Roger Ballen
Robert Gligorov
Sandy Skoglund
Andres Serrano
Erwin Olaf
Pierre Crocquet
Democracia
Tae-Hun Kang
Daniel Fuchs
Geo Fuchs
Martin Heinig
Lukas Maximilian Huller
Joel Peter Witkin
Florian Schulz
Nadine Rennert
Stehn Raupach
Nadine Klein
"Reality Bites" presents international artworks which likewise reflect contemporary society, though in an aesthetic manner. "The Decision Has Been Taken" presents the latest works by Sveinn Fannar Johannson, who deals with statements of "nature" and the perception of landscape photography.
Group show + Sveinn Fannar Johannsson
Reality Bites
Berlin's Kochstraße is renowned as the city's traditional media quarter. This is where daily current news and affairs are registered, filtered and edited. As a result of this process, various newspapers are published every morning, giving us fragmented insight into our present reality. The images produced by the media are often provocative and shocking, but also provide orientation in an ever increasingly complex world.
At this media-orientated hub, the opening exhibition "Reality Bites" tackles the topic of "reality" and perceptions of it. The gallery presents international artworks which likewise reflect contemporary society – however in an aesthetic manner. Reality is often brutal, banal and leads to disillusionment: "Reality bites"! Yet, art adds a different dimension, thereby creating a distance, allowing the observer to reflect upon the aesthetics of ugliness.
The exhibition shows artworks which do not attempt to evoke pity, nor do they belong to the genre of socio-critical documentary photography. The artists – Andres Serrano, Robert Gligorov, Erwin Olaf, Tae-Hun Kang and Roger Ballen, to name only a few – deal with reality how they see or experience it with their very own, unique interpretation. The work often relies on symbolic use of everyday objects ie a water faucet in Tae-Hun Kang's installations, or it plays with allegory like Lukas Maximilian Hüller's contemporary version of the Seven Deadly Sins (exemplified by "Wrath"). Roger Ballen and Pierre Crocquet portray people on the fringes of post-apartheid South African society. Democracia, who recently exhibited at Moscow Biennale, portray a socio-critical view of society in their projects "Charity" and "All things will come to pass". The viewer is forced to participate in this surreal, "real" world!
Artists: Roger Ballen, Robert Gligorov, Sandy Skoglund, Andres Serrano, Erwin Olaf, Pierre Crocquet, Democracia, Tae-Hun Kang, Daniel & Geo Fuchs, Martin Heinig, Lukas Maximilian Hüller, Maslen & Mehra, Joel Peter Witkin, Florian Schulz, Nadine Rennert, Stehn Raupach and Nadine Klein
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The Decision Has Been Taken
Parallel to "Reality Bites", the gallery is also presenting the very latest works of the Icelandic artist Sveinn Fannar Johannson in the exhibition "The Decision Has Been Taken". In this show the upcoming artist, selected as ART COLOGNE NEW TALENT 2007, deals with statements of "nature". He questions common clichés regarding the perception of landscape photography by reducing landscape to only one object, a tree, and by asking us: Is what we see natural or is it constructed?
Opening 27 April 2007, 7 – 10 p.m.
Galerie Caprice Horn
Kochstr. 60 - Berlin
Opening hours during the Gallery Weekend Berlin from 27 until 30 April:
Fri 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Sat – Mon 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.