Emerson Gallery Berlin: News

“The chronicler who holds forth about events without differentiating between the significant and the trivial actually holds truth in the highest regard.. He assures that nothing is lost which may some day belong to history.“ Walter Benjamin

It is our great pleasure to announce the first solo exhibition at Emerson Gallery Berlin of the young German painter Michael Struck (*1982).

The title of the exhibit “Locus Solus” is taken from the 1913 surrealist novel by the avant-garde French writer Raymond Roussel. That title and the novel capture both the key to understanding and the mystery of Struck’s work.

Locus Solus chronicles a tour through the strange estate and laboratories of the eccentric scholar Martial Canterel. Locus Solus is the abode worthy of a personality crossing Faust with the Marquis de Sade. A highlight of the estate’s Cabinet of Curiosities is the tableaux vivants, where elaborate scenes normally portrayed by living actors are instead inhabited by
the newly resurrected, once departed.

Resurrection in Struck’s work involves old anonymous photographs he acquires at flea markets and other sources to reconstitute as painting and monotypes. The transformation from one medium to another is astounding. Personal mementos captured as photos become shared historical documents as painting. As monotypes, the effect is otherworldly, even ghostly and eerie. Throughout all of the works a tension arises between anonymity and a sense of intimacy, particularly in Struck’s portrayals of domestic scenes like “Game Room” (Spielzimmer) or “Personal Office” (Schreibzimmer).

This uneasy tension is quite obvious to the painter himself. In Struck’s own words: “I see [my paintings] as a window to abandoned memories of a past, another world and another reality that never existed as such ... Forgetting becomes apparent as a negative space around other people’s memories; absence becomes tangibly present, posing questions to the viewer with no hope for reasonable answers.”

The 30-year old artist is currently completing his studies in painting with Professor Toon Verhoef at the Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, Southern Germany.

Music - particularly experrimental music - continues to play an important role in the program at EGB ...

The avant-garde Polish artist and musician, Grzegorz Pleszynski, has just released his new CD Antidepressant Music in the Car. The compositions on the CD are a mixture of jazz, new music and sound installations, most often with Pleszynski's catchy hooks on bass guitar.

The second last track, "I Don't Want to Be Abel. I Don't Want to be Cain" features voices recorded live at EGB. Among our artists heard on the CD are Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Ann Noel and Ben Patterson.

For more information regarding Pleszynski's up-cominmg performance at EGB, stay tuned at this site.

We are extremely happy to announce that in March two of EGB young artists tied the knot in Japan:
Mikołaj Polinski and Misa Shimomura are now man and wife.

We congratulate and wish them all the best in their new life together.

For a review of Mikołaj and Misa's outstanding 2011/12 exhibit check out the link to:

The start of a new year is a good opportunity to review the high points of the last year.

In this regard we are happy to announce the availability of a full length video of Jernnifer Rosa's Performance, A Different You:

The performance was a highlight of our Seventh Summer Fest of International Art in 2012 and with nine performers coming to us from Northern Italy, it is a good example of the extraordinary quality of our annual summer fest in general.

Inge Mahn opened her own Museum in summer 2012 in an old stall in Gross Fredenwalde. The permanent exhibition will be supplemented by objects of her art, guest artists as well as people from the village.

For anyone who missed the broadcast opportunity on German/French TV Arte, we can suggest an alternative to our film recommendation at the end of 2012:

Philipp Fleischmann & Lilly Engel:

"99 Gründe, warum die Welt nicht untergehen darf"

"99 Reasons Why the World Must Not Disappear"

Including contributions from Charlotte Rampling, Roland Emmerich, Mark Lanegan, Günther Wallraff, Ulrike C. Tscharre, Stèphane Hessel as well as Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street ...