Public Abstraction Private Construction
IV V
27. July – 16. September 2012

Opening on 27 July, Friday, 7 pm

 

Link to Parts I, II & III (2011)


Marco Bruzzone & Patrick Tuttofuoco, Julian Charriére & Andreas Greiner, Gino de Dominicis, Rainar Ganahl, Daniel Knorr, Heimo Lattner, Gabriel Lester, Ulrike Mohr, Johanna Reich, Karin Sander, Santiago Sierra, Mirjam Thomann,  Timm Ulrichs

The history of art has developed out of the individual’s capacity for abstraction. "Public Abstraction, Private Construction" explores the mental process of abstraction, using as examples projects in experiential public situations. Through two exhibitions and several actions the project will attempt to approach and discuss the notion of abstraction as a perceptual process.

 

Regardless of how beautiful and exciting an exhibition may be, in comparison to the creative process, it can rarely realize more than a physical level of documentation. Therefore this exhibition project is not so much focused on formalist developments or the pictorial results of abstraction, rather on the method and creative process behind the work of art. For this reason the location of the exhibition is not a gallery or public space, rather it is in the turbulent, idea-filled mind of the artist. The gradual process of seeing, analyzing and understanding the work of art as a product is rarely seen, even though these are significant and decisive moments of artistic resolution.


An old question arises: when reality influences an artistic position and is reflected through the work of art – how can an artistic position in turn alter the perception of reality? Artistic views, procedures and constructions blur the boundaries between public and private, real and absurd, pointless and awesome. They confront us with unexpected encounters, perceptions and experiences. The often remote but common techniques and expressions seen in the exhibition’s works emerge in contrast to everyday situations and systems of order. Abstraction appears as a state, property and condition of seeing as a mental process, allowing new experiences and insights.

 

Timm Ulrichs: Timm Ulrichs, den Blitz auf sich lenkend, 1977-2010. Courtesy Jan Wentrup, Berlin