calendario eventi  :: 

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4/9/2014

Three exhibitions

Fridericianum, Kassel

Helen Marten
Parrot Problems

Curated by Susanne Pfeffer

Frozen at full speed in vibration between two and three dimensions, the objects and images by artist Helen Marten proliferate with models and motifs, which define the physical and linguistic limits of everyday life. In acts of jigsaw and camouflage, the recognizable is often shifted into a sense of immediate fuzziness. Both delicate and programmatic, the relationship between image and concept is therefore dependent on a sense of unfolding logic. Through this emulation and repetition of ubiquitous gestures, expressions and objects the resultant differences between mimicry and metaphor are made productive: as Parrot Problems. Whether composed of leaves, glazed ceramic, cast aluminium, coins or timber, Marten’s assemblages distil the customary order of things to arrange it afresh.

In Guild of Pharmacists (2014), for instance, Marten depicts a snake-like form that appears to have descended from the Rod of Asclepius and its symbolic home above the chemist’s storefront. Inflated, abstracted and colourfully lacquered it now droops languidly beneath an awning reduced only to the bare bones of a wooden frame. Instead of colourful stripes of protective canvas, it bears provisionally attached scraps of cloth. Like so many garments left discarded, they form a patch- work of traces of human use. In Marten’s bricolage, the handmade, chance and makeshift is superimposed with the unmistakeable graphic compositions that adorn commoditized proficiency. Hammered to the underside of this awning, two FedEx boxes signify the incessant circulation and change of familiar items—owing to the flow of goods in the global economy. But just as these objects are universal signifiers, they are also reduced to their most basic and essential components: broad orange text against a gorgeous purple square.

Marten teases apart the recognisable elements of an urban setting to reas- semble them through processes of manipulation, abstraction, shifting or collage. In this way, she pierces the patina of familiarity covering the density and comp- lexity of our everyday material lives.

For Parrot Problems, her first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, Helen Marten (born 1985) has created numerous new works.

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The Incalculability of the Behaviour of Complex and Open Systems
James Benning, Lutz Dammbeck

Curated by Susanne Pfeffer

In his film The Net (2003) Lutz Dammbeck investigates the very foundations of technological society. His search leads the filmmaker back to the period of the 1940s-1960s and into a trans-disciplinary complex extending from systems theory, cybernetics and the cognitive sciences through the artistic avant-garde, LSD and counterculture to the military origins of the Internet. Dammbeck interviews some of the key protagonists of the technological revolution including John Brockman, Stewart Brand, Heinz von Foerster, David Gelernter, Lawrence Roberts. In the pro- cess he uncovers a network in which science and technology redefine the parame- ters for artistic practice and philosophical thought. Through his focus on Theodore John Kaczynski, the mathematician who later became known as the “Unabomber”, he radically questions this predominance of technology and the natural sciences.

For Stemple Pass (2012) James Benning reconstructed the wooden cabin, which Kaczynski built in 1971, emulating Henry David Thoreau. After abruptly terminating his university career, he retreated into the forests of Montana. The film shows the cabin in the midst of the dense forest—in four static shots of 30 minutes each: spring, fall, winter and summer. A soundtrack of Benning reading extracts from Kaczynski’s diaries, his manifesto, coded notebooks and a later interview accompanies 15 minutes of each shot. Reports on survival in the wilderness, reflec- tions on nature, autonomy and solitude as well as critical thoughts on technological change, the police state and personal liberty are juxtaposed to testimonies to the brutality of the acts of violence committed by Kaczynski between 1978 and 1995.

His revenge against technological society cost a total of three human lives. The remaining time of each shot is dedicated to the sounds of the surroundings. The tranquillity and concentration that pervade the sounds and images sharpen our senses to the visual and acoustic rhythms of the landscape.

Kunstverein in Hamburg will be continuing the focus on James Benning’s oeuvre in February 2015 in the form of a solo show entitled “Decoding Fear”; in cooperation with Kunsthaus Graz.

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Farhad Fozouni
Aftershock Poetry

Curated by Nina Tabassomi

Farhad Fozouni writes aftershock poetry in words, images, sculpture, light and sound. Drawing on Persian traditions, such as miniatures, calligraphy and arts&crafts, he liberates these from their role as vehicles of prior meanings. Here, the shapes, fonts and materials become significant as such. Instead of illustrating wisdom and truths, they engender current emotional states. This is the case, for example, in the series entitled Aftershock Poetry (2009): Digital drawings present surreal apparatuses operated by a male figure with blood-red liquid. Text boxes in the apparatuses attest to their brutality and the male figure’s emotions, which are specified in the footnotes beneath the draw- ings. The sculptures of the Blades Poetry series (2009) meld Farsi-Arabic vocalization signs with architectural shapes to form sharp-edged ornaments on small wooden blocks. In his Rain-Fear Poetry installation (2014) specially made for the exhibition, Fozouni transposes calligraphy into three dimensions and has letters rain down from the ceiling.

Fozouni’s works are a matrix of ambivalent feelings, poetically protesting against the capitalism of signs. His pieces embody moments of shock, which we sense without being able to grasp them. In Farhad Fozouni’s (born 1978) first institutional solo show emotional conglomerates made up of fear, love, pain and longing populate the Fridericianum tower.

Press Contact
Carolin Würthner
press@fridericianum.org
T +49 561 707 27 89

05.09.2014, 11 h Press Conference
05.09.2014, 18 – 21 h Opening

Fridericianum
Friedrichsplatz 18 - 34117 Kassel
Opening hours
Tue–Sun 11–18 h
Thur 11–20 h
Public holidays 11–18 h
Admission
5 €, reduced 3 €
Free admission on Wednesdays
Annual ticket
25 €, reduced 15 €

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