Two exhibitions
dal 5/6/2008 al 16/8/2008
Segnalato da
5/6/2008
Two exhibitions
Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin
Ming Wong / Haris Epaminonda.
Haris Epaminonda uses various collage techniques – making cut-outs with a scalpel, tearing out certain parts of a picture, or constructing neat paper folds –
to rework found footage from picture books or old film footage. But unlike the seamless juxtaposition characteristic of classic montage patterns, the images she creates remain in a subtle state of suspension. Obtained by assembling scalpel-chiselled cut-outs, her small paper formats, in which different layers of photographic imagery overlap, are fragile compo-
sitions based on formal-aesthetical considerations. Epaminonda is mainly concerned with the tension created by associating individual elements and issues of perspective and space.
Her working method is thus often based on intuition and effectively undermines any sense of clear signification and symbolic dramaturgy. In Studio 3 Epaminonda is showing an installation exclusively composed of found images. They were chosen for their power of seduction and were left untouched to be displayed in a classic museum hanging. In absence of a strict thematic order, the only characteristic shared by the images is that they were culled from books printed between the 1930s and 1970s. When explaining her choice, Epaminonda invokes the haptic and sensual qualities of ‘old’ materials and printing techniques. This installation is in fact the spatial continuation of the artist’s small collages – a “collage in space”, in her own words – but is nevertheless to be viewed as an entirely new work which is more than the sum of its elements.
Haris Epaminonda is currently in residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien’s International Studio Programme thanks to a grant by the UNDO Foundation, Cyprus.
Haris Epaminonda
6 – 22 June 2008, Studio 3
Opening: Thursday, 5 June 2008, from 7 pm
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In his latest work Ming Wong investigates theatrical manifestations of language and identity. Based on the conviction that film is the best-suited medium to gain insights into foreign languages and cultures, Ming reinterprets classics of world cinema, foreign-language TV films, and theatre productions.
During his residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Ming developed his latest video work, „Angst Essen/Eat Fear“, a reconstruction of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s movie „Angst essen Seele auf“ (1973), which tells the story of Emmi, an elderly cleaning woman from Munich, who falls in love with a much younger Moroccan immigrant worker named Ali. The two unlikely lovers start living together as a couple, which at that time in Germany was socially looked down upon, if not deemed downright scandalous.
In Fassbinder’s film, their relationship threatens to turn into a disaster under the pressure of hostile and discriminatory social reflexes. In "Angst Essen/Eat Fear", Ming plays and recites all the roles. Speaking an approximate German, he embodies up to five persons at the same time, relentlessly switching between various identities defined by gender, age or nationality. If Ming chose Fassbinder’s film, it was not merely for its notoriety but because it addresses notions like ‘outsider’ and ‘foreignness’ in an exemplary manner.
Beyond a reflection on identity and alterity – a topic which is at the heart of his artistic project – Ming’s works are enlivened by a deeply funny and entertaining dimension, which helps reveal the positive options unlocked by a playful state of ‘in-betweenness’ – in-between ethnicities, languages and genders.
Ming Wong is currently in residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien’s International Studio Programme thanks to a twelve-month grant by the National Arts Council Singapore.
Ming Wong – Angst Essen/Eat Fear
6 – 22 June 2008, Studio 2
Opening: Thursday, 5 June 2008, from 7 pm
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2 - Berlin