SUMMER READING:
"The front of a magazine is itself a kind of facade" – Thomas Demand and Domus.
The Italian magazine Domus has long been a major force of architectural publishing. Founded by Gio Ponti in 1928, the magazine began planning for its 100 years anniversary already two years ago with an ambitious program of a decade of yearly guest editors. In 2020 the British architect David Chipperfield took on this function. Known in Berlin for his thoughtful reconstruction of the Neues Museum (1993-2009) and the more recent completion of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999-2018), Chipperfield collaborated with Thomas Demand who will make all the magazine’s 10 covers this year.
The series depicts architecture which got into trouble, as Demand puts it. These are designs which became symbolic architectural forms for current disputes without necessarily being built with any such intention.
Anri Sala – Of Valleys and Peaks, 2017
"Of Valleys and Peaks" consists of two miniature brass music box cylinders enclosed in a sheet of glass, that is hollowed at its center with a small concave area. This is the first work in Anri Sala's series of partially encased music boxes that is self-playing, animated by a programmed electric motor.
A glass panel in a free standing custom-made frame, the dimensions of the work echo Marcel Duchamp’s "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even" (1915-23), also known as The Large Glass.
The two programmed music boxes play distinct but related tunes: one the melody of the Marseillaise, the other that of the political anthem The Internationale. The musical works are affiliated by an entangled political and cultural history. Written in 1792 the Marseillaise was closely tied to the French Revolution but also quickly spread to other countries where it became a symbol for the overthrow of oppressive regimes. Thus, the 1871 lyrics of The Internationale were initially also set to the tune of the Marseillaise, until 1888 when its original music was composed and the song became the standard anthem of the socialist movement. Both anthems have undergone major changes in their political connotations: from revolution, restoration, socialism, resistance and patriotism, to additional associations with colonization and oppression in the second half of the twentieth century (as national anthems of France and the Soviet Union, respectively). Yet to this day their meaning remains in flux, as the two songs continue to be appropriated. The work makes makes audible the close relationship of these two political anthems and mines the musical kinship for traces of this changing symbolic significance.
See this work in Festival! #3 – a project by Esther Schipper and Mehdi Chouakri, Mommsenstrasse 4. But hurry, today is the last day!
Anri Sala, Of Valleys and Peaks, 2017, two music boxes, glass, metal frame, electric motor and customized motion-c
We celebrate Bastille Day with Anri Sala and an excerpt from his 2017 video "Take Over (Marseillaise)"! Watch as the pianist and Disklavier play the French national anthem in a carefully choreographed moment of ghostly harmony, evoking the timelessness of the tune.
Both this video and its counterpart, "Take Over (Internationale)", pair the two eponymous musical works, powerful political anthems that are affiliated by an entangled political and cultural history.
Video: Anri Sala, Take Over (Marseillaise), 2017, HD video projection, color, stereo sound, duration 7:56 min
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2020
In Ceal Floyer's "Mutual Admiration", 2015, two speakers face each other uncomfortably close, playing the sound of clapping hands. The congratulatory gesture is slightly distorted and further undercut by its repetition.
The work’s title, "Mutual Admiration", adds an element of derision, as the term often refers to two persons entangled in a dynamic of uncritical giving of praise. Since we are listening, essentially to a dialogue of one, we may take this as Ceal Floyer’s wry comment on the requirements of an artist’s existence—the necessity of public display and longing for acclaim. This being said, there is of course also comfort to be had as beneficiary of mutual admiration.
Click the link to see more information about this work:
https://www.estherschipper.com/viewing-room/12-ps81e-esther-schipper-berlin/
Video: Ceal Floyer, Mutual Admiration, 2015
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2020
Immersive Ping-Pong with Gabriel Kuri
Currently exhibited as part of our exhibition PS81E, Kuri’s "untitled (AE DEC 18)" consists of a number of objects in different colors made from hard plastic that have been arranged in a loose grouping. Their shape is taken from a standard fastening clip, a closure best-known for use on packages of sliced bread (but also used to seal bags of fruit and other perishables). In this case the found object, the bread-clips, has been scaled to an almost monstrous size, removing all functionality.
The artists characteristic combination of precision and playfulness surfaced with a recent short video in which he plays ping-pong in his studio, felling the giant bread-clips one by one!
Made in confinement in Gabriel Kuri’s studio in Brussels. Much gratitude to Cristian Manzutto for his selfless help with the iPhone camera and editing. And thanks to Jonas Kuri.
"I'm never coming back to London again", 2017, is an iteration of Ryan Gander's animatronic works set in a wall. In this particular example, Euro banknotes of the denomination of 20 are set in a 'mouse hole' broken in the gallery wall, close to the floor. Dust and pieces of plaster are scattered below the hole as if it was punched through just a moment ago. The robotics of the work slightly moves the banknotes, and the speaker plays an mp3 file with rustling sound. The resulting effect suggests that there might be a small animal, perhaps a rodent behind it, or hints to another imaginary, playful scenario.
More information about this work can be found here:
https://www.estherschipper.com/viewing-room/12-ps81e-esther-schipper-berlin/
Ryan Gander, I'm never coming back to London again, 2017
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2020⠀
Video © Roman März
Esther Schipper is delighted to announce our participation in Art Basel’s second iteration of Online Viewing Rooms, a digital platform designed to connect galleries and collectors from around the world.⠀
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#ArtBaselOVR launches on June 19, 2020 and remains live until June 26, 2020, with VIP Preview Days from June 17 to June 19.
Our #ArtBasel Online Viewing Room features works by Stefan Bertalan, Matti Braun, AA Bronson and Reima Hirvonen, Angela Bulloch, Etienne Chambaud, Simon Fujiwara, Ryan Gander, General Idea, Ann Veronica Janssens, Gabriel Kuri, Roman Ondak, Philippe Parreno, Ugo Rondinone, Anri Sala, and Karin Sander.⠀
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Video: Angela Bulloch, Dynamic Stereo Drawing Machine, 2020
FILM SCREENING!
This week’s film screening features Ari Benjamin Meyers’ "Four Liverpool Musicians (Bette, Budgie, Ken, Louisa)", conceived on the occasion of the 2018 Liverpool Biennial. The film connects the subjects' personal histories and Liverpool's musical history, representing its major musical movements while at the same time relating back to the city's industrial past. This is the artist's first film-based work.
Please note that headphones are recommended to appreciate the full range of the audio and musical performances.
The film is available to view only through Sunday night, Berlin time.
Clink the link below to watch the full version!
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7154370
Video: Ari Benjamin Meyers, Four Liverpool Musicians (Bette, Budgie, Ken, Louisa), 2018
Film still © Ari Benjamin Meyers
A Journey Through the Gallery
"Organisms are not atomistic individuals but hybrid assemblages… each body is a ‘nested ecology’ linked to others in complex ways. By thinking like this, we might notice our interconnectedness with other beings, other elements; how we might cooperate across species boundaries and how we might live and thrive together on a shared planet." – Tomas Saraceno
In November 2019, Esther Schipper presented "Algo-r(h)i(y)thms", Tomás Saraceno's third solo exhibition with the gallery.
"Algo-r(h)i(y)thms" transformed the exhibition space into a web-like landscape of nets.
In Spanish, “algo” means “something.” “Rhythm” comes from the Greek rhythmos, meaning "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." Though rhythm is both biological and inherent, theorized as evolutionarily instinctual, relating in human history to the speeds of the human heartbeat, gait, and emotional affect, our contemporary moment operates at a tempo artificially imposed rather than intuitively felt. Algo-r(h)i(y)thms then presents an urgent invitation to attune to our sym(bio)poetic futures, the radical reciprocity of all things, both living and nonliving, through a vibrational language.
Click the link to see inside the exhibition.
https://www.estherschipper.com/exhibitions/772-algo-r-h-i-y-thms-tomas-saraceno/
Isa Melsheimer's film "Wasserballett für Marl" was produced on the occasion of the 2017 Urban Lights Ruhr Festival in Marl, near Münster. The film was shot on location, in a large fountain that is part of a public square within a building complex from the 1960s that includes the city's town hall. Switched-off in recent years because of damage and financial restraints, Melsheimer had the basin filled with water and staged a water ballet with synchronized swimmers. In addition to the choreography which Melsheimer created in collaboration with the well-known choreographer Frank Willens, the artist produced costumes and masks for each performer.
The film is both an homage and an ironic challenge to the city to come to terms with their architectural heritage. The artifice of the movements of the synchronized swimmers, a sport popular especially in the 1950s and 1960s, is posed in playful contrast with the architecture of the same period. In the backdrop of the Marl cityscape, the video merges layers of associations: the optimism of the 1950s and 1960s translated into notions of post-World War II urban renewal and the legacy of that project in its somewhat run-down present condition.
Follow the link in below to watch the full film!
https://www.estherschipper.com/viewing-room/9-isa-melsheimer-der-unerfreuliche-zustand-der-textur-kindl-centre-for-contemporary-art-berlin/
MESSAGES FROM HOME⠀
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Under the heading "Messages from Home" artists are sharing videos from their (temporary) studios or homes.⠀⠀
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Here, Tao Hui shares a recipe of his take on a Chinese-style ice plant salad!
Anri Sala – Take Over (Internationale), 2017
We celebrate May Day with Anri Sala and an excerpt from his 2017 video "Take Over (Internationale)"! Watch as the pianist and Disklavier play the famous anthem in a carefully choreographed moment of ghostly harmony, evoking the timelessness of the tune.
Both this video and its counterpart Take Over (Marseillaise), pair the two eponymous musical works, powerful political anthems that are affiliated by an entangled political and cultural history.
Watch for the next episode on Bastille day!
Video: Anri Sala, Take Over (Internationale), 2017, HD video projection, color, stereo sound, duration: 7:56 min
© VG Bld-Kunst, Bonn, 2020
A Magazine of Films – Streaming now!
As this is a holiday weekend in Germany, we have assembled a program that adopts the format of a magazine. We hope you enjoy browsing its sections. The films are available to stream through Sunday night, Berlin time.
Featuring films from Roman Ondak, Tomás Saraceno, Christopher Roth, Etienne Chambaud, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Christoph Keller, Nathan Carter, Simon Fujiwara, Karin Sander, and Ceal Floyer.
Click the link to stream!
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7074706
The Reading Corner with Ryan Gander
In this week’s Reading Corner, Ryan Gander reads "I Am for an Art" by Claes Oldenburg (1961) to his two daughters, Penny and Olive.
Matti Braun – A Video and a Reading
A video of the publication edited by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Beth Citron, and Matti Braun with a reading by Joëlle Bargel of an excerpt from the biographical essay „Traveling in a Time Machine to the Golden Age of Science Fiction in Kolkata (1963 - 1985)“ by Ranen Ghosh with additions by Santu Bag.
Ranen Ghosh was a Bengali writer, editor and publisher from India. In 1963 he began writing science fiction (or kalpavigyan as the genre is known in Bengali) for the first Bengali science fiction magazine Aschorjo, working with his mentor Adrish Bardhan. After Aschorjo ceased publication, Ghosh edited the short-lived Bismay science fiction magazine with Sujit Dhar and Amitananda Das. After Bismay, Ghosh acted as a co-editor for Adrish Bardhan’s SF magazine Fantastic. Beside kalpavigyan, Ghosh was also an admirer of popular science. He passed away in Kolkata on April 7th, 2019.
The book brings together texts by Parashuram, Beth Citron, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Dip Ghosh, Ranen Ghosh, Soham Guha, Sudhir Kakar, Sami Ahmad Khan, Matthia Löbke, Amrita Shah and presents Matti Braun’s artistic production of the last ten years.
Designed by Yvonne Quirmbach, Berlin. Published by Kunstverein Heilbronn and Snoeck, 2020
THE READING CORNER
"The small heart sculptures hold their own as sassy, rosy creatures; one of them is set upright like a nude, positively obscenely posing beauty. (...) A gaze fired by one’s imagination that slides over the monstrosity follows the rises, layers, chasms, and trenches of a landscape. Viewed from a different perspective, one believes to be looking at an amorphous creature with lappets and wrinkles, with swelling forms, lewdly sprouting tubes, crust, and severed tentacles." – — Annett Reckert,⠀
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This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition Isa Melsheimer: Psychotropische Landschaften, April 16 – June 10, 2018 at Städtische Galerie, Delmenhorst.
Available now in the Esther Schipper Bookstore!
THE READING CORNER:
Gabriel Kuri⠀
join the dots and make a point⠀
Published by Sternberg Press⠀
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On the occasion of his first institutional exhibition in Germany, Gabriel Kuri created four new groups of works, which provide an insight into different aspects of his practice. Accordingly, Kuri is showing sculptures and installation; all of them are made out of found materials or industrially manufactured products, including marble slabs, sand, paper, cigarette butts, or body care products. ⠀
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A precise and deliberate positioning and a surprising casualness always characterize the presentation of his objects in the exhibition. With their humor and lightness of touch, his works level criticism as well as political, economic, and social conditions. In the sense of an extended notion of sculpture, he shifts the boundaries of art and the everyday, as the viewers and the everyday become part of the aesthetic form.⠀
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This catalogue is published on the occasion of Gabriel Kuri’s solo exhibition at Bielefelder Kunstverein and Kunstverein Freiburg. ⠀
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Available now in the Esther Schipper Bookstore!⠀
https://www.estherschipper.com/store/publications/63-gabriel-kuri-join-the-dots-and-make-a-point/
Challah!!! What’s on your Seder plate?
A special Passover post from the Esther Schipper team.
Visuals, cinematography and punk Klezmer music by Nathan Carter
MESSAGES FROM HOME
Under the heading "Messages from Home" artists are sharing videos from their (temporary) studios or homes.
Here, Jean-Pascal Flavien presents "fostering architecture". Deep green, his model of "Greenhouse" has a striking floor plan that, seen from above, is reminiscent of a plant from which four limbs extend.
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new digital platform Continuity*.
Bringing together our digital content in one place, the new platform features exclusive content from our artists. Conversations, book readings, film screenings, presentations of virtual exhibitions, essays, and much more, Continuity is about connections: we want to continue to connect you with our artists, their works and ideas.
Here you will also find material from our social media channels, among them, the Letter from Berlin, our weekly digital journal, the new series Messages from Home, videos from our artists as they open their (temporary) studios, as well as book recommendations and readings from our Reading Corner, and Guess Whose Studio.
Our Online Viewing Rooms give virtual access to exhibitions and for the first time will also include full-length films for streaming. Curated film screenings, both of artists‘ works and of rare documentary footage are planned.
The series Journey Through the Gallery presents favorite works and exhibitions chosen by artists, friends and the Esther Schipper team, as we open our extensive archive material to the public with the launch of the gallery’s complete exhibition history since its founding in 1989 on our website.
https://www.estherschipper.com/continuity/
* Continuity --- the way a film is put together that grounds the viewer in time and space. In broadcasting the transitional leads between programs that encourage the experience of continuous flow.
MESSAGES FROM HOME
Under the heading "Messages from Home", we are sharing videos from our artists as they open their (temporary) studios and share short messages on how they’re handling these uncertain times.
This week, Isa Melsheimer takes her plants out for some fresh air and to get some of that springtime sunshine.
MESSAGES FROM HOME
Under the heading "Messages from Home", we are sharing videos from our artists as they open their (temporary) studios and share short messages on how they’re handling these uncertain times.
This week Christoph Keller shares this playful DIY starter-kit on how to make a mask.
MESSAGES FROM HOME
In times like these it’s never felt more important to stay connected with one another. With this in mind, we’ve asked our artists to share short messages on how they’re handling these uncertain times.
First to share is Anri Sala, who sent a message juxtaposing the closeness and remoteness between all of us right now. Based on the idea of a prolonged “life line” by using protection, it hints at social distancing as well as nodding to previous works by Sala.
"Wallpaper Marilyn" was conceived by Philippe Parreno on the occasion of his first major solo exhibition in Germany, at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. The wallpaper depicts irises, printed with phosphorescent pigment on paper.
The pattern is a subtle reference to "Marilyn", the artist’s 2012 film, which conjures up the presence of Marilyn Monroe in the set of a suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, where the actress lived in the 1950s. Although not directly visible on the set, the wallpaper is described by the voice-over impersonating the voice of Marilyn Monroe.
Follow link in bio to see more about this work!
https://www.estherschipper.com/viewing-room/8-art-basel-hong-kong-2020/
Video: Philippe Parreno, Wallpaper Marilyn, 2018
Tomás Saraceno – Particular Matter(s)
This week, we have all started to move more slowly. With Tomás Saraceno’s solo show “Aria” temporarily closed at Palazzo Strozzi, we are turning to online platforms to give a greater insight to particular artworks, those installed both at Strozzi and elsewhere.
With the work at hand, participants find themselves part of a rhythmic ensemble where PM2.5, PM10, dust particles, cosmic dust, participants and the interplay of heat, electrostatics and air currents become some of the musicians of this jam session.
A beam of light illuminates dust particles of domestic, earthly and cosmic origin. Cameras record the position and velocity of the particles in real time as they travel through space, transforming them into musical tones that are given voice through a set of speakers spread out across the space.
Discover more about this artwork and the exhibition Aria at Palazzo Strozzi at www.estherschipper.com
Video © Studio Tomás Saraceno, 2020
"I am always seeking the moment where the visitor no longer observes the work but rather his or her own experience; the moment where they observe themselves." - Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
See inside “Fog Dog”, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.
📹 by MONA productions | produced by Monica Salazar | filmed and edited by Peter Cairns
Studio Visit with Tomás Saraceno
"What are the rhythms of the spiders? What are the rhythms of the vibrations of different webs? What are the rhythms of comic webs?"
Berlin Art Link magazine spoke to Studio Tomás Saraceno about his ongoing spiderweb project. Filmed inside the Berlin-based artist’s studio and his recent exhibition ‘Algo-r(h)i(y)thms’ at Esther Schipper.
Video by MONA productions for Berlin Art Link
ON VIEW THROUGH DECEMBER 21, 2019:⠀
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Tomás Saraceno⠀
Algo-r(h)i(y)thms ⠀
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In Spanish, “algo” means “something.” “Rhythm” comes from the Greek rhythmos, meaning "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." Though rhythm is both biological and inherent, theorized as evolutionarily instinctual, relating in human history to the speeds of the human heartbeat, gait, and emotional affect, our contemporary moment operates at a tempo artificially imposed rather than intuitively felt. Algo-r(h)i(y)thms then presents an urgent invitation to attune to our sym(bio)poetic futures, the radical reciprocity of all things, both living and nonliving, through a vibrational language.⠀
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Exhibition view: Tomás Saraceno, Algo-r(h)i(y)thms, Esther Schipper, Berlin, 2019⠀
Video © Andrea Rossetti
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW:
To celebrate 30 years of the gallery, Esther Schipper spoke with Luyang Jiang Hildebrandt from the Financial Times China.
Executive Producer / Host: Luyang Jiang Hildebrandt
Producer: Boliang Shen
Video: MONA Productions
Camera: Peter Cairns, Adrian Angehrn
COMING SOON:
In this teaser for the upcoming interview on Financial Timess China, Esther Schipper speaks with Luyang Jiang Hildebrandt to celebrate 30 years of the gallery.
Executive Producer / Host: Luyang Jiang Hildebrandt
Producer: Boliang Shen
Video: Mona Productions
Camera: Peter Cairns, Adrian Angehrn
Gallery for contemporary art THE GALLERY WAS FOUNDED IN 1989, COLOGNE
