Ilja Karilampi
dal 23/9/2011 al 4/11/2011
Segnalato da
23/9/2011
Ilja Karilampi
Club Midnight, Berlin
The project is an extension of a private member scenario created by the artist in his studio space on Governors Island, New York City, when Ilja Karilampi was researching the underground music scene and sculptural destruction in NYC in the last spring and summer. In the exhibition space, wooden walls and a hand stamped brick pattern aligns the corner of the room - creating a separate environment where 5 years of collected video works are shown on a TV monitor.
Club Midnight is glad to present the first solo show of Ilja Karilampi.
The gallery space is turned into a large installation made of a series of different
elements. The project is an extension of a private member scenario created by the
artist in his studio space on Governors Island, New York City, when Ilja Karilampi
was researching the underground music scene and sculptural destruction in NYC in the
last spring and summer.
The artist brought some of the material to Berlin and together with a series of new
unique works he turned the installation into the next version, the 2.0. In the
exhibition space, wooden walls and a hand stamped brick pattern aligns the corner of
the room - creating a separate environment where 5 years of collected video works
are shown on a TV monitor. This space is decorated with 4Loko cans, filled with
concrete; the energy drink that contains both caffeine and 12% alcohol is now
getting banned in New York. In front of this installation, some posters of a window
covered with purple foil, superimposed on top of a generic brick pattern, are shown
in two stands.
In the middle of the space there is a large sculpture consisting of the containers
of DVD players. The sculpture is a quote from the recent video h00dumentary that
recalls a still from the 90´s French movie La Haine. In a sequence of this movie we
see an apartment of a person who sells stolen goods in the suburb, packed with
expensive technical equipment; The sculpture of boxes is a real citation from that
film: an insignificant detail in the scenario of the movie, but with great potential
for making a physical work.
Behind the sculpture is placed a slide projection of shop and street signs shot
along the Karl-Marx-Strasse in Neukölln from 2010. The photos has originally been
shot on a digital camera, then transformed into slides by photographing the screen
of an IBook with a Minolta camera. On the wall there is a copy of a summer issue of
the music magazine FADER laminated in plastic, showing the artists VYBZ/SOULJA. In
the office area there are drawings and sketches with preparations for earlier known
works.
The Artist has been using the gallery as a studio, or a site to manufacture works,
and in addition to that Ilja Karilampi has been developing the design identity for
Club Midnight.
The name of the gallery is inspired by a poetry of Charles Simic, a Serbian American
author of magic realism. The gallery space is based in Kürfurstenstrasse 35, with an
international program focus on the expanding possibility of performance action into
different media.
Ilja Karilampi *1983, Göteborg, Sweden. Lives and works in New York and Berlin. Ilja
studied at Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt, with
prof. Tobias Rehberger (2005-2010). Solo exhibitions: h00dumentary, On-Blocks, Sandy
Brown, Berlin; H00dumentary, 2 person solo show, Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost,
Bijlmer, Amsterdam; Vienna Art Fair, solo presentation with Kunstverein Medienturm,
Graz, Vienna (2011); White Magic Nemo Web, OTHER, Frankfurter Kunstverein,
Frankfurt; The Chief Architect of Gangsta Rap, Black Box, Royal Institute of Art,
Stockholm (2009); Group exhibitions: Evil Freaks II, NADA Hudson, Hudson, New York;
Where language stops, Wilkinson Gallery, London; Amerika, América, Amerique,
Cleopatra ́s Berlin, Berlin; based in Berlin, Kunst-Werke & Monbijoupark, Berlin;
Appendix Lecture Series #1, Columbia University, New York; The Smart Frridge, Chilly
Forecast for Internet Fridge, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz; (2010). Recently he did
studio residencies at Building 110, Governors Island, Lower Manhattan Cultural
Council, New York, and BijlmAIR, CBK Zuidoost & SMBA, Amsterdam (2011).
Opening: 24.09.11 | 7 pm
Club Midnight
Kurfüstenstrasse 35, 10785 Berlin
hours: wednesday - saturday 3 - 8 pm
free admission