Pika Don
07 Jun - 28 Jul 2012
PIKA DON
Colette Brunschwig, Miriam Cahn, Marc Desgrandchamps, Guillaume Leblon, On Kawara
curated by Jocelyn Wolff and Erik Verhagen
7 June – 28 July 2012
The exhibition project Pika Don (Flash-Bang in Japanese, expression for the nuclear explosion at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) finds its origins in over twenty years of discussions with Colette Brunschwig, artist who began her career at Galerie Colette Allendy in the 1950s. Other reflections, brought about following the Fukushima catastrophe, have nurtured this project: discussions with Guillaume Leblon and Miriam Cahn as well as the gallery's collaboration with Erik Verhagen on the origins of conceptual art. At a time when the generation that lived through Hiroshima is about to pass the memory on, it seems important, more than ever, to consider Hiroshima in terms of awareness, realization and prise de conscience, and take a look at the esthetic upheaval it created and still creates today.
Colette Brunschwig's ink on paper works presented at the gallery stand witness to her investigations on the “third dimension of paper” as well as the possibilities offered by stencil technique. Her work falls into a context marked by existentialism, abstraction, and distinguishes itself by a reflection on the art of Chinese character painters and on the confrontation with the Orient. We can ask ourselves how certain post-war artists sought to formulate an answer to the question of nothingness, which was generated by the entrance into the atomic age.
The feeling of belonging to a generation of survivors and its relationship to the passing time lie at the heart of the work of On Kawara, and in particular, in the “I am still alive” series where the use of the telegram stands witness to the artist's total abandonment of the using of his hand in the work. Miriam Cahn responds to the status of survivor with that of the victim. In going beyond Hiroshima, we are presenting works from the Sarajevo cycle to underscore the existential and universal dimension of the victim. Through their respective mediums, Marc Desgrandchamps and Guillaume Leblon, who both share a fascination for the ruin, reintroduce a vision of a broken up world.
A public conversation between Daniel Dobbels and Colette Brunschwig will take place at the gallery in June. Those who wish to attend are invited to contact Chloé Philipp.
The works presented in the gallery's front windows are a part of a project, made in collaboration with Katinka Bock, by Harald Klingelhöller's students at Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts.
Colette Brunschwig, Miriam Cahn, Marc Desgrandchamps, Guillaume Leblon, On Kawara
curated by Jocelyn Wolff and Erik Verhagen
7 June – 28 July 2012
The exhibition project Pika Don (Flash-Bang in Japanese, expression for the nuclear explosion at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) finds its origins in over twenty years of discussions with Colette Brunschwig, artist who began her career at Galerie Colette Allendy in the 1950s. Other reflections, brought about following the Fukushima catastrophe, have nurtured this project: discussions with Guillaume Leblon and Miriam Cahn as well as the gallery's collaboration with Erik Verhagen on the origins of conceptual art. At a time when the generation that lived through Hiroshima is about to pass the memory on, it seems important, more than ever, to consider Hiroshima in terms of awareness, realization and prise de conscience, and take a look at the esthetic upheaval it created and still creates today.
Colette Brunschwig's ink on paper works presented at the gallery stand witness to her investigations on the “third dimension of paper” as well as the possibilities offered by stencil technique. Her work falls into a context marked by existentialism, abstraction, and distinguishes itself by a reflection on the art of Chinese character painters and on the confrontation with the Orient. We can ask ourselves how certain post-war artists sought to formulate an answer to the question of nothingness, which was generated by the entrance into the atomic age.
The feeling of belonging to a generation of survivors and its relationship to the passing time lie at the heart of the work of On Kawara, and in particular, in the “I am still alive” series where the use of the telegram stands witness to the artist's total abandonment of the using of his hand in the work. Miriam Cahn responds to the status of survivor with that of the victim. In going beyond Hiroshima, we are presenting works from the Sarajevo cycle to underscore the existential and universal dimension of the victim. Through their respective mediums, Marc Desgrandchamps and Guillaume Leblon, who both share a fascination for the ruin, reintroduce a vision of a broken up world.
A public conversation between Daniel Dobbels and Colette Brunschwig will take place at the gallery in June. Those who wish to attend are invited to contact Chloé Philipp.
The works presented in the gallery's front windows are a part of a project, made in collaboration with Katinka Bock, by Harald Klingelhöller's students at Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts.