calendario eventi  :: 

X

30/10/2005

The Addiction

Gagosian Gallery Berlin, Berlin

Group show

Curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers

With: Markus Amm, John Bock, Roberto Cuoghi, Christian Flamm, Ellen Gronemeyer, Alexander Heim, Andreas Hofer, Richard Hughes, Dorothy Iannone, Gareth Jones, Karsten Konrad, Olaf Metzel, Bernhard Prinz, Anselm Reyle, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Slominski, Katja Strunz, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Paloma Varga Weisz, Nicole Wermers, Johannes Wohnseifer.

Gagosian Gallery in Berlin is pleased to present the group exhibition "The Addiction," which brings together the private collections of various artists.

Casting a new light on private obsessions, "The Addiction" illustrates the secret universes and imaginary places where artists sometimes like to hide. By displaying both entire collections and a few items or selections, "The Addiction" documents a series of personal relationships and passionate encounters with everyday objects and curiosities. The exhibition, in fact, does not present art works: "The Addiction," instead, is a cabinet of curiosities in which objects of affection, simple artifacts, or precious leftovers have all found a home. Like a peek behind the curtain, "The Addiction" is a small tour into the private worlds of artists, an exploration of their domestic, hidden side - it's the workers' playtime.

John Bock, for example, collects medical equipment, including a dentist's chair; Italian artist Roberto Cuoghi possesses a stock of preserved sea animals; Christian Flamm displays excerpts from his record collection; Thomas Scheibitz shows a montage of movie beginnings and credits; Katja Strunz presents her collection of earrings; and Paloma Varga Weisz shows her pet-houses.

In the hands of artists, collecting seems to become both a source of inspiration and a joyful waste of energy or distraction. In some cases the proximity between an artist's work and his or her collection is quite evident; other times the contrasts are striking, their universes completely unrelated. Collecting, in fact, gives us access to a world in which new connections are created, functions transformed and contexts reframed. Just like the characters in Abel Ferrara's film "The Addiction", the artists are trapped in an endless quest for their objects of desire. And just as in Ferrara's movie, they might end up eating themselves alive, consuming their passions in public.

The 4th berlin biennial for contemporary art is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Gagosian Gallery, Berlin is realized with the support of the Culture 2000 program of the European Union.

Thanks to Bionade and Pilsner Urquell.

Thanks to Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien.

Opening: Monday, October 31, 7 - 9 pm

Gagosian Gallery Berlin
Auguststrasse 50A - Berlin
Gallery Hours: Tue - Sat, 12 - 6 pm

stampa

permanent link