Ben Ross in Berlin

28 January 2010

Ben Ross, a young and emerging artist from Berlin, will have his first solo exhibition starting next week.

In over 100 drawings of various formats, Ben is comparing his generation to the the youth 60 years ago in a wild journey through politics, society and art. Dictatorship versus democracy, politicians versus party kids.

“Hey my name is B.R. and I am German.
The Germans killed many Jews in the past.
What I am about to show you is an exhibition about the authenticity in our lives.
How authentic is your mother?
How authentic is your country?
How authentic can art be?
Is there something like “authentic” anyway?

Because of their history the Germans understand authenticity, the internet knows the meaning of the word as well. I trust the Germans more than the internet.

So, this is more an exhibition about bringing back the trust to the people of Germany than about doing some arty stuff. If you know what I mean.

BEN ROSS – ARS AUTHENTICA
Opening: 05.02.2010, 5pm
Torstraße 66, UNDPLUS CollabRoom
Exhibition 06. – 20.02.2010, Mo-Sa 12-7 pm

Civilist

21 December 2009

Young men, who lived in West-Berlin did not have to attend the otherwise obligatory military service. They could stay civilians, “Zivilist” in German. So young Alex Flach and Andreas Hesse called their newest project “Civilist“, a shop and gallery in Berlin Mitte. The shop has to move to the basement rooms, if an art show is running.

Arrow Pieces

30 November 2009

Berlin based artist ZASD is well known in Berlin for his great styrofoam pieces and has influnced the cityscape strongly. On Saturday, I went to the last day of his exhibition at urban art gallery in Kreuzberg. His newest work is done with arrows, that he actually shoots with a bow towards Berlin walls.

Berlin, 2005

Wuppertal, 2007

Helsinki, 2006

Berlin, 2006

Alive with pleasure

13 October 2009

Berlin based photographer Alex Flach presented his new show Alive with pleasure last Saturday. Next to pictures from his travels with the German Nike SB team to Dubai, Cairo, Capetown and Tokyo, there is also an indoor mini ramp build by team member Lennie Burmeister.

Torstrasse 72, 10119 Berlin
Oct 10th till Nov 30th 2009

Opening Hours: Mo-Fr 12-20 hrs, Sa 11-19 hrs

Legodex

14 September 2009

This is a video artwork by NY based artist Billy Rennekamp, the video is a continuously recorded screen shot of a 3d modeling program that emulates Lego bricks (called “brick builder” i think), the program has a 3-d catalogue of almost every manufactured Lego piece.

The video is simply the artist scrolling through every piece in the collection, organized by catalog number. The music is taken from a famous Youtube video of a young kid shredding Bach on his guitar–kind of a greatest hit of the internet.

Another important thought is the possibility of categorising and virtually storing a high volume of material – like the overwhelming number of Lego bricks become weightless, when physically they would be a mess. Google runs the internet because Google can organize.

The virtual version gives an idea of how amazing the endless stacks of sorted materials would be.

Boros Collection/Bunker Berlin

21 August 2009

Christian Boros is one of the most important collectors of contemporary art – and has opened a spectacular private museum in Berlin last year. The bunker stretches over eighty rooms of different heights and no natural light. Visitors can experience works by young talents and famous figures like Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Sarah Lucas, Tobias Rehberger, Anselm Reyle, and Santiago Sierra.

Together with the photographs by Noshe, the book Boros Collection/Bunker Berlin published by Hatje Canz documents all the pieces in this unusual exhibition.

Famous Wrapper

22 July 2009

I love these pieces from my friend Marie-Kristin Thiele, taken from her exhibition CIVILIZATION AND DISGUST DISGUISE in Berlin. Marie-Kristin simply put together all her belongings and covered them with shiny foil.

Love magazines

29 June 2009

No doubt, the recession has hit fashion quite hard. Sales are going down and only high street labels are doing well at the moment. However, the recession also cleans the market and we can focus on what we really want and love… no wonder, that so many new magazines deal with the word “love” in their title. Besides the glossy Love Magazine, Berlin based I love you, that launches this Friday, will be one of my favourites.

I love you magazine just being printed!

Arnhem Mode Biennale

12 June 2009

It was the first time for me at Arnhem and I really enjoyed the exhibition, that paid a lot of attention to detail. In the historical Museum, curators Jessica Helbach, Connie Nijman, Rosell Heijmen also known as Suze May Sho, used the existing exhibition pieces and merged them with fashion design.

Sandra Backlund

Bernhard Willhem

Martin Margiela and Arielle de Pinto (in the boxes)

Austria Fashion Awards

10 June 2009

Austria is very well organised in supporting their local designers with awards.

At the Austria Fashin Awards, Ali Zedtwitz won the Fashion Award of the Ministry (a one-year scholarship abroad, worth 13.200 €). Christina Berger won the Award of the City of Vienna (she can take part in an international tradeshow or festival – worth 10.000 €). Awareness and Consciousness won an international PR representance for a year (worth 15.000 €).

Ali Zedtwitz.

Christina Berger (maybe a little House of Holland inspired).

Awareness and Consciousness. One of the most interesting Austrian collections at the moment.