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9/12/2010

Adventures in Amberland

Uqbar - projectspace, Berlin

The exhibition Adventures in Amberland, on show in the neighbouring premises of uqbar and Kronenboden in Schwedenstr. 16, presents art works dealing with the present and past of the Kaliningrad region, with local traditions and the social situation.

The city of Kaliningrad is one of the most important Russian economic hubs on the Baltic Sea shore. At the time, it is marked by a chequered history: Königsberg was a member of the „Hanse“, from the 13th to the 16th century the city was part of the German „Ordensstaat“ and later of Ostpreußen. After Word War II, the heavily destroyed city became part of the Soviet Union. The Kalinigrad region was declared a prohibited zone, the remains of the Königsberg Castle were blown up, and Kaliningrad was remodeled as new soviet city with the objective to elminate any memory of the city’s German tradition. Since 1990, however, the commemoration of German history is being officially supported, not least to increase tourism.

In his project Amber Region (2007-2008) Oleg Blyablyas (*1967) plays ironically with the omnipresence of amber as a slogan in policy, advertising and mass media (there is the AMBER GOVERNOR, MISS AMBER REGION , a hotel AMBER TALISMANN , a dating site AMBER HEAVEN , an international singing competition AMBER NIGHTINGALE, a dog exhibition AMBER DACHSHUND etc.). Blyablyas’ photographs are taken through an amber lens, and a video shows his friends at a barbecue around an amber fire...

The Common Trembling Group (Yulia Abramova, *1982, Aleksandr Lyubin, *1982) carries out actions like Tramway, Stop, Bridge (2005): an enigmatic black figure, tied up like a parcel, appears in public space, irritating passers-by. For the project Jasnoe (2006) the artists collaborated with children to point to the history and future of the shrinking city Jasnoe. The project Cheerful and Terrible (2008-2009) also deals with the poetics of cities and traditions dieing out.

The group San Donato (Oleg Blyablyas, Evgeny Umansky, Aleksej Chebykin, Irina Chesnokova) is named after Anatol Demidov di San Donato (1813-1870), the owner of a mining and steel empire in the Urals and a promoter of art and science. During his time as embassador in Italy, he bought the title „Prince of San Donato“, later he founded a city with this name in the Caucasus. The humourous projects of the artists’ group critically address the power structures of oligarchies and corporate groups.

On the occasion of the exhibition opening, Kaliningrad artists Danil Akimov (*1976) and Oleg Blyablyas perform a pseudo-documentary Life Act with the title Alice in Amberland, an audio- visual collage with music and text material from the „Golden Age“ and the soviet utopian era of the Königsberg-Kaliningrad region, intertwined with contemporary elements.

Danil Akimov and Oleg Blyablyas will spend several weeks in Berlin as recipients of a residency grant, organised by uqbar and supported by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. The results will be on show at uqbar in January 2011.

The exhibition and residencies are supported by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

uqbar
a project by Dorothee Bienert, Dortje Drechsel, Marina Sorbello und Antje Weitzel

Image: Common Trembling Group, Tramway, Stop, Bridge, 2005

Opening Friday, December 10, 2010, 19 h
Life Act Alice in Amberland by Danil Akimov and Oleg Blyablyas, 20 h

Uqbar
Schwedenstr. 16, D -13357 Berlin
Hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday Wedding, 14 – 19 Uhr and by appointment
Free admission

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