THE BERLIN CASE
07 April – 26 June 2016
Artists:
Matthias Beckmann, Astrid Busch, Nezaket Ekici & Shahar Marcus, Larissa Fassler, Frederik Foert, Ingo Gerken, Uwe Jonas, Daniel Lergon, Pia Linz, Frank Piasta, Justine Otto, Elisabeth Sonneck, Max Sudhues, Timm Ulrichs, Peter Welz, Wolfgang Flad, Jens Wolf
The ambigious term "case" has diverse meanings such as event, lawsuit, a situation as well as various kinds of receptacles. Here it works as a metaphor for a wide spectrum of contemporary artworks and their different themes, conceptual strategies and uses of material, form and media.
This radically subjective selected compilation aims to dilute the dated limitations of an artistic concept that has so far been reduced to a reified and materialistic understanding. Drawings, photographs and panel paintings were shown as well as floor works, sculptural objects and spatial gestures: site-specific works will serve as a link between the actual room and a virtual space, and video installations and performances will involve visitors in immaterial and temporary processes.
The simultaneity of highly diversifying artistic strategies and materials in the exhibition corresponds with the flexibility of our perception, as it is constantly fluctuating between fleeting and static moments. The plurality of artistic mindsets and positions as such becomes a value, and even apparently abstract works of art are apt to develop far-reaching political dimensions, referring to values of democracy, to equal rights, and tolerance.
Consequently, THE BERLIN CASE is not focusing on a specific subject, wherefore it is directly reaching out to the visitor, whose subjective impressions and reflections count, emanating from very own and private experiences. Here starts the communicative potential of the show: students of the Ural Federal University will discuss the works as ‘live speakers’ and hence advance the artistic intention of the show, in dialogue with the visitors.
Russia includes the frontier between Europe and Asia (where Yekaterinburg is located) which is geographically only roughly defined – that refers back to the fact that Europe is far from being a unity but rather signifies a politically, culturally as well as spiritually utterly heterogeneous category. In this field of tension our contacts not only with the cultural scene of Yekaterinburg grew. Our and the intention of all participating artists in THE BERLIN CASE is to contribute in a fruitful way to a mutual, understanding and intellectual debate in growing relations between the people of both countries.
Elisabeth Sonneck, Max Sudhues
Every Saturday and Sunday:
Live speakers program in collaboration with Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg
Daily opening times:
The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, Boris Yeltsin street, 3
+7 (343) 312-43-43; +7 (909) 006-70-70
Tu — Su: 10:00 — 21:00
Patronage:
German Consulate General, Yekaterinburg; Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen; Berlin Senatskanzlei - Kulturelle Angelegenheiten; "Cultural transit" Foundation
