UMWANDLUNG

Between 23rd March and 2nd April, a collective exhibition will be shown in the new rooms at Glogauer Str. 16, in Berlin. The exhibition will show 16 works by 16 different artists whose connection is the city of Berlin. Berlin as a city in constant transformation is a reflection of the changes that have taken place in this building. The works on show give different points of view on this idea, on the changes experienced by the artist during the process of creation and the variations shown in the works as a result of this creative process.The exhibition will coincide with the first week-end of the 4th Berlin Biennale. The show will be open all week-end and after the 26th March, visits will be able to be made by appointment only. The purpose of this exhibition is to make an initial presentation of the installations and rooms in the workshops at Glogauer Str. 16, a new space for artistic creation and debate.

Around "Umwandlung" O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a King of infinite space. Hamlet, II, 2.

The work To understand creation as a process of transformation and to interpret metamorphosis in its most varied forms are some of the basic ideas behind the works of these artists. The works being exhibited examine these ideas from different perspectives, from irony to intimacy, from the everyday to the social and public world, including the influence of the mass media. The forms of expression are also varied, art being understood as being a form of expression which has no limits. Metamorphosis can be seen through video, sculpture, installation art, photography and painting. The diversity of these different interpretations and aesthetics come together in vertigo and the illusion of movement. The path towards creation as a personal adventure forces the artist, at the end of each process, to overcome the change itself and to recognise the finality of the work produced. Each inner path that the artist has to discover in a work of art is always a journey towards the unknown. The work is a footprint in this journey of transformation. A footprint that can become a bridge towards the next journey.

The rooms The rooms for the exhibition form a part of this constant mutation: the unceasing metamorphosis of Berlin. The school at Glogauer Str. 16 was the first public work of the architect Ludwig Hoffmann as the Building Counsellor of Berlin (Baustadtrat), a post he held from 1896 to 1924, a period during which he designed and built more than 400 public works. Berlin was then experiencing its first great transformation, dissected by Walter Ruttmann in his Symphony of the great city, in 1927. The main building of the school was practically destroyed during the bombings of 1945 and had to be demolished. From Hoffmann's project, the gymnasium (Turnhalle) remains standing, which currently houses a children's library, as does the rectory building (Rektorenhaus), which, having been used as an infant school, will, from now on -preserving the educational spirit with which it was designed- be home to exhibitions and workshops for artistic creation and debate, and for now, will house these 16 works that go to make up the Umwandlung project..

ARTISTS: Sergio Belinchón - Rui Calçada Bastos - Nuno Cera - Paul Ekaitz - Thomas Engelbert - Al Fadhil - Anna Konik - Antonio Mesones - Chema Alvargonzález - Trine Lise Nedreaas - Lucy Powell - Carlos Schwartz - Patricia Sevilla Ciordia - Andrea Stappert - Tere Recarens - Mariana Vassileva - Santiago Ydáñez

Pressetext

UMWANDLUNG - Transformation as a creation process
On occasion of the 4th Berlin Biennale

Künstler: Sergio Belinchon, Rui Calcada Bastos, Nuno Cera, Paul Ekaitz, Thomas Engelbert, Al Fadhil, Anna Konik, Antonio Mesones, Chema Alvargonzalez, Trine Lise Nedreaas, Lucy Powell, Carlos Schwartz, Patricia Sevilla Ciordia, Andrea Stappert, Tere Recarens, Mariana Vassileva, Santiago Ydanez