The talk took place inside the gallery Forum Factory the day after the opening on the 16th of November 2011.
Artists Alejandra Borja, Jana Taube, Pascal Brateau, Aurélie Pertusot, Maria Jose Ambrois, Masayo Kajimura, Li Koelan, Ariel Lomanno, Ana Matovska, Peggy Sylopp, Gretta Louw, Nadja Milenkovic, Sebastian Seitz, Alain Rivière and Sabia Khan were there to exchange about their work and interpretation of the theme "Koffer".
Also there to share their impressions Tanja Dickert, a culture manager and Claudia Baricco, a film festival organiser.
Many shared the feeling of travel and memories, as if they were taken from one city to another. Strong ideas around identity and social recognition seem to be a center point for others.
The theme was carefully chosen by both Alejandra and Jana because of their representation of the suitcase. Their mixed-media installation combines collage, photography and light. The work is a series of photographs of a female figure in different unexpected positions, inside the delimited space of the structure of a rectangular column light box.
Jana sees the work as a re-collection of different and changing moments of life, alike memories stored together inside our minds. The theme is obvious to Alejandra. To be a Columbian means to have specific national identity and experience. She shares, for instance, how she has to go through a special search in customs, because of the reputation of her country. The "Koffer" is also a close-up on prejudice and specific social behaviours.
Pascal Brateau and Aurélie Pertusot worked as well together for their installation. Both artists combined together technique and savoir-faire. Aurélie sees her work as an imginary city. The ideal city, the one she pictures inside her head. In fact it may be her hometown, a place where she has lived for years, and it became a root influence to her production. Pascal concentrated on the form of the wooden box, containing the mirrors and reflections of this urban landscape. He sees the suitcase as a memory from the past putting into perspective the future. It is a direction.
Ariel Lomanno took a part of himself, a part of his roots, and piece of the family history, using in a very sincere way, the old suitcase he inherited from his grand-father. This suitcase was his first ever, and followed him through his first studios and was also his first furniture. It has been following him along the years and has equally a story in his past and a story in his future. In the present, the installation is showing this authentic old suitcase, and gives us a view upon the artists intimacy and secrets.
Masayo Kajimura presented her video installation and shared her idea around the theme. For her essentially , suitase means memory, movement, as well as, migration of populations. She is a Japanese artist born and living in Germany. Her mixed culture gives her the oriental sens of detail and occidental vision and understanding of conceptual works. She uses mixed media techniques from the past alike Origami and confronts the present with video images, trapped and shown inside a cut open old leather "Koffer". Her work is close to poetry and she is aware of this.
Li koelan with her performance/installation wanted to explore the notion of travel along with the sens of national belonging. The little bags of earth, symbol of where we come from, were collected from different countries. She invites the viewer to attach on her silver coat with a safety pin a little sample of earth. The viewer becomes an actor of her performance and she leads the game. One after another the little bags of soil are attached to her. Finally she takes the coat off and lies it on the ground aside a sort of collage map ressembling a body. The work brings into light a certain meditative and contemplative aspect to the theme "Koffer". She explores this universal notion of mother earth.
Maria Jose Ambrois chose to set inside the space of three suitcases her memories , delicately embroided. She likes to remember her childhood and her Barby dolls. She still collects them today and are a very central point of her works. She likes the theatrical side of these suitcases, and tries to bring the viewer into her intimate world and discuss with him: What is in your suitcase?
Ana Matovska presented a series of drawings, each drawing is itself a sort of suitcase. Placed thoughfully side by side, they are to be viewed as a series of transformations, relating the complexity of situations in our lifes. The feeling around the diversity of characteristics and possibilities is her interpretation of the theme. She choses to transcribe into an abstractive form her "Koffer", that appears to be almost organic and alive.
Gretta Louw is an Australian artist born in South Africa. Unlike the other artist her national identity is not so clear. She puts into her suitcase something a little different, she explores behaviour and human psychology. She is trying to escape from prejudices, such as: skin colour, nationality, social background or education.
Peggy Sylopp amazingly presents her "Koffer" as if it where without boundaries. The tool of media art art allows her to play with architectural compositions and constructions that play with the infinite and the tiny. She puts into contrats elements and plays with them. In her Koffer there are dancers, voices and words. This very singular angle gives a mystical aspect to her work.
Nadja Milenkovics and Sebastian Seitz work mostly together. Their idea was to construct from Nadja's drawings. She leads into a direction and then Sebastian gives the light and brings and new perspective to the drawings that become multi-dimentional. The "Koffer" is a compound of thoughts and images one carries in our heads. Along the days and the years, we collect them, and keep them together. For this installation, the couple shows them hanging in display to be seen and exposed to others. The Koffer is a result of all our experiences and feelings. It is an abstaction of the physicallity of the moment that has disapeared, and has been frozen in between reality and dream.
Alain Rivière chose to explore a myth: Pandora. Why is Pandora a Koffer? Because the body of the female is set as a shrine, a precious space of unknown and wonder. The artist is fascinated by the female body and praises it in a beautifull way, showing a series of photographs of the worshiped Pandora body. You cannot escape the reality of the myth and you follow his story, one photograph after another. Alain likes to bring out the humanity and mystery out of the body. The skin becomes the walls of this human Koffer, a suitcase full of sensuality and desire.
Tanja Dickert, kultur managerin was very impressed by the quality of the works presented inside the exhibition from the Berlinimportart artists. She felt that the theme was widely explored in very different ways by a vast range of divers media and concepts. She liked the theme, as it allows to get closer to the artists, and brings a certain form of intimacy into the artistic production.
Claudia Baricco was also satisfied with the exhibition. The media works attracted her attention and she saw the challenge set by the theme "Koffer" inside the media of video, as a way to express travel, migration, transformation and development. All the works fit together as a whole and the quality of the curating was also underlined. She enjoyed the experience and the possibilty to hear the artists share their different point of views and ideas.
The exhibition was successfull with many visitors and the talk was a moment to explain the work Jana and Alejandra have both achieved inside the new born Berlinimportart organization. The choice to curate with a precise theme and push the artists selected to their best, is a long process. Alejandra and Jana are both dedicated to this project and continue to improve the platform that recently changed from Neukoelnimports to Berlinimportart, to be able to intergrate artists living and working in Berlin.
The talk was very intense and instructive , artists were able to connect with eachother in a different manner than before, thanks to the space and the selection.
Jana and Alejandra concentrated on the quality of the "Koffer". :-)
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