Buchmann

Bettina Pousttchi

02 Jun - 22 Sep 2007

Parachute 04, 2007
photograph
120 x 160 cm
BETTINA POUSTTCHI - PARACHUTES

The BUCHMANN GALERIE BERLIN is pleased to draw your attention to an exhibition by the Berlin-based German-Iranian artist BETTINA POUSTTCHI (b. 1971, Mainz ), whose opening takes place on Saturday, June 2, 2007, between 6 and 9 p.m.

The exhibition focuses on a sculptural work and a new large-format series of photographs: Parachutes. This cinematographic sequence of twelve works is based on photographs the artist took at a flight practice in Berlin.

The photographs of helicopters, airplanes, and parachutes in the sky trace an imaginary scenario though the dramatically looming formations of clouds and point in two directions.

First, the reworked large-format photographs (120 x 160 cm) evoke a classic motif from the history of art. These clouds, however, are so overdrawn by the artist’s manipulation of the images that the idea of a Romantic concept of landscape is thwarted.

Second, this break with an emotionally laden idealizing of nature is reinforced by the only schematically visible flying objects in the sky, which produce a dark, apocalyptic atmosphere. Like the sky, whose colors have been heavily reworked, the dark flying objects can neither be identified nor located in space.

The artist thus builds on her interest in nonplaces, which was also manifested in her previous series of photographs, Take Off (2005). Parachutes has a political dimension as well. Against the backdrop of current political crises, the assertions of nation-states’ authority over territory, which restrict the individual concrete ways, no longer stops at the sky, even though it is a symbol of freedom and of space.

As a grant recipient of the Förderprojekt der Provinzial (Provinzial grant project) Bettina Pousttchi was able to conceive an artist’s catalog that will be presented in the gallery at the exhibition opening on June 2, 2007.

The Von-der-Heydt Museum Wuppertal is opening an extensive exhibition with Bettina Pousttchi on November 11, 2007.

For additional information about the artist and/or for photographs of new works, please do not hesitate to contact the gallery at any time.
 

Tags: Bettina Pousttchi