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preface
Maria Marangou
Rethymnon Centre for Contemporary Art
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The exhibition Made in Berlin introduces nine Berlin-based artists
whose work in various media such as painting, photography, object,
slide projection, video and installation offer an insight into
contemporary artistic activity in Berlin.
Over the past several years, an interesting movement in the young
Berlin art scene can be observed. A new generation of artists
has been emerging, one which is intent on making an important
contribution to the art discussion of our time. Not only newly
founded galleries, but young collectors as well are accompanying
this breakthrough with committed involvement. This new generation
of artists in Berlin reflects the life and the sensibilities of
a city in the nineties which has gone through one of the easily
most rapid processes of change and development in Germany and,
for that matter, in Europe.
Made in Berlin offers for the first time abroad the possibility
to gain insight into the lively and many-faceted Berlin art scene.
The exhibited works describe the artistic climate in Berlin. It
is at one and the same time experimental and visionary; its inspiration
is due in part to the continuous change the city has been subjected
to. Instinctively, this art is involved in the aesthetic and political
discourse and poses a challenge to the viewer to enter the discussion.
The artists:
Through a rapid change and the combination between image and word,
Gunda Förster offers in her slide projections a complex interplay
between space, light and time. Hans Hemmert’s light boxes call
the relationship between himself and his environment into question.
A thin latex shell separates him from the outside world and creates
a new interior space. Sabine Hornig works with architectonic fragments.
Her installations are unsettling and expand the viewer’s spacial
experience. York der Knöfel does not want to produce finished
works, but rather initiate movement. Performance sequences represented
through video change the viewer’s perception. In her photographic
works, Antje Majewski combines 35 mm. photographs to form large
panoramas. A narrative sequence only becomes apparent upon closer
inspection. Michel Majerus adapts art history and reproduces its
visual occurrences in his spacial installations. Olaf Nicolai’s
work connects – in a more commentatory than confirmatory manner
– the aesthetic needs which lie behind the culturally influenced
image of nature with today’s technological possibilities. Manfred
Pernice develops, with simple means, a many-faceted spacial sculpture,
for which the conflict between model and building is decisive.
Daniel Richter designs in his paintings a cosmos of color and
light whose abstraction is precisely calculated. The pictorial
structure organizes the surface into fragments assembled like
words in a sentence.
A catalogue in German and Greek language will be appearing, which,
besides an extensive illustration section, offers insight into
the environment of the artists as well as into their different
ways of thinking.
The Rethymnon Center for Contemporary Art is an outstanding local
center for fine arts in Europe. The House of Cyprus in Athens
is known through its international exhibitions, which have been
organized by, among other institutions, the Deste-Foundation.
This exhibition has been made possible through generous contributions
from the Senate for Science, Research and Art in Berlin as well
as from the Goethe Institute in Athens and Chania.
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