways we build upon it. Migrant Bird Space’s upcoming show deals with these explorations and self-questioning with the premise that we can’t build a future without a past. Our four young artists accompany us with their artistic endeavors to expand the investigation and direct it towards a progressive approach, in an era where identity politics is at the foreground of global discussions.

„Meeting in Language“ zeigt eine Reihe von kritischen Ansätzen, zugleich geht es um die Freude am Queren und Spielerischen, am Rätselhaften und an der Erfindung. Mit mancher Arbeit preist sie den Fehler und den Lapsus an, auch den Humor, für dessen forcierten Einsatz im Sprachunterricht die Ausstellung ein Plädoyer ist.