General

atb #16 | K2ao

K2ao, love, work and a space in berlin
K2ao, Klasse2aufbauorganisation München

Opening Saturday 5th July, 18 h
Performances at 18:30 h and at 22:30 h

Exhibition: 7th July – 23rd August

For opening hours please call ++49(0)179-9473040
closed: 16.-31. July

K: What was that supposed to mean?
For one, there were scenes like the ones we were in, those with the prostitutes or with the landlords, which could be interpreted as an everyday fashist behavior, as a critique of capitalism in general or of the art market in particular

2: On the other hand, there was the scene with the dancer, the thriving force, excess… rationally not understandable.

A: And then there was this text by Otto Gross – a scene that might point to possibilities of how to break through the vicious circle, how we could proceed.

O: Maybe the authors, that means K2ao, want to point to the fact, that we have to get rid of the tight armor that protects and confines us.

K: But who is K2ao actually?

2: Are they not equally exposed to the ruling order as we are?

A: In order to break away from our roles we have to confront ourselves with the reality out there. For example, I could be living over there and take you home with me.
O: Oh yes, that would be great – lets have a look whats been written about this in the script.

K: Yes, and there we can also look up what we should be saying about K2ao…

Dear Friends and Comrades, Families,
we would be happy to see you on Saturday, July 5, at after the butcher in order to entertain you with art.
‘Bohemia‘ is being typed into computers these days quite frequently, especially in Berlin, in order to justify a certain type of work that connects with a certain type of lifestyle quite nicely. In Munich we also had a bohemian scene at the turn of the millennium, the one before the last one, and because we think that this one was a bit more interesting, and because we come from there, we are investigating that phenomenon already quite a while. This inquiry seems to connect with other things in our heads and we call it work what comes out of it.
Its not only the Cosmic Circle, Fassbinder, Mary Wigman and ‘das Kapital‘ that reaches out for you and us in order to join hands – its also painting and what can be done with it here and now. One year after Giti Nourbakhsch we are back to Berlin, this time like always, with good work… the mise en scene is humming like a motor… Lichtenberg is glowing! To hell with you all!
cu

K2ao

General

atb #09 | Confiscated: Rolf Heißler

Curated by Joachim Baur

CONFISCATED: Rolf Heißler

Objects from the Prison
Curated by Joachim Baur

Opening: Friday, October 26, 2007, from 7pm

Exhibition: October 27 – November 17, 2007
open Thu, Fr, Sa 3 – 7pm and by appointment +49 (0)179 947 30 40

Sunday October, 28 – 6 pm conversation with Rolf Heißler
Thursday November, 1 – 7 pm conversation with curator Joachim Baur
(in cooperation with “Schnittpunkt Berlin” – exhibition theory & practice)

Rolf Heißler was a member of the German guerilla group, the Red Army Faction – RAF. During his 22 years imprisonment from 1979-2001 his mail was monitored and about 2000 mails confiscated. Using examples of these objects, this exhibition focuses on the struggle for control, for communication between ‘in’ and ‘out’, and the diverse projections under the conditions of isolation. The show throws an unusual – at least an uncommon – glance at the long history of confrontation between the RAF, the state and the political movement.

A red plastic clove, dried orange peel, countless pamphlets, mussels, dried flowers, sparklers, newspaper cuttings, posters, postcards, socks, a kid’s drawing, lavender… the most different things were sent to Rolf Heißler during his 22 years in prison but they all had one thing in common: confiscation. At first glance many items seem unimpressive, you might wonder, ‘Why was this sent’ or, ‘Why was it withheld’?
At second glance the conditions of isolation and solitary confinment can be discerned, as can the attempts to break through this closed circuit.
The objects are sediments of the prison regulations and visible witnesses of a panoptical / an omnipotent prison regime based on excluding sensual perceptions. They stand for persistent attemps to develop some sort of relationship and communication between ‘in-‘ and ‘outside’. They reveal manifold forms of projection – from the state declaring the most banal objects ‘dangerous’ to what the prisoner’s acquaintances thought would best meet his needs.

Almost daily, they demonstrate a long-standing, constant struggle for control: from the authorities over ‘law and order’ in jail – from the prisoner over his life. Heißler’s position as an acting subject within this conflict of censorship and confiscation is evident. Countless letters of complaint and a file listing and annotating all confiscations show his strategy of a ‘control of the control’.
Last but not least appear in these withheld mails – like in a multiple broken mirror – the social and political movements of the 80’s and 90’s with their themes, discussions and activities: international solidarity movement, squatting, anti-fascism, anti-war- and feminist movements, protest against census and social inequality.
On unusual terrain these objects unfold a complex triangular relationship between state, social movement and a prisoner from the RAF.

General

atb #07 | Pinxit

Charlotte Cullinan + Jeannine Richards, artlab London – ,PINXIT‘

Opening: June 15 from 7pm, Exhibition: June 16 – July 7, 2007
open Friday and Saturday 3-7pm or by appointment

We hoped we might be able to find something positive to say about this show, and we have.
The more thought we give to PINXIT, by Cullinan+Richards, the more our desire to salvage something of value from their misadventure increases, fueled by familiarity, neat reasoning and formal travesty. In its attempt to engage in highly complex intellectual and eccentric debate PINXITopens up vast chasms between the drab actuality of the objects on show and the arrogant and shaky theoretical assertions knowingly proposed by the artists.
Cullinan+Richards are making an ‘ongoing work concerning an imagined history for these objects’, exploring ‘duplicity, doubling, betrayal and desire PINXITconsists of a script made of neon lights giving off a harsh orange glow reading ‘Et Tu’, five paintings of a male torso, and a film.
The discrepancy between the objects and accompanying assertions seems to be used here as a model for the relationship between the viewer and the artists. Taped to the glass, Neon Window (2007) spells the words ‘Et Tu’, could this refer to the fact that the paintings are actually made by someone else in 1973, and the film made in America in the 1920’s, and thus a betrayal of the viewers trust?
PINXIT exposes Cullinan+Richards as capable of discussing the tragedies of artistic extremism. Perhaps it is this carefully curated combination of a particular situation (a former butchers shop in Berlin now an artists run space) and these objects, which leads me to believe that Cullinan+Richards will definitely amount to something.

Henry Challenger and Daniel Fuchs, London-Berlin, 2007

Cullinan+Richards founded Savage School Window Gallery for text work in 2006, No.7 Vyner Street, London: invited artists include Clunie Reid, Volker Eichelmann, Jeffery Charles Gallery with Henry Peacock, Fillip Magazine, Tom Morton

Solo shows include: The Dummy Project, Stanley Picker Gallery, London, 2007; Headquarters, Daniel Spoerri Foundation, Italy, 2006; Retrospettiva, Pari & Dispari Project, Italy, 2006; Retrospektyva IBID Projects, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2005. Independent Republic, M.O.T. Gallery, London, 2005 Group shows include: Whitstable Biennale, 2006; Leaps of Faith, Cyprus, 2005; Documentary Creations, Kunstmuseum, Luzern Switzerland, 2005; Britannia Works, Athens, 2004; Ambulantes, Museum of Contemporary Art, Seville, 2004; Values, 11thBiennale of Visual Art, Pancevo, Serbia, 2004; Edge of the Real, Whitechapel Gallery, 2004

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