Seth Pick
Biophilia
Opening reception: October 17, 7–9 pm
Exhibition duration: October 17 – November 30, 2014
Pagafantas
This is an international city, and it has its own continents too. I think about that, as I walk through the park, and think about an international frontier. Its textures and forms are echoed throughout the landscaping; not urban fighting, but hedgerows, metal hoardings, greening water, black searchlights; a mouldy and damp war, baling-twine handcuffs. Hot sun is baking the grass and around its perimeters tower blocks rise up above the trees. I make my way to the lake, its low shores cut out of the turf and a frame of poured concrete paths. On this I write not peaches, but chlorine exhaust blown daily over slick-wet granite pavement, and crypto-turkish men, and I can’t shake my head any more.
There are some fierce mothers in the park today. Sometimes the park feels like the only refuge for humanity in this city. Parks are the birthplace of urban solidarity. Bodies amass in parks in search of joy, not consumption. Victorian planners battled with their twin offerings of revolt and pacification, building great iron fences and gates to control the flow of bodies. If I could I'd never leave this park. I came for a panic attack, stayed for a tear-filled phone call, am leaving a little freer, lighter. Cops hate parks, property developers hate parks. Friends love parks, lovers love parks.
Some parks have exiles and others have émigrés. In this one I find two of the latter; a couple, friends, dipping their feet in the lake as I push out of the undergrowth like a member of the militia looking for amnesty. In Spanish culture, a "Pagafantas" (Fantapayer) is a man in love with a young woman, who does not love him back. The phrase suggests always being the one paying for another's Fanta.
Huw Lemmey 2014
GERHARDSEN GERNER
Holzmarktstrasse 15–18
S–Bahnbogen 46
10179 Berlin–Mitte / Germany
For further information or press material, please contact Maike Fries, Gerhardsen Gerner: T: +49-3069 51 83 41, F: +49-30-69 51 83 42, E: maike@gerhardsengerner.com or visit our website at http://www.gerhardsengerner.com.
