1) Stefan Ende will be showing a selection of art prints from an education project of his in Cuba last year. Disabled children there created these prints as one part of a extended program of educational and cultural activities. The prints by themselves are visually stunning, but also are very effective in the context of promoting the larger under-funded volunteer program. Since he is in Cuba at the moment he will unfortunately not be able to attend.
2) Erik Stolze is exhibiting black and white photos of subjects ranging from scenes of peculiarly Berlin anti-fascist street protest to character studies of South American indigenous communities. The series focuses one's eye on the the diverse lives of those that are socially, politically, or economically existing "outside of the system." A catalogue of underground lifestyles and the spontaneous beauty that often develops amongst landscapes of forgotten urban refuse. All of the photos were developed in the darkroom at Atelier Kunststück. His birthday is on the 17th of January and I understand that is a big deal in this city.
3) Alex Storonkin makes oil paintings using a rigorous process and figurative style to explore common household objects and furniture, often arranged in curious and theatrical settings. The recent addition of collage made from advertising for inexpensive meat products over large areas of canvas further activate the surface and the search for symbolic meaning. Is it a critique of contemporary consumer society or an absurd surrealist play? "Fleischwerbung!"
4) Midori Harata is including a video loop of animation experiments made between 2005 and 2008. They range from charcoal metamorphoses on single sheets of paper, flashing texts timed to grand symphony music, to minimalist compositions of computer animation. The projection will run throughout the evening.
5) Florian Weiss is currently working on a series of wood panels impregnated with rough photographic images applied with photo emulsion. It looks as if the scratchy black and white scenes grew right in with the wood grain and as objects they simultaneously evoke nostalgic feelings of old photo albums and documentation of archaeological discoveries.
6) Berndte-B and a musician called Lüder will be performing a Cabaret born of the classic German small stage tradition. The monologues, sketch comedy, and songs are filled to the brim with irony, political barbs, and impressions of contemporary public figures. The jokes are well over my head since I do not watch television, the subtlety of language is far beyond my German grammatical skills, and I have little knowledge of the domestic politics portrayed; but when a similar performance was sold out in our crowded space on Kinzigstraße this summer the attending Berliners thought it was hilarious. The Cabaret will begin at 21:00 and will run approximately 45 minutes.
7) Singer and songwriter Lasse the Cripple will be performing with his band "La Cruda". It is an acoustic arrangement of string instruments and percussion with songs in Spanish, English, and German adding atmosphere to the evening and hopefully getting people to dance, or at least to sway back and forth a bit. The music will start at approximately 22:30 and will go until one of the musicians collapses from exhaustion or they run out of songs to play.
8) The composer Xarkos Ataktos has offered a collection of songs as something of a soundtrack to the exhibition. His industrial sound is heavily influenced by participating in the Paris underground music scene for a decade, but his range goes far beyond. Dark and confrontational webs of notes later make way for plucky dance beats laden with burlesque humor hidden in the lyrics, however it is the "Neo-Futurism infused with Space Age science-fiction" layers of tone that I am most fond of.
9) Jason Benedict is submitting a few of his microbes and parasites from the series that has developed over the last two years in Berlin about hypochondria. He organized this event and is uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person. As well as being his first feeble attempt among many in 2008 at curating an art event, on January 19th he was born into the world and the evening is nominally a celebration as such.
10) Hausprojekt Scherer8 is an Anarcho-Syndacalist hippie leftist political organization modeled after the Berlin style of squatters and abandoned building occupation that developed after the Wall came down. They are a legitimate housing collective and cultural organization that is working hard to re-tool and repair their space to host a variety of cultural and political events that include film-screenings, art exhibitions, hardcore concerts, and round table political discussions.
They have tapped into a network of food donation and offer vegan/vegetarian meals at incredibly low cost, and it is not a bad place to sit around and drink a beer as well (even if they are a little jumpy and awkward around new faces from the outside world.) With a rotating cast of tenants and event organizers they have brought a rather vibrant and chaotic energy to the Wedding neighbourhood, while all of that reclaimed space serves as a good forum for the ambitious array of projects that focus more than anything else on experimentation.
They will be offering a full bar (beer, wine, and simple cocktails) to fuel the controlled chaos of the festivities on the 18th of January.
(See below for where to find the Kunst-Party.)
2) Erik Stolze is exhibiting black and white photos of subjects ranging from scenes of peculiarly Berlin anti-fascist street protest to character studies of South American indigenous communities. The series focuses one's eye on the the diverse lives of those that are socially, politically, or economically existing "outside of the system." A catalogue of underground lifestyles and the spontaneous beauty that often develops amongst landscapes of forgotten urban refuse. All of the photos were developed in the darkroom at Atelier Kunststück. His birthday is on the 17th of January and I understand that is a big deal in this city.
3) Alex Storonkin makes oil paintings using a rigorous process and figurative style to explore common household objects and furniture, often arranged in curious and theatrical settings. The recent addition of collage made from advertising for inexpensive meat products over large areas of canvas further activate the surface and the search for symbolic meaning. Is it a critique of contemporary consumer society or an absurd surrealist play? "Fleischwerbung!"
4) Midori Harata is including a video loop of animation experiments made between 2005 and 2008. They range from charcoal metamorphoses on single sheets of paper, flashing texts timed to grand symphony music, to minimalist compositions of computer animation. The projection will run throughout the evening.
5) Florian Weiss is currently working on a series of wood panels impregnated with rough photographic images applied with photo emulsion. It looks as if the scratchy black and white scenes grew right in with the wood grain and as objects they simultaneously evoke nostalgic feelings of old photo albums and documentation of archaeological discoveries.
6) Berndte-B and a musician called Lüder will be performing a Cabaret born of the classic German small stage tradition. The monologues, sketch comedy, and songs are filled to the brim with irony, political barbs, and impressions of contemporary public figures. The jokes are well over my head since I do not watch television, the subtlety of language is far beyond my German grammatical skills, and I have little knowledge of the domestic politics portrayed; but when a similar performance was sold out in our crowded space on Kinzigstraße this summer the attending Berliners thought it was hilarious. The Cabaret will begin at 21:00 and will run approximately 45 minutes.
7) Singer and songwriter Lasse the Cripple will be performing with his band "La Cruda". It is an acoustic arrangement of string instruments and percussion with songs in Spanish, English, and German adding atmosphere to the evening and hopefully getting people to dance, or at least to sway back and forth a bit. The music will start at approximately 22:30 and will go until one of the musicians collapses from exhaustion or they run out of songs to play.
8) The composer Xarkos Ataktos has offered a collection of songs as something of a soundtrack to the exhibition. His industrial sound is heavily influenced by participating in the Paris underground music scene for a decade, but his range goes far beyond. Dark and confrontational webs of notes later make way for plucky dance beats laden with burlesque humor hidden in the lyrics, however it is the "Neo-Futurism infused with Space Age science-fiction" layers of tone that I am most fond of.
9) Jason Benedict is submitting a few of his microbes and parasites from the series that has developed over the last two years in Berlin about hypochondria. He organized this event and is uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person. As well as being his first feeble attempt among many in 2008 at curating an art event, on January 19th he was born into the world and the evening is nominally a celebration as such.
10) Hausprojekt Scherer8 is an Anarcho-Syndacalist hippie leftist political organization modeled after the Berlin style of squatters and abandoned building occupation that developed after the Wall came down. They are a legitimate housing collective and cultural organization that is working hard to re-tool and repair their space to host a variety of cultural and political events that include film-screenings, art exhibitions, hardcore concerts, and round table political discussions.
They have tapped into a network of food donation and offer vegan/vegetarian meals at incredibly low cost, and it is not a bad place to sit around and drink a beer as well (even if they are a little jumpy and awkward around new faces from the outside world.) With a rotating cast of tenants and event organizers they have brought a rather vibrant and chaotic energy to the Wedding neighbourhood, while all of that reclaimed space serves as a good forum for the ambitious array of projects that focus more than anything else on experimentation.
They will be offering a full bar (beer, wine, and simple cocktails) to fuel the controlled chaos of the festivities on the 18th of January.
(See below for where to find the Kunst-Party.)
