Group exhibition: At the Eye Level

18 October 2013 > 20 October 2013 You are cordially invited to the opening of the group exhibition At the eye level by artists of Kolonie Wedding Association from Berlin, on Friday, 18th October at 8 pm at the Alkatraz Gallery, ACC Metelkova mesto. You are also welcome to the discussion with visiting artists on the same day at 6 pm at SCCA Project room at Metelkova ulica 6.

The exhibition entitled At the Eye Level represents a selection of artworks of nine artists; male and female, who operate as artists and gallerists within the Berlin’s Kolonie Wedding. This is an association of non-commercial artistic spaces in the Berlin’s quartier called Wedding, which started as an initiative supporting a tenant (management) co-operative of the Soldinerstrasse community, established in 2001. The support given to the autonomous managers in the Wedding quarter has gradually turned into an initiative oriented to the transformation of degraded spaces into exhibition and project spaces. Currently, every last Friday in a month there are exhibition openings at some of the project rooms and studios. In the same evening and on Sunday afternoons there are public guided tours at each of the exhibition spaces, displaying a wide selection of international contemporary art, and visual art is often augmented with music, poetry, and club programme. Due to the lively artistic activities, the totally transfigured community now attracts ever more visitors and its local residents.

The exhibition at the Alkatraz Gallery is a fruit of the collaboration between the Kolonie Wedding association and the gallery which dates back to 2011, to an exhibition of Mirjana Batinić and Robertina Šebjanić Break of Whiteness (Lom beline). Last year, eight Slovene artists, invited by the Alkatraz Gallery, were presented at three galleries of Kolonie Wedding with a project Exit Station. Exhibited this October in Ljubljana, there will be the artworks of artists coming from Berlin: Vladimir Anselm, Jovan Balov, Christian De Lutz, Tiny Domingos, Archi Galentz, Henrik Jacob, Barbara Klinker, Kate Unger and Josef Vilser.

At the exhibition opening on Friday, 18^th October the exhibited works will be of different approaches and media. The concept of the exhibition consists of an attempt to establish a dialogue about art, conditions of production, art networks, self-organization in the field of artistic creation, and the experiences of those galleries that at the same time also operate as producers of artworks. The above mentioned topics will be exposed at the presentation of the Kolonie Wedding activities in the Project Room of the SCCA - Centre for Contemporary Arts – Ljubljana, on the 17^th Ocober at 6 p.m.

The project of the association’s creators intends to establish an exchange of experience between the Berlin and Ljubljana spaces, operating on the principle of self-organization and, have been present in the cultural life of their cities for several years. (Kolonie Wedding has been going since 2002; Alkatraz Gallery as part of ACC Metelkova City since 1996). In the time of economic crisis, populism, questioning of conceptual foundations of the European Union, and the increasing tension among individual singular states, networking, communication and mutual collaboration are especially important as they represent a basis for growth and strengthening of independent cultural centres. Especially the collaboration between the local and international, as well as other projects, represent the core of creative life of the Berlin association. Its members, coming from different countries and environments, searching for creative inspiration through mutual interconnectedness are testing new ways of exchanging and realization of ideas.

www.koloniewedding.de

Barbara Klinker, born in 1971 in Villingen (Germany), studied visual arts in Bremen, Braunschweig (Germany) and Glasgow (Great Britain). In the past she worked as a photographer in film industry, and led garden workshops for motorically impaired persons. She collaborates with the cultural space Ausland and manages the project space „n“ in Berlin, where she organizes events in the field of experimental music, visual art and poetry. Recently, she has been engaged in organization of film workshops for children as well as in projects aiming to connect an individual with nature. She has had several solo, and has participated at several group exhibitions in Germany (Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt, Hannover, Documenta Kassel), and abroad (Miami, Istanbul, Skopje, Basel, Geneva).

Tiny Domingos, born in 1968 in Orelans (France). Since 1994 living in Berlin. He studied at the University in Lisbon (Portugal); department of modern languages and literature, and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon at departments for Aesthetics and Philosophy. There he has also finished a course in drawing and aesthetics at Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes. In the field of art he is active as an author and a curator. His works are found in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Funchal (Portugal) and at the Ministry for Youth of Portugal. He was awarded the first prize for design and drawing at the Biennial in Monti (Portugal, 1989). He is also a founder and artistic head of the project room “rosalux” in Berlin. As an artist he has had several solo and has participated at several group exhibitions, amongst them in Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Porto, Madison and Chicago. Click to the link to see the artist’s current project in progress.

Jovan Balov, born in 1961 in Skopje (Macedonia). He studied at the Faculty for History of Art and Archaeology, and at the Academy of Fine Arts (department: painting) at the University of St. Cyril and Method in Skopje. Since 1995 he has lived in Berlin as a free-lanced artist, and since 2001 he has been designing the cultural programme of a non-governmental organization Prima Center Skopje. Since 2004 he has been the head of the project space Prima Center Berlin. He has been awarded the prize of Rigas Charta (2007), and the first prize for the painting Together in Harmony, as a result of the call of a Parisian gallery Du Colombier. He exhibits in numerous European countries (Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Finland, Macedonia, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Russia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia).

Vladimir Anselm, born in 1962 in Perm (Russia). In 1985 he graduated from the State Teacher Training University ( Almaty, Kazakhstan). He lives and works in Berlin and Moscow. In his artistic creation he engages in the questions of history and art history, their inner connectedness and contradictory relations. He is interested in disclosing of hidden visual meanings and their interpretation in various periods in history. For him, the understanding of the world is an integral process that includes the integration of the human civilization into geological periods and an attempt to form ideas from the chaos. These are the conceptual starting points of the author, known for his peculiar urban landscapes and, a creative use of coal. He exhibits at solo and group exhibitions, amongst other places also in Russia (Moskow, St. Petersburg), U.S.A. (New York), Germany (Berlin) and Austria (Vienna).

Chrisitan de Lutz studied visual art, history of art and German language at the City University in New Yorku (U.S.A.). He used to work as a documentary photograph (he realized the projects about child labour force in Turkey, a Roma minority in Bulgaria and Romania, about the topic of illegal university in Tetovo, Macedonia,...) and, in the years 1994 – 99 as a photoreporter in the central and eastern Europe, including the territory of former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania and Russia (amongst others, for the Action Press agency in Hamburg, and The Chicago Tribune). He has been on several artist-in-residences (Frankfurt, Stockholm, Istanbul) and participated at group and solo exhibitions (Berlin, Prague, Istanbul, New York, Maastricht, Tokyo). He is also a co-founder and curator of this year’s Berlin exhibition space Art Laboratory Berlin (2006-13). He has lived in Prague, Ljubljana, Istanbul, currently living in Berlin.

Kata Unger, born in 1961 in Berlin where she lives and creates. She studied painting at the School of Arts in Berlin – Weissensee and graduated in 1985. In the period between 1985 – 87 she was an assistant to the painter K.H. Behtke. Since 1994 she has exhibited on solo and group exhibitions (mostly in galleries in Berlin and Düsseldorf).

Archie Galentz, born in 1971 in Moscow (Russia). He graduated in 1989 at the State Academy of Fine Arts and Theatre in Erevan (USSR, today Armenia). He continued his studies with prof. Fussmann and prof. Hirsig at the Berlin University of Arts (UdK), and graduated in 1996, and attained his Master degree study in 1997. Since 2000 he lives as a free-lanced artist in Berlin, Erevan and Moscow. He lectures at the State Academy of Fine Arts and the Open University in Erevan (since 2006), and a summer school at the University of Arts (UdK) since 2007. He is a co-founder of artist-run-space InteriorDAsein in Berlinu. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and has taken part at several group exhibitions; amongst them in Berlin, Erevan, Moscow, and Venice.

Henrik Jacob, born in 1972 in Dresden (Germany). In 2000 he graduated from the University of the Arts in Bremen, in the class of professor Rolf Thiele (department: concept art), In 2001 he received his Master’s degree. He is a co-founder of the exhibition space Kulturplast Wedding International and the platform for marginal art projects since 2006. He has exhibited in Berlin, Leipzig, Essen, Soul, Madrid, Paris, London and Kaapstad.

Josef Vilser, born in 1955 in Munich. He is a qualified butcher, trained in Bavaria and travelled to Ecuador for additional education as an assistant in developmental projects and, as a managerial expert in Japan and Peru. He is also a metal worker. Since 1985 he has been active in the field of theatrical production (as an actor, stage constructor, light operator). He is a self-made man in the field of visual arts, and started to exhibit in 1997. Since 2002 he is a member of an Association of Visual Artists in Berlin. His creation involves various techniques (printing, collages, sculptures, installations) and media (wood, metal, steel, paper).

Co-producer: SCCA - Ljubljana, Zavod za sodobno umetnost

Photos from the discussion & the opening by: Sunčan P. Stone