calendario eventi  :: 

X

4/7/2008

Bojan Sarcevic

Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg

Curated by Yilmaz Dziewior

Bojan Sarcevic first gained international recognition at the second Manifesta 1998 in Luxemburg when he sealed windows, doors, and other openings with paper and pieces of fabric in a former exhibition space of a natural history museum. This interest in space and its social, cultural, and psychological connotations, already apparent here, is still today of fundamental importance for Sarcevic, who was born in Belgrade in 1974. His media range from interventions in found situations, installations, and autonomous sculpture to videos and discursive activities. Thus, at the Berlin Biennial 2004, he presented workers' favorite clothes. Speculation about their former wearers' preferences, tastes, and social position, and the peculiar discrepancy between their museal presentation and their signs of wear, emerged in their reception. The situation was similar with his contribution to the exhibition "Formalism—Modern Art, today" at the Kunstverein in Hamburg, for which Sarcevic laid two massive granite working surfaces on black metal frames. Here, too, grooves, scratches, and notches produced by stonemasons in the course of their work contrasted with the presentation of the objects. These "tables" were combined with a work consisting of thin strips of paper draped about the room and measuring out the spatial volume like the lines of a drawing.

Social relevance and autonomy vie with each other in Bojan Sarcevic's art. The use his works make of the formal vocabularies of the 1910s–1930s can also be viewed against this background. For it was in precisely this period that the decisive 20th-century cleft crystallized out between the idea of a purpose-free art appealing primarily to aesthetic criteria, and a political, agitationist stance that called on art to change society. The work cycle Only After Dark presented at the Kunstverein in Hamburg can be seen in a similar light. In these five 16 mm films presented for the first time together here in Germany, the camera explores the surfaces of abstract objects—small sculptures in wood, metal, and other materials. Music composed specially for the films enhances their mysterious, charged atmosphere that also comes out in the pavilions—reminiscent of constructivist architecture—in which they are presented. Staged and filmed in this way, Sarcevic's objects shift between landscape, architecture, design, and stage set. The artist deliberately plays off the social determinedness of these realms against the formal elegance of their staging.

Auftakt (in cooperation with Kampnagel)

In fall 2008, the Kunstverein in Hamburg and Kampnagel are staging a big interdisciplinary project entitled "Wir nennen es Hamburg (We Call it Hamburg)" to which visual artists, choreographers, directors, and musicians from Hamburg will be invited. Various preliminary events will constitute a lead-up in the course of the summer. There will be a musical evening with Frau Kraushaar and Christian Naujoks, and Bildwechsel will be presenting videos by Hamburg women artists. "Showings"—short dance performances—will give insight into some of the choreographical works being performed in the context of the project. All Auftakt events will take place in an environment specially designed as an independent work and functional setting by the Jochen Schmith artist collective.

Curated by Kunstverein in Hamburg and Kampnagel

16mm Film, 2.28 Min. Farbe/Ton
Kamera: Sandra Merseburger
Musik: Carlo Peters
courtesy Galerie BQ, Köln

For further information or image material please contact
Kunstverein in Hamburg, Meike Behm, T. 0049 – (0)40 – 32 21 57, behm@kunstverein.de

Kunstverein in Hamburg
Klosterwall 23 - 20095 Hamburg
Tue-Sun 11-18
Thu 11-21

stampa

permanent link