Katinka Bock

Opening: March 13 at 6 p.m.

An installation conceived specifically for Galerie Jocelyn Wolff routes rainwater into the exhibition space and turns it into a source of heat using a system of copper tubes and a boiler. Based on the transformation of an elementary material into a fragile, elusive energy in constant renewal, the system reroutes the flow of rainwater to create a “cube of heat” emanating from one corner of the gallery. The circulating fluids delimit a new space within the gallery while linking this inside space to the climate’s unanticipated unknowns.

Speaking about an earlier work by the artist la Passerelle (2006), Marie-Cécile Burnichon underscores the attention Katinka Bock lends to phenomena involving natural growth and cycles: “In a fascinating aerial movement, a double helix in wood joins together to tightly hug and surmount a tree whose own growth threatens the edifice. In the race between the static (the construction, in spite of its aerodynamics) and the evolutionary (the tree), the point of observation at the summit of the footbridge (“passerelle”) could eventually become a leafy hiding place, a refuge. It is as though, within a system where it is organized in such a way as to control individuals (either by canalizing their energy or by allowing them to be monitored), domesticated nature in a public space can regain the means for free display.”1 Le socle (2007) is a hollowed-out block of limestone placed on the floor. Through the simple act of hollowing a material usually used for construction purposes, Katinka Bock makes an opening, a stone window encasing a cubic emptiness.

An ensemble of coal chunks, Sechs Prozent Flüchtige Bestandteile, are reworked and arranged in “couples” on the floor, alongside Form und inhalt (2007), an unexpectedly sized potato, carved in wood and covered with gold. Through an approach that springs from the Arte Povera and Minimalism tradition, Katinka Bock resorts to organic materials, diverts them while rerouting natural and physical phenomena. Katinka Bock was born in 1976 in Frankfort/Main, Germany. She lives and works in Paris and Berlin. Upcoming solo show: Volumes en extension, Katinka Bock, Centre d’art La Passerelle, Brest, April 14 to June 2, 2007

The exhibition was produced with the support of the Cnap – Centre National des arts plastiques, Ministère de la culture et de la communication (aid for first exhibition).

1 Marie-Cécile Burnichon, “Vade-mecum de l’arpenteuse”, in Katinka Bock, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, 2007.

Bäume wachsen und Ströme fliessen: Wasser, Wärme, Monument
Katinka Bock