Galerie Brigitte Schenk

29/07/2021

04/09/2020

We are overjoyed to announce the opening of the installation " I will Return on April 12..." from 1990 by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov.

The idea of using creativity and visions - often only through deficits - to lift oneself out of reality, but rather to shape reality precisely through this, fits into today's time of a paradigm shift, which, besides the misery, also opens up the possibility of redesigning reality.

The narrative installation "I will Return ‪on April 12.‬.." from 1990 deals with transcendental experiences of man between heaven and earth. The flight from the earth to heaven, as described in the accompanying text of the work stands not only for the shifting of the boundaries between reality and the imagination, but is also a variable for the communist, Society. A that kept people trapped in the boundaries between lived community and dreamed individuality and in which they defined themselves either through fatalism or rebellion or through their imagination and dreams, through which they compensated for the often depressing reality. The first man to the earth on 12 April 1961 was a Russian. At this time this was the epitome of the incomprehensible: made possible in a socialist planned economy, a regressive society and was considered a prime example not only of scientific progress, but also of the dream that had become reality.

4 September - 30 November 2020 @ Galerie Brigitte Schenk

31/07/2020

'Summer in the City’, Accrochage, artists of the gallery. Until September 1st 2020
Here: Marilyn Manson: ‚I’ve got my Arm around No One’, 2005, Watercolor, 76 x 56 cm.
„The fact that Marilyn Manson is considered to be just as brilliant a musician as he is a ’terrible’ one has been accompanied for about 20 years by a second art form with the same intensity: painting. It could not be more wrong to assume here that this involves a kind of decoration to the music or a half-hearted appendage to it. Even though it may be difficult to accept that an artist can master two disciplines equally brilliantly, this is the case here. Marilyn Manson pesters our sense of morals, pushing us to the pain threshold and even beyond, and keeps on finding an adequate artistic form for this which is born byhis personal fate—but which is also immersed in its sublimation, and which above all is not the result of mere calculation, as some critics would like to think.
As with all great artists, there is no order or hierarchy for form and content: because they are one, they are interdepen-dent and are as ‚frighteningly’ as authentic in their congruence. If you work together with Marilyn Manson, you begin to realize that it is always art that triumphs over the terror and the suffering in the world, and not the illustration, the comment or the cynicism. Because it is not the personal expression, but an intuitive sublimation that touches the heart and mind and which reveals a positive, promising reality, consisting of pure creativity.
We have arrived at an interesting point here: like no other artist, Marilyn Manson focuses on the questionableness of polarizing ’Good and Evil’, and he touches here not only on the permanent, complex, philosophical, even spiritual discourse, but on deeply buried layers of universal, eternal and primeval conscience. Seen from this perspective, their differentiation is’ merely’ subject to a dual reality and is changeable and not anchored to the transcendental realization that exists a priori as an internal ’divine‘ law in every person and independent of every experience- and which is therefore not changeable.“ Brigitte Schenk in „Genealogies of Pain“ @ Galerie Brigitte Schenk

19/07/2020

‚Summer in the City“; Accrochage, artists of the gallery
In the 1980s Hans Peter Adamski was one of the leading representatives of the "Neue Wilden"; a movement that established itself not only in Germany but also in Italy and the USA and whose program was to break away from the then predominant concept art with spontaneous, emotional, irrational, dilettante and cynical gestures. The banal of being was the program as the sculpture "The Little Pedicure" from 1989 illustrates or "There is no freedom of the mind“ from 1984, a work of art baked with bread-salt dough on a flokati carpet.
This approach clearly symbolizes how the wild painters proceeded. It was not the claim to perfection that was intended, but the fight against it. This is how the "wild" attitude arose, to question almost everything, not to take anything seriously and to develop a programmatic idea from it very self-confidently. For the art world of the time, which had an almost religious reverence for its conceptual artists, this meant a great provocation.

Windows on work; Why do you always take the detour? The eternally sick "Menelaus" and why can I put only my arms around no one? Nature's parachute or coma in paradise? Real - Done - Wanted? Or Inshallah? But then you have the responsibility! The controlled swarm or the ivory tower in the pop refuge? The suffering memories, but Prêt à-Porter toujours. And a little pedicure first. But always Untitled for a desperate pair of lovers. To which continent and its birth rate can they be assigned? Virus loop, loop, loop..
.vom.bruch .karimi.16 @ Galerie Brigitte Schenk

12/07/2020

Congratulations to Elijah Blue. Happy birthday! Our last exhibition, ‚Step and Repeat’, dealt with the red carpet and its advertising mechanisms. Freed from its banality by a mutation of terms has turned Hollywood into a Holy Wood. Thus ‚Ivory Soap’ and ‚Tower Records’ became ‚IvoryTower’; ‚Lucky Strike‘, ‚J &an’ and ‚Club Med’ became the ‚Lucky Gene Club’. Your family and mother and artist Cher and father Gregg Allman and your childhood were the starting point for the reflection on spoiled life. Spoiled life without the valve of creative expression can be a burden. Only the transformation and consciousness of one's own self is salvation. For art as well as for life. Thank you for allowing us to participate in this process.
@ Galerie Brigitte Schenk

06/07/2020

Great news: This year’s new Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Laureate Fellows will lead new world-class research endeavours to produce real-world outcomes and important fundamental knowledge in key priority areas.ARC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Professor Sue Thomas, today welcomed the announcement by Minister for Education Dan Tehan of $44.2m for fourteen 2020 Australian Laureate Fellowships projects through the ARC Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme.
One of them is Professor Dennis Del Favero – The University of New South Wales – to harness revolutionary advances in art and technology to create a cutting-edge digital platform that provide users with life-like visual experiences so they can safely navigate a range of unpredictable and risk-laden environments, such as wildfire landscapes, in real time and at real scale.
This means we can look forward to further very innovative, evolutionary media art projects! Stay tuned for

02/07/2020

Summer in the City; Accrochage, artists of the gallery.
The Iranian artist Shahram Karimi is a painter and media artist and a gifted poet. Many of his Farsi poems run through the surface of his paintings. In "Blue Comfort" he projects the filmed sequence of a forest landscape onto exactly the same painted view. The leaves move in the wind and the small path is wetted by rain. As Shirn Neshat's longtime assistant and set designer of her films, he is well acquainted with the complexity of filming. Blue Comfort not only has something comforting, but also something very calming and gentle.karimi.16

Windows on work; Why do you always take the detour? The eternally sick "Menelaus" and why can I put only my arms around no one? Nature's parachute or coma in paradise? Real - Done - Wanted? Or Inshallah? But then you have the responsibility! The controlled swarm or the ivory tower in the pop refuge? Blue Comfort, but Prêt à-Porter toujours. And a little pedicure first. But always Untitled for a desperate pair of lovers. To which continent and its birth rate can they be assigned? Virus loop, loop, loop..
.vom.bruch .karimi.16

16/06/2020

Accrochage
Summer in the City
‪June 15 - September 1, 2020‬
Hans-Peter-Adamski, Curtis Anderson, Elijah Blue, Klaus vom Bruch, Roberto Cabot, Klaus Fritze, Abdulnasser Gharem, Ingo Günther, Tarek Al Ghoussein, Shahram Karimi, Halim Al Karim, Marilyn Manson, Gerhard Naschberger, Random International, Maria Zerres

Windows on work; Why do you always take the detour? The eternally sick "Menelaus" and why can I put only my arms around no one? Nature's parachute or coma in paradise? Real - Done - Wanted? Or Inshallah? But then you have the responsibility! The controlled swarm or the ivory tower in the pop refuge? The suffering memories, but Prêt à-Porter toujours. And a little pedicure first. But always Untitled for a desperate pair of lovers. To which continent and its birth rate can they be assigned? Virus loop, loop, loop..
.vom.bruch .karimi.16 @ Galerie Brigitte Schenk

26/04/2020

Showing off a new dress. ➡️ I have been collecting Pucci since I was 18 years old and have always remained loyal. I could do an exhibition with all the dresses. Some of them are so fragile that you can no longer wear them - and only show them. Emilio Pucci gave his self-designed patterns, which (in the past) often framed a garment at the collar and hem, names in the 1960s. Some of the old patterns have been reissued. This dress is from 2008.
.pucci @ Lindenthal, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

22/04/2020

What do we have, what do we do with it? Do we know?

19/04/2020

A in the . The park is the new . You don‘t meet for a coffee but for a instead. The much vaunted walk of the philosophers (in which one should transform oneself), does all credit to its meaning. /
Day38.

19/04/2020

A in the . The park is the new . You don‘t meet for a coffee but for a instead. The much vaunted walk of the philosophers (in which one should transform oneself), does all credit to its meaning. /
Day38. @ Stadtpark Lindenthal

08/04/2020

In memory of the director and professor of the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Schmitt and his legendary television show "Freistil oder das Geheimnis des Rattenkönigs“ (Freestyle or the secret of the rat king) Here is .R.Penck in an interview with Schenk on the subject of Ostfrau/Westfrau, 1989

11/02/2020

Halim Al Karim

History in the Making

24.1. 2020 - 16.4.2020
Opening: 24 January: 7-10 pm

Englisch:
Artist statement:
I take a great interest in how memory shapes the understanding of our being and how it is shaped by contradictions that make up the dissonance between reality and fiction. In the process of remembering, a point is reached at which reality and fiction intersect, and it is this intersection that I’d like to explore and present through my work. At a certain moment, whereupon the chemical reaction on the wet collodion plate is sparked, I begin to visualize the hidden identity of the image, as if I were exploring my subconscious.

Halim Al Karim uses photography because of its non-physical quality; it is a medium that effectively is "only" able to produce an image of light. That the transient and temporary process inherent in time and memory is captured by light, is likewise captured and used by Al Karim for his characteristic out-of-focus technique. This is most evident in his works from the series "Dust", "White Ash" "Coma in Paradise" and "Lost Memory". With the "Dust" photo series, Al Karim chances projecting his motif onto mirrors using his oversized wet plate camera, with which he produces these wet plate photographs, and which is self-made. To achieve the scale of this photograph, it was necessary for the dimensions of the bellows camera to correspond accordingly. Its dimensions: 380 x 160 cm; its bellows, ca 7 meters in length. In his new works, Al Karim deals with collective memory, which he defines as an integral component of history. History, or rather historiography, is defined as inaccurately as memory itself. Foremost, however, one's own history proves inaccurate, when observed retrospectively. The artist uses imprecise images of ancient stone tablets to illustrate the diffusion of memory and history. In a worldwide first artistic attempt, he succeeds in transferring the wet plate colloid principle onto canvas, the results of which make up part of the current exhibition.

Halim Al Karim has exhibited among others at the Center for Art and Media, ZKM Karlsruhe, Paul Klee Museum, Berne, and The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, Colorado. His works are located at The Saatchi Gallery, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Salaam Foundation Abu Dhabi, The Royal Association of Fine Arts, Jordan, the Arab Museum of Contemporary Art, Doha, Qatar, L’Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), Paris, and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Halim Al Karim was nominated for the 2010 Jury Prize of the Sovereign Art Prize and received the Jury Prize of the Cairo Biennial. He has, among other six Iraqi artists, represented the Iraqi Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

Deutsch
Ich interessiere mich sehr dafür, wie das Gedächtnis das Verständnis für unser Sein formt und wie es von den Widersprüchen geprägt wird, die die Dissonanz zwischen Realität und Fiktion ausmachen. Im Prozess des Erinnerns gibt es einen Punkt, an dem sich Realität und Fiktion kreuzen, und es ist dieser Schnittpunkt, den ich durch meine Werke erforschen und präsentieren möchte. In einem bestimmten Moment, in dem die chemische Reaktion auf der nassen Kollodiumplatte einsetzt, beginne ich mit der Veranschaulichung der verborgenen Identität des Bildes, so als ob ich mein Unterbewusstsein erforschen würde.
Halim Al Karim nutzt die Fotographie wegen ihrer nicht körperlichen Qualität; es ist ein Medium, das tatsächlich auch „nur“ ein Abbild des Lichtes schaffen kann. Der Umstand, dass es den der Zeit und des Gedächtnisses immanenten, vergänglichen und vorübergehenden Prozess festhält, nutzt Al Karim für seine charakteristische out-of-focus Technik. Die Arbeiten aus der Serie „Dust“, „White Ash“ „Coma in Paradise“ und „Lost Memory“ machen dies besonders deutlich. Mit den „Dust“ Fotografien ist Al Karim das Wagnis eingegangen, zum ersten Mal mit seiner überdimensionalen Nassplattenkamera sein Motiv auf Spiegel zu projizieren. Die Kamera, mit der er diese Nassplattenfotografien erzeugt, hat er ebenfalls eigenhändig gebaut. Um das großformatige Format dieser Fotografien zu erreichen, musste die Balgenkamera ebenfalls die entsprechende Dimension haben. Sie ist 380 x 160 cm groß; ihr Balgen ist ca. sieben Meter lang. Bei den neuen Arbeiten setzt sich Al Karim mit dem kollektiven Gedächtnis auseinander, das er als integralen Bestandteil von Geschichte definiert. Geschichte oder besser Geschichtsschreibung definiert sich ähnlich ungenau wie das persönliche Gedächtnis; denn vor allem stellt sich die eigene Geschichte in der Rückschau unpräzise dar. Der Künstler nutzt ungenaue Abbildungen antiker Steintafeln, um die Diffusität von Erinnerung und Geschichte zu verdeutlichen. In einem weltweit ersten künstlerischen Versuch, gelingt es ihm das Nassplatten Kollodium Prinzip auch auf Leinwand darzustellen, die Teil der aktuellen Ausstellung ist.

28/11/2019

THE MCLUHAN PROJECT
- KLAUS VOM BRUCH
6.9.2019 - 6.12.2019

The McLuhan Project consists of a 1966 radio interview with Marshal McLuhan and the montage of contemporary pornographic film clips gleaned from the Internet. This ironic contrast modifies the existing description of a medialized world, bringing to mind the de Sadesche Tableaux,and deconstructing hidden desires as part of consumerist appropriation of the world. The parallel montage of selected clips and the running interview text prepare the provocative film for reception. With the twinkle of an eye, the erotic imagery attracts the viewer‘s gaze away from the text. Repeatedly interspersed snippets of contemporary art
works create extra confusion, rendering it impossible to discern those freshly installed and those already present in the original film set. The work reflects the breaking of the taboo that has marked the history of technical reproducibility. Inventions such as the telephone and the Internet have gained an almost uncanny level of popularity. Through virtual interactions with others and the uncontrolled observation of others, we have become members of a global tribe that has adopted all forms of totalitarian societies.

Klaus vom Bruch, The McLuhan Project, installation 2018,
based on Full HD 16 x 9 video tape, dimensions variable, stereo sound, English narration & music,
duration 32 minutes, 28 seconds looped.
Courtesy Klaus vom Bruch and Galerie Brigitte Schenk vom Bruch

11/06/2019

In his work „The Safe“, Abdulnasser Gharem alludes to the assassination of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Istanbul.
A soundproof padded cell, similar to those in psychiatric clinics or prisons for violent inmates, stands isolated in the room. The walls inside are insulated and rubberized. This corresponds to Gharem’s artistic method, where rubber stamps are the subjects of and material he employs for his art, one brimming with hidden messages, read backward. The stamp challenges our idea of formal bureaucratic approval, of certification, and of the power implied within and to what end that object is used. Likewise in the cell the contours of the Saudi Arabian flag can be made out. Inside the cell classical music can be heard. It is impossible to evade the sense of claustrophobic oppression, the distress and powerlessness, the malignity. With the prepared stamps put at their disposal on the autopsy table, visitors, ushered in by guards at roughly one-minute intervals, can leave their ‘imprint’ on the wall provided for that purpose. The stamps are pre-prepared with terms originating from politics and historical epics of violence.

07/05/2019

Agonie, Installationsansichten Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Köln
bis 20. Juni 2019
courtesy Maria Zerres und Galerie Brigitte Schenk

15/10/2018

Our role as artists is to bring out the option that the politician can’t say and that the
religious man can’t say – you bring out the solutions that people can’t say.
– Abdulnasser Gharem

Artists Abdulnasser Gharem (born 1973, Saudi Arabia) and Heimo Zobernig (born 1958, Austria) bring to light subtle qualities of our societies and intricate histories in their work.
Through their lens we discover the ways in which architecture has become emblematic of politicised histories, and how the fabric of cities and societies have evolved over time.
Gharem is a conceptual artist who operates in multiple fields, challenging the perception of art and visual culture in his native Saudi Arabia. His work comprises photography,
video, performance and sculpture, examining modern-day life. In his performances he playfully uses the street as a canvas to construct a social critique, often by welcoming
collaboration and involving the community within his projects. As a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Saudi Arabian Army, themes of control and authority can be felt within
this work, as well as a desire to preserve and respect the history upon which traditional art is built. Gharem’s conceptual work not only references his heritage but is also
politically and socially astute.

Both Gharem and Zobernig challenge existing modes of art practice, with the ultimate goal of pushing the boundaries of how we understand the world. The exhibition
Subversive Forms of Social Sculpture confronts us with two parallel modes of viewing: Gharem’s Saudi Arabian perspective and Zobernig’s Austrian references. By bringing
them together in the context of an exhibition in the United Arab Emirates, the language of their works is amplified. The late German artist Joseph Beuys coined the term ‘social sculpture’ to describe how our consciousness can be changed by art and how art can lead to new social behaviour. Beuys’s ‘social sculpture’ is the thread that links these artists and the mantra behind this exhibition. The title Subversive Forms of Social Sculpture encapsulates Gharem and Zobernig’s respective ways of tackling institutional critique in their work, and how their work enables alternative outlooks on their subjects – for Zobernig, this is clear in the formal qualities of his paintings and installations and with Gharem, in his intricate aestheticised and politicised work. While both artists make use of architectural references, Gharem focusses on society – more specifically that of Saudi Arabia, which he opens up to the world outside using a language of concealment and trompe-l’oeil. Zobernig’s work subverts our modernist ideals through confrontations between art and
functionality. By consistently taking to the most diverse forms, he radically intervenes in the consciousness of art. His notion of sculpture is of form itself, as something that can transcend the boundaries of perception.

20/08/2018

Ongoing birthday celebrations. Getting ready for the dinner in of ’s 80 birthday at Larry 's house in the with breathtaking ocean views. A wonderful evening with art . It was also an extraordinary honor to meet and talk to whose work I admire.

20/08/2018

Ongoing birthday celebrations. Getting ready for the dinner in of ’s 80 birthday at Larry 's house in the with breathtaking ocean views. A wonderful evening with art . It was also an extraordinary honor to meet and talk to whose work I admire.

15/06/2018

Ausstellung mit Geflüchteten und Migranten

Vernissage 15. Juni 2018
19:00 – 21:30 Uhr

Ansprachen:
Staatssekretärin Serap Güler, Ministerium für Kinder, Familie, Flüchtlinge und Integration in Nordrhein-Westfalen
Manfred Müller-Gransee, Vorsitzender SaiCare Stiftung
Mustafa Al Ammar, Vorsitzender Humanitär Ohne Grenzen

Musikperformance: „DIS“ Rimon Elias, Liam Kallas

Finissage: 24. August 2018
19:00 –21:00

In den zurückliegenden Jahren hat sich das gesellschaftliche Zusammenleben in Deutschland nachhaltig verändert. Insbesondere das Thema Flucht nimmt dabei eine zentrale Stellung ein. Um der damit einhergehenden Verunsicherung, Berührungsangst und Fremdheit etwas entgegenzusetzen, haben sich Künstler und Kunstschaffende und Institutionen zusammengetan, um durch Kunst einander fremde Kulturen zu verbinden. In ihrer kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit gesellschaftsrelevanten Fragen, findet Kunst Antworten auf ästhetischer Ebene, die sowohl sinnlich als auch intellektuell berühren und insofern eine der wirksamsten Ansprachen darstellt.

Angeregt von der Idee gemeinsam auszustellen, wurden Geflüchtete und Migranten aus dem Iran, Irak, Syrien, Nigeria zu Kunstwerken inspiriert, die sich mit ihrer Flucht, aktuellen Situation, ihren Ängsten, Träumen, Visionen und Idealen auseinandersetzen.

Getragen von der SaiCare Stiftung und dem Verein Humanitär ohne Grenzen e.V. in Zusammenarbeit mit der Galerie Brigitte Schenk ist so ein nicht kommerzielles Kunstprojekt entstanden. Es verbindet ästhetische und ethische Aspekte miteinander und setzt sich so für ein besseres Miteinander ein, das Verschiedenartigkeit akzeptiert und dabei das Verbindende im Fokus hat.

Künstler:
Mustafa Al Ammar • Borderless TV • Dilomprizulike • Rimon Elias • Jankiman Omar • Liam Kallas • Halim Al Karim • Shahram Karimi • Deyar Al Sary • Yvonne Lee Schultz • Gastbeitrag: Ingo Günther • Roberto Cabot

GALERIE BRIGITTE SCHENK
Seit 1999 setzt sich Brigitte Schenk als eine der Pionierinnen auf diesem Gebiet mit dem Kulturaustausch zwischen Ländern der „MENA Region ( Middle East, North Africa) und Europa auseinander. Dazu gehören internationale Ausstellungen in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten sowie Künstlerauftritte arabischer Künstler in der eigenen Galerie in Köln als auch zum Teil erstmalige Teilnahmen dieser Länder und ihrer Künstler-Repräsentanten an der Biennale von Venedig: Halim Al Karim für den Irak 2011, Tarek Al-Ghoussein für Kuwait 2013 und Abdullah Al Saadi für die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate 2011 und 2017. 2008 kuratierte Brigitte Schenk die Ausstellung “Focus Orient” mit Exponaten orientalistischer Fotografie des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts der Sammlung Thomas Walther in Sharjah in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten. Das von der Galerie 2014 initiierte Towntwinning zwischen Sharjah und Köln hat dem Bestreben des Kulturaustausches nicht nur auf künstlerischer – sondern auch auf politischer Ebene zusätzlich Gewicht verliehen.

SaiCare Stiftung
Im Mittelpunkt der Stiftungsidee steht die Förderung der grundlegenden menschlichen Werte Wahrheit, Rechtschaffenheit, Friede, Liebe und Gewaltlosigkeit, die die religiöse, philosophische und ethische Basis aller Völker bilden. Sie erhalten die tiefen sittlichen Einsichten der Menschheit und schaffen das Fundament für das Materielle, das spirituelle Wohlergehen des Einzelnen wie der Gesellschaft als Ganzes. Diese grundlegenden menschlichen Werte auf den Gebieten der Erziehung, des Sozialwesens und der Gesundheit zu fördern und zu ihrer Verwirklichung für alle, unabhängig von Herkunft, Geschlecht, Sprache oder Religion beizutragen, ist vornehmstes Ziel der SAICARE Stiftung. Sie soll das gegenseitige Verständnis und die Toleranz gegenüber unterschiedlichen Kulturen fördern.

Humanitär Ohne Grenzen, e.V.
Der gemeinnützige Verein Humanitär ohne Grenzen hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, Flüchtlinge, die ihr Land wegen Verfolgung und Krieg verlassen müssen, zu unterstützen. Die Unterstützung soll der ersten Orientierung, der Informationsvermittlung, der Integration und der Begleitung während dieses Prozesses in Deutschland und Europa dienen. Zweck des Vereins ist die Unterstützung von Flüchtlingen, die in Europa Asyl bzw. subsidiären Schutz oder Duldung suchen aufgrund derjenigen Gründe, die sich aus dem deutschen AsylG, dem GG, den europäischen Rechtsprinzipien sowie der Menschenrechtscharta der Vereinten Nationen ergeben. Die Unterstützung ist ausgerichtet auf erste Hilfen nach der Ankunft im Gastland sowie auf Hilfen bei der Integration in die Kultur des Gastlandes sowie der Unterstützung für den Fall der Rückkehr in das Heimatland.