The selected artists are both established representatives of contemporary video art as well as emerging artists who have scarcely made their mark on Berlin's active art scene.
Over the course of one year, the IBB-Videolounge will present 12 artists who have drawn
attention to themselves with innovative use of the media film and video in recent years.
The selected artists are both established representatives of contemporary video art as well
as emerging artists who have scarcely made their mark on Berlin’s active art scene.
A new, changing programme of different works will be compiled each month.
In March (05.03.–31.03.2014) IBB-Videolounge shows two works by Patrycja German
(*1979, Wroclaw/Poland). She devises situations which require counterparts to join her in
‘playing the game’. This enables her to address complex themes around intimacy and
detachment, the physical body and gender roles. Video as a medium is not central to her
art, but rather a means for recording her performances.
Patrycja German has been awarded a number of prizes and grants, including a working
bursary from the Senate of Berlin, the Schindler Scholarship LA and the HAP Grieshaber
Award. She lives and works in Berlin.
Works shown at IBB-Videolounge:
100 vs. 100, 2006, video, colour, 46 mins.
In 100 vs. 100 German challenges a man of the same size and weight to a wrestling
match. The two participants wear nothing but (identical) shorts. Their tussle, which begins
cautiously and gradually turns increasingly passionate and embittered, is filmed as a single
continuous sequence. The male wrestler in particular is at first inhibited about touching his
opponent, let alone attacking her, but after a while sexual differences lose relevance.
Stereotyped gender images are thus called into question. The spectator is both referee and
voyeur, left to his or her own devices – an observer observing him/herself.
80 vs. 3, 2006, video, colour, 20 mins.
In 80 vs. 3 the artist has cast three men able to support an 80-kilo weight for a lengthy
period. The weight is actually the artist, who has herself carried naked through a gallery
space by the men and handed in the process from one to the next. This straightforward
task permits reflections about the body language of the participants and the power
structures that unfold in this simple experiment: one of the men assumes a more dominant
role than the other two; the men are motivated by social pressure to keep going even
when their strength begins to fade. As in 100 vs. 100, inhibitions about touching someone
else’s naked body are gradually overcome, until eventually this becomes a mere object
which just happens to form a routine part of the task.
Opening 5th June 2014
Berlinische Galerie
Alte Jakobstrasse, 124-128, Berlin
Hours:Wednesday–Monday 10am–6pm
Admission: Day ticket 8 Euro, Concessions 5 Euro, free for visitors under 18