Imagination and Orchestration
Installation of The House, Ankara by G.R.A.M.
On Saturday September 5 the exhibition Imagination and Orchestration was launched in the parallel program of the 14th Istanbul Biennial with a presentation of artists-in-residence programs at BAUART Gallery, located at Bahcesehir University in Karaköy, Istanbul.
Organized was the exhibition by the Goethe-Institut, Diyalog and BAUART Gallery. Imagination and Orchestration received its well-deserved recognition with different multimedia artworks (paintings, photography and video installations) by seven participating artists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland who are living temporarly in Istanbul.
The focus of the exhibition is, as the title well states to imagine and orchestrate seeing sometimes the artist also as actor who puts himself in roles or situation of daily life or political conflicts.
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G.R.A.M., an art collective from Austria is dealing with a clichéd, iconic world of pictures and symbols, which are often borrowed from aesthetics of everyday life, mass media and products. At BAUART they present one piece from their series The House showing the reenactment of affrays in parliaments worldwide. The work on display in Istanbul is the reenactment of an affray in the parlament in Ankara. ‘The House’ is printed on a impressive 2 by 6 meters wallpaper. This approach refers to the differing perception of contemporary icons and questions the medium photography’s validity.
The artist Nicole Hoesli from Switzerland plays with the gap between perception and depiction of realties. She puts herself into personalities from the worlds of film, music and arts and imitates them illusively. She imitates ‘Sandra’, a former German popstar from the 80s to provoke and test the spectators perception. Three interrelated artworks are being exhibited. ‘Sandra I’ is a reenactment presented on a big BRAVO poster that reveals the superficial look of the 80s. ‘Sandra V’ is a video interview with Sandra in which she defends herself against accusations and thus tries to prove her musical independence within the entangled music business. The background of this interview is shown as a photograph of the actual painting. This scenery in means of two more photographs are shown in ‘Eternal Puberty’ to give her work space and form.
Berlin-based portrait photographer and former model Angela Fensch does a photographic orchestration of Istanbul, impressions she made during her 6 weeks stay in this town. Angela also shares her impressions of Istanbul with the audience – there is a snapshot of a dancing couple or a woman who directly reveals her beauty to the camera. The second part of her work is a selection from her series ‘Women and Child’. Photos of mothers and children taken 1989 in the former GDR and then again later in 2005, 16 years after the unification of Germany.
Julia Lazarus, also from Berlin, is screening a scene of a slum in Mexico with the title ‘The Life on the Other Side’. What seems to be on first sight almost motionless to the spectator, will with time reveal how small details in the image are changing. There are cars moving, or clouds that are taking on new shapes and forms.
The other artists in the show are Franziska Klotz & Michael Wutz from Berlin, Matthias Grotevent from Düsseldorf and Marianna Christofides from Cologne.
Opening of Sweet Water
Parallel to the exhibition at BAUART gallery 4 former artists-in-residence from Düsseldorf organized a one day exhibition with the title Sweet Water in a private apartment in Cihangir. Sweet Water is a pun of this years Biennial title Saltwater, and presents an individual view of life by Sebastian Riemer, Felicitas Rohden, Lukas Schmenger and Christoph Westermeier just for one day as a pop up exhibition. By arranging this periodical exhibitions of former artists-in-residence in Istanbul, these connections will last long, flourish and grow.