ART-PRESENTATION: And Berlin Will Always Need You, Part I
Set within the context of the Gropius Bau the exhibition “And Berlin Will Always Need You. Art, Craft and Concept Made in Berlin” is developed within the rich history of the institution itself, which provides an informed backdrop and an additional layer to the narratives that each of the artworks tell, through materiality, methods of production, temporal context and spatial placement (Part II).
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gropius Bau Archive
When Dorothy Iannone serenaded her friend Mary Harding in 1977, she sang an avowal to the city of Berlin, a place she had moved to only a year before with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin programme and where she has lived ever since. Her line “And Berlin will always need you” forms the title of the first exhibition presented at the Gropius Bau in 2019. The exhibition “And Berlin Will Always Need You. Art, Craft and Concept Made in Berlin” sheds light on artists’ practices in the city. With 2019 marking the centenary of the Bauhaus, the exhibition places art and craft on equal footing, presenting an evocative series of existing and newly commissioned works that engage with traditional methods of production, aesthetics and materiality, and examine historical artefacts and objects. The Museum itself provides the thematic starting point to the exhibition, which takes cues from the building’s historical beginnings as a Decorative Arts Museum and a home to Archaeological and Ethnological Dollections. Designed by architects Martin Gropius – the great uncle of Walter Gropius, who was fundamental in founding the Bauhaus in 1919, and Heino Schmieden, the Gropius Bau first opened in 1881. Berlin served then as a geographical hub for textile production and fuelled discussions on the changing conditions of craft production in relation to mass production. This pursuit of stylistic diversity and perfection is still visible in the mosaics and majolica as well as the friezes on the Gropius Bau’s façade. Interpretation, authorship, labour, sovereignty and power structures form a recurring undercurrent throughout the esibition. Transposing these varied facets onto Berlin’s dynamic contemporary art scene, the exhibition expands and redefines perceptions of art and craft, while taking into consideration the aspect of display. In Gropius Bau’s ground-floor spaces, the viewer is invited to investigate an extensive array of newly created artworks, displayed alongside pre-existing projects. The diverse presentation encompasses works such as Olaf Holzapfel’s large-scale, abstract works crocheted from hand-spun natural fibres, Leonor Antunes’ hand-crafted suspended rope, wood and leather sculptures, woven works that play with perspective and color gradient by Willem de Rooij, a folding screen composed of found, patterned carpets by Nevin Aladağ, a 12-screen video installation by Theo Eshetu, as well as the site specific installation “Beyond Time” (2018) by Chiharu Shiota and an installation by Haegue Yang. Multiple aspects come into focus when looking at the selection of works exhibited, ranging from the ornamental and decorative, which is reminiscent of visual motifs found in Eastern religions and Byzantine mosaics, to the history of design in Modernism and the twentieth century, involving craftsmanship from Berlin to South America. Building on this, the exhibition highlights both industrial and increasingly apparent digital fields, while raising questions and acknowledging challenges associated with meaningful interpretation, modes of capitalistic production, ownership and collaboration. These diverse entanglements and juxtapositions put forward a series of complex narratives, some of which are distinctly personal, some of which are universal, while others are entirely abstract.
With works by: Nevin Aladağ, Leonor Antunes, Julieta Aranda, Alice Creischer, Andreas Siekmann and the Brukman workers, Mariechen Danz, Haris Epaminonda, Theo Eshetu, Olaf Holzapfel, Dorothy Iannone, Antje Majewski and Olivier Guesselé-Garai, Willem de Rooij, Katarina Šević, Chiharu Shiota, Simon Wachsmuth and Haegue Yang.
Info: Curators: Natasha Ginwala and Julienne Lorz, Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Berlin, Duration: 22/3-16/6/19, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-19:00, www.berlinerfestspiele.de
