Sparwasser HQ
Offensive für zeitgenössische Kunst und Kommunikation

Presents

“Every Story Tells A Picture” 19. August bis 17. September 2006


Øystein Aasan
Fucking Good Art (Rob Hamelijnck & Nienke Terpsma)
Sasha Huber
Deborah Ligorio
Eoghan McTigue
Rakett (in collaboration with Johannes Høie, Vanna Bowles and Kjersti Vetterstad)
Petri Saarikko
Nicoline van Harskamp
Christine Würmell
Organized by Michael Baers

Vernissage am Freitag, ab 18.08.2006 den 19-23Uhr.

Grafik Design, Werbung und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit haben in den verschiedenen Nationen eine unterschiedliche Geschichte und Kultur, die ihre spezifischen Charakteristiken prägen. Der französische Soziologe Pierre Bourdieu beschreibt dies als “Habitus”, sein Begriff für Lebens- und Denkweisen, die soziale Gruppen definieren. Auch Angehörige der Kunstwelt unterliegen einem Habitus. Was geschieht nun, wenn diese beiden Felder (miteinander) interagieren? In einem Geschäft, in welchem eine kommerzielle Absicht gemeinhin verleugnet wird und der Kauf- und Verkaufsakt oftmals eine beiläufige Nebenbeschäftigung zu sein scheint, erscheint die Funktion von Werbung und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit im Kunstmarkt oft rätselhaft und paradox. Welche Absicht verfolgen diese Praktiken?

“Every Story Tells A Picture” versucht die komplexen Beziehungen zwischen der symbolischen Ökonomie von Galerien, in welcher PR und Werbung eine wichtige Rolle spielen und der “echten” Ökonomie des Kunstmarktes, durch Aneignung von Aspekten von Werbung, PR und architektonischen Konventionen zu hinterfragen. Ausgangspunkt war dafür die Frage: was wäre, wenn man die Rollen vertauschte und Künstler (die) Galerien “repräsentierten”? Wie würden KünstlerInnen Galerie-Anzeigen gestalten? Einige KünstlerInnen antworteten mit spekulativen Anzeigen und benutzten Umkehrungsstrategien. Andere erweiterten die Fragestellung mit Arbeiten zu Architekturkonventionen von Galerieräumen , der Beziehung zwischen Kunst und Instrumentalisierung durch Sponsoren, sowie der Art und Weise, mit welcher Interviews, Pressetexte und andere PR-Strategien inner- und ausserhalb des Marktes zu “hartem“ (Nachrichten-)Inhalt wurden.

Eoghan McTigue verkehrt die Ausrichtung des Eingangsbereichs von Sparwasser, während das niederländische Kollektiv Fucking Good Art eine Fototapete installiert, welche die Rezeption/den “Empfangstisch” in einer Galerie zeigt. Øystein Aasans Collagen unterminieren den Status von Primär- und Sekundärinformation, Deborah Ligorios Videoarbeit behandelt die normativen Praktiken von Projekträumen und ihr Verhältnis zu dominanten, kommerziellen Handlungsmustern und die Arbeit von Christine Würmell ist eine subtiles und strategisches Arrangement von Werbestrategien von Firmen wie Galerien.

“Every Story Tells A Picture” versucht, mit Arbeiten welche die empirischen sowie diskursiven Dimensionen des (kommerziellen) Kunstmarktes aus verschiedenen Perspektiven betrachten, die komplexen Verbindungen von Fragen in Bezug auf PR-Strategien des Kunstmarktes zu durchleuchten und darüber hinaus zu untersuchen, inwiefern diese Strategien dem Kapitalismus und generell dem Konzept eines spekulativen Marktes angehören.

Sparwasser HQ
Offensive für zeitgenössische Kunst und Kommunikation
Torstrasse 161, 10115 Berlin
Telefon +49 30 21803001 / 01796705859
Fax +49 30 44047981
http://www.sparwasserhq.de
mail@sparwasserhq.de

Öffnungszeiten: Mi-Fr 16-19, Sa 14-18

 

 

 

 

 


Künstlertexte/Artist Statements

With works that investigate the empirical and discursive dimensions of the commercial art market from many angles, “Every Story Tells a Picture” attempts to illuminate the complex nexus of issues related to the art market’s public relations strategies, and by extension, how these strategies pertain to capitalism and the concept of the speculative market in general.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Øystein Aasan

1. "Display Unit (Big Muff)", MDF, mirrors
2. "Text piece (Big Muff)", tape, letraset on paper
3. "Text piece (Big Muff 2)", tape, letraset on paper
The Big Muff is a distortion box produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company, along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily for use with the electric guitar. Most versions of the Big Muff use four transistor stages. Two of these act as input and output buffers, and two generate the distortion effect.

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Michael Baers

“Public Service Announcements”, collage, laser prints, art magazines
1. Frieze: “A Public Service Announcement From Galerie Guido M. Baudach” (Cornelia Sollfrank)
2. Flash Art: “A Public Service Service Announcement From Galerie Johann Konig” (Maria Lind)
3. Art Forum: “A Public Service Service Announcement From Esther Schipper” (Pierre Bourdieu)

“Proposal for Guerilla Marketing for ARTNET.DE”, stencils, paper, red, black and yellow spray paint

1. Judy Liebke, gallerist
2. Elizabeth Peyton, artist
3. Evo Wessell, collector

In the first of two sets of work contributed to the show, Michael Baers has inserted gallery advertisements into mainstream art magazines, keeping them within the context of the publication. They employ recursive strategies, mimicking the design interface of the galleries chosen, but detourning the accustomed usage of gallery advertisement from communicating information (show announcements) to suggesting gallery ads as a space for public service announcements. This usage suggests the liminal space galleries occupy between public and private. In the second, he has created three stencils which are hypothetical guerilla advertisements for the website, artnet.de. The images are taken from the website, portraying well-known individuals at public events in Berlin.

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Fucking Good Art (Rob Hamelijnck & Nienke Terpsma) [www.fuckinggoodart.nl])

“Front Office for Sparwasser HQ”, photocopied wallpaper

The photocopied front office for Sparwasser HQ (3.92m X 3.18m) is from a series of photographs of Berlin gallery office spaces (büro). It is taken from a publication to be released later this year.

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Sasha Huber

Sasha Huber (www.ykon.org/saarikko-huber)

Advertisement for: “Foto Shop”, black & white glossy photograph

The representation of practice and the practice of representation. FOTO SHOP becomes what it is - a celluloid photo print.

 

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Deborah Ligorio (www.deborahligorio.com)

"Extract from a conversation about project spaces", 2006, video, 2,22 min.”

Deborah Ligorio’s works are often considerations of either social or geographical space, where abstract architectures are redefined through the combination of sound and image. Her video contribution to the exhibition employs the rhetoric of a television commercial advocating the importance of the numerous project /artist-run spaces and wohnungausstellung in the discourse of the Berlin art scene.

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Eoghan McTigue

Reversed vinyl lettering: exhibition title, Sparwasser HQ logo

For the exhibtion 'Every Story Tells A Picture' I have reversed the orientation of the window and door glass that normally support the exhibition spaces logo, opening times and exhibition information. For the duration of the exhibition this information will only be legible from the inside of the gallery space, the vinyl lettering will be exposed, in reverse form, on the exterior and may become damaged over the course of the exhibition. If this information constitutes the 'on-site' publicity for the exhibition, it also preceeds and frames the works on display. The reversal of the orientation of these elements materialises a broader reversal of the relations of representation that exist between artworks and their exhibition spaces.

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Rakett (www.rakett.biz)

1. Korridor: “Rakett Presents: Stuck on a Melting Rock ‘n Rolling”
2. Neugerriemschneider: “Rakett Presents: Domestic Cocoon Situation”
3. Peres Projects: “Rakett Presents: (a Guide to) Constructing the Universe”


Rakett works often in the aim of being a platform for meeting, exchange and developing network. In our approach to the given task we have looked into the galleries' interchange or transfer of symbolic value from the artist to the gallery and the other way from the gallery to the artist. We wanted to imagine some of our earlier projects in galleries that focus on both up and coming and well known artists in Berlin. The exhibitions that we have "moved" into Berlin have been realized in Murmansk, Tallinn and Madrid. The shows are transferred as fake shows for the selected spaces. We invited three artists to make the most convincing ad possible. The results are convincing. We then reproduced them as postcards to reinforce their putative legitimacy.

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Petri Saarikko (www.ykon.org/saarikko-huber)

1. Galerie Anselm Dreher: “Same Old Shit Come & Get It!
2. Galerie Max Hetzler (Zimmerstrasse): “Sold Out!”
3. Galerie Max Hetzler (Holzmarktstrasse): “!!Total!! Liquidation”
4. Galeri Kamm: “Last Call Closing Soon!

SOLD OUT! VALUE! TOTALLY! In economics the laws of supply & demand control the market, floating in a continous flux of redefinition. Here we have rooms that stand outside conventional paradigm, transcending the artistic goods and services into concrete capital. Within the intersecting curves of power, lies the sharp aesthetics tip of value.

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Nicoline van Harskamp (www.vanharskamp.net)

1. Galerie Max Hetzler: Hakan Çelin, “Drawings, Film Installation”, laser color print
2. Galerie Neu: Pietro Roccasalva, “The Bob Schneier Triptych”, laser color print
3. Listings: “German Institutions”, “Sparwasser HQ”, laser color print
4. Vonderbank Art Galleries: “German Art”, laser color print


Nicoline van Harskamp is a Dutch artist who produces, among other works, free publications. In her series "A Litte Guide to Guards", she portrays professional street observers (police officers, community wardens, security guards, etc.). These inventories of uniformed personnel reveal how public and private organisations attempt to communicate authority through design of clothing. Corporate branding, lettering and colour coding are an important part of this.

The 4 prints in "Every Story Tells a Picture" are based on existing advertisements for Gallerie Neu, Max Hetzler, Sparwasser HQ and Gallery Berlin/Vonderbank Art Galleries, as found in the most recent edition of Frieze. They were appropriated using the T-mobile house-style with its characteristic magenta shapes and letters, one of the most prominent in Berlin.

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Christine Würmell

“o.T./emptiness”
1. “war – do you eat?”(lp)
2. “flache arbeiten”(matisse)
3. “frieze # 100” (wandmalerei)
4. “kunstmarkt”(eech)
5. “o.T.” (postcards)
6. “recycled #02”(press release)

“o.T./emptiness” is a (spatial) arragement of six fragments - from a since 2005 ongoing work complex -collecting, researching and analysing the „peripheral “elements of art exhibitions: such as press releases,gallery reception areas, invitation cards, and advertising. For instance, “Flache Arbeiten”, a reproduction of a “Matisse/Peugeot” ad from the magazine “Art”references a series of works (consisting of monochrome car-lacquer on boards) by Adrian Schiess with the same title.

All fragments are positioned in the entrance area ofSparwasser, for example utilizing the window area –the traditional advertisement/ communication display. Due to another a work using the window space, in the end, the setting couldn’t be arranged in the original way. The spatial setting of the fragments create a(complex/multi-layered) narrative which destabilizes and politicises usually unquestioned conventions in the art field.


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