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25/10/2008

Landreform

Skulpturenpark, Berlin

Skulpturenpark is pleased to present site-specific projects by artists, Daniel Seiple (USA) and Markus Lohmann (Germany), which make distinct intrusions in the park’s landscape and private properties. Skulpturenpark consists of 62 vacant lots of downtown real estate that at one time was the militarized zone within the Berlin Wall. In the context of the exhibitions series, LANDREFORM, the projects subvert the rightful ownership of the land and its resources. Involving beautification and violation, the artists’ works present a romantic transformation.

In his project, Fontäne, Daniel Seiple set out to find water and dig a well on one of the park’s vacant lots. Down four meters in a narrow shaft, after cutting and digging through dirt, rebar and chunks of concrete, Seiple found himself trapped in someone’s former basement, impeded by a solid concrete floor. Fortunately, during the excavation, Seiple observed a pre-existing well partially hidden in a grove of trees just a few meters away. Characteristic of his work, a story unfolds in Fontäne which is determined as much by the site and its limitations as by the artist’s original intent, namely, to build a fountain. What was once intended to be a well, a narrow wooden shaft looking into the ground, now becomes a depository. Water is pumped from the abandoned well to the top of the park’s second highest point, a monumental mound of prewar building ruins, where it cascades as a waterfall into 3 interconnected pools. The water rises until it crests and falls as one stream leading, as if in conceptual reverse, to the artist’s stymied attempt. While picturesque, the intentions of Fontäne are interwoven with the complexities and history of the site. The precise point of the waterfall marks the boundary between two adjacent properties. The small stream of water loosely follows this line before returning to the ground. In making a natural water phenomena, Seiple mimics a common strategy used to increase land and property value. However, the artist’s unauthorized digging and pirating of another well’s water contradict this benevolence and ask the age old question, who owns the water.

Markus Lohmann’s Shiny Holes, while much smaller in scale, put a shiny gloss on Skulpturenpark’s rough terrain. Lohmann has molded seven unique mouseholes and reproduced them in chrome-plated bronze. These luxury-replicas have been discreetly planted around the park. Upon walking by, their textured and natural surfaces are betrayed only by their sparkle and tubular perversion. The visual and physical qualities of the chrome-plated dirt revalue the terrain. As fetishized objects, Shiny Holes asserts the underestimated beauty of the particular site, an urban wasteland. Shiny Holes evolved from Lohmann’s previous works where he tattooed the brick walls of a building, or infested a white cube gallery with cast golden mushrooms. Now festooned outside, the significance of the chrome holes hovers between an aestheticizing of nature and a metallic parasite possibly envisioned in a science fiction movie.

Daniel Seiple (*1973, USA) resides in Berlin. Markus Lohmann (*1970, Germany) lives in Hamburg. The two artists are founding members of Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum.

* Landreform has received the generous support from Kunstfonds, Bonn.

Opening: Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 3 PM

Skulpturenpark
Neue Grunstr. 20 - Berlin

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