Please join us for the opening of Manuel Sékou’s I Lost My Gems exhibition.
22 September 2023 from 7.00pm
Motto Berlin Skalitzer Str. 68 10997 Berlin –
After the heist of historical jewellery and art objects out of the Green Vault in Dresden, the case has been reported worldwide. The reports and narrations around spectacular incident quickly drifted into peculiar vocabulary, provoking projections and prejudices against the city of Dresden and its citizens. The discrepancy between personal experience and conveyed attributions about Dresden do manifest the initial point of the project I LOST MY GEMS. Manuel Sékou– raised in Dresden and the artist behind the venture – directs his perspective back to his hometown and youth within the years of the 2000-10s, to confront dynamics of the inner-German history in relation to his own socialization and thus to carve out dispositions of socio-political patterns of behavior induced by collective uncertainty: interference of adolescence with shadows a collapsed system…Sampling in parallel to the investigations of the Soko Epaulette(special commision) the project seeks for treasures of memory and collects potential pieces of evidence of hidden symptoms of the past in the present.To decode the X-Factor of Dresden beyond the mediated image through the mode of visual language.
We are excited to invite you to the opening of Park 2 INN on Saturday, July 1st from 7PM, a duo exhibition by Louise Verstraete and Rebecca Quix in the presence of Nissan Sunny 1.4LX and a sound installation by Lukas Katzer.
It has been a while since we have seen each other. How are you doing? I’m sorry to call you so early. Holiday schedules. MidDay sMiles. Days go by so fast. I was eating these curly fries and was thinking of you today. Lunch hour at the fuel station. The connection got lost. My tires were losing pressure. Are you here already? Here is still there. Soon there.
The exhibition will be on view from July 1, Monday to Saturday 12 to 8 PM until July 31, 2023. This exhibition has been made possible with the support of Flanders State of the Art. –
Louise Verstraete is a multidisciplinary artist working with the medium of textile and the performative power that the medium carries within. Her projects show an interplay between photography, textiles, scenography and performative interventions. Louise holds an MFA in Textile Design from LUCA School of Arts, Belgium and currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Rebecca Quix (BE) currently lives and works in Brussels. She holds an MFA from LUCA School of Arts, Brussels (2022) and studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York (2021). She is the founder of the project space, Nissan Sunny 1.4LX.
We are excited to invite you to the finissage event of Lena Pozdnyakova’s “Hunting-Gathering” exhibition, featuring live performances by Eldar Tagi, Lena Pozdnyakova, and Stas Shärifullin (HMOT). The evening also marks the release of New r Age, ME003 (Motto Editions) by Eldar Tagi, Lena Pozdnyakova, and Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist & composer Patrick Shiroishi, based in Los Angeles.
Organised by Liza Kin.
Join us on Tuesday, June 27th, at 7:30 PM at Motto Books Berlin.
Eldar Tagi, a multi-instrumentalist and composer originally from Kazakhstan, is now based in Berlin, Germany. His live improvised performances use a range of instruments, including computers, field recordings, analog modular synthesizers, daxophone, guitars, other stringed instruments, found objects, and self-made sound-makers.
Lena Pozdnyakova, an artist, curator, and researcher from Almaty, Kazakhstan, explores the culture-nature dichotomy, the Anthropocene, and the boundary between life and art in her collaborative projects and research. She is also 50% of thezwo duo with Eldar Tagi.
Stas Shärifullin, aka HMOT, is a Basel-based musician, researcher and artist working with sound and decoloniality. Born in Central Siberia, with Bashqort roots, Stas is studying the political potential of various musical and listening practices through live performances, lectures, interventions and sound installations focused on the issues of extractivism, identity-based oppression, collective memory and militant (sonic) ethnography: action-as-research, research-as-action.
We hope to see you at Motto Books on Tuesday, June 27th at 7:30 PM for an exciting evening of live performances and art.
Fruit de longues recherches dans les archives des artistes, l’ouvrage sera doté d’une riche documentation et offrira une relecture inédite de la production artistique italienne entre 1960 et 1975. Apparu dans les années 1960 en Italie, l’Arte Povera est une démarche artistique ; davantage une attitude qu’un mouvement. Théorisé par Germano Celant en 1966, l’Arte Povera s’inscrit dans une volonté de défiance à l’égard des industries culturelles, portée par une nouvelle génération d’artistes incarnant des manières inédites d’appréhender l’art et la création. S’opposant à la consommation de masse et réhabilitant la place de l’homme et de la nature dans l’art, l’Arte Povera en renouvelle les thématiques (l’homme, la nature, le corps, le temps), les matériaux (naturels, de récupération, périssables), les techniques (artisanales), les gestes et l’intention. Il s’agit de repenser les critères d’esthétisme, de se défaire des artifices, de revenir à l’immédiateté des émotions et des sensations. A travers la production de livres, d’affiches, de projections et d’impressions sur toile, les artistes italiens de cette époque se sont appropriés le pouvoir narratif de l’image photographique et filmique afin d’explorer de nouveaux possibles de l’art. Transdisciplinaires, mêlant photographies, films, vidéos, affiches, livres, objets, sculptures et peintures, l’ouvrage, qui l’accompagnera l’exposition, présentera plus de 300 oeuvres de figures majeures de l’Arte Povera, parmi lesquelles Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Luigi Ghirri, Jannis Kounellis, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto… Conçu comme un livre d’art et non comme un catalogue d’exposition, il donnera à voir l’extraordinaire richesse d’une période où les artistes italiens ont compté parmi les plus importants interprètes de la transformation des langages visuels. Ce nouveau regard sur une démarche artistique majeure des avant-gardes du XXe siècle proposera également une immersion visuelle dans le contexte politique et culturel de l’époque avec des portfolios dédiés au cinéma, théâtre, soirées littéraires, extraits de presse présentant les grands enjeux socioculturels d’alors.
“Healing The Museum” is a mid-career monograph looking at Grace Ndiritu’s diverse practice over the last twenty years, which encompasses performance, film, shamanism, social actions, painting, publications, textile work, and collection research. The large selection of artworks included in the publication are in a dialogue with each other, further enriched by in-depth conversations with Brook Andrew, Gareth Bell-Jones, and Philippe Van Cauteren, and written contributions from Ifeanyi Awachie, Ann Hoste, and Hammad Nasar. The monograph’s publication coincides with the eponymous exhibition at S.M.A.K.–Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent.
The publication of The Against, the book that documents the process, development and results of the homonymous exhibitions that simultaneously took place last Spring at multiple sites in New York. The book not only displays the uncontrollable compulsion of graffiti bombing by 21 artists from different parts of the US, Canada and Mexico. This remarkable book focuses on those who are the exceptional graffiti bombers in the last decade. The objective was to take all of these artists, bring them together in one place, and see how they collaborate as a shared experience in New York, being the mecca of graffiti bombing. The main theme, the subject of the book, is the very work of these masters working together. In the realm of graffiti, it’s very hard to get the very top artists all the time, because some of them are either incarcerated, or they won’t relate to galleries’ projects. But the ones selected are the top bombers we could get now. Rooming together and sharing styles and techniques was a unique, collaborative experience for those involved; a graffiti bombing League; a gathering of talents; the dream team of graffiti. The book shows their singularities and differences in a remarkable display of strength and imagination, shapes, and colors. The Martinez Gallery Books has published several books on graffiti, focusing on different themes, social and health issues, and a variety of topics related to our daily life. As the evolution of graffiti from the 90s to now has shown, you have to be more well-versed in art now, even as a bomber. We can say that the world of graffiti is ever-growing, and that, in this changing context, would be an ideal opportunity to discuss and assess what bombing is today in comparison. This book offers that opportunity and opens up the field to different alternatives and trends within graffiti culture.
Catalogue from Patti Smith’s exhibition and poetry reading on the occasion of Arthur Rimbaud’s 123rd birthday (October 20, 1854) at the Galerie Veith Turske on October 20, 1977. The book contains images of Smith’s paintings and drawings as well as photographs and poetry, in English and German.
Playing with Ludwig / Jouer avec Ludwig Nikolaus Gansterer & Klaus Speidel Published by Éditions Dilecta, 2022
Book launch
21 January 2023 from 4pm
Galerie Crone Berlin Fasanenstrasse 29 10719 Berlin
How do colours relate to memory? How does language relate to the world (and vice versa)? Can the invisible, such as thoughts, atmospheres or pain, be grasped through art? Artist Nikolaus Gansterer and philosopher Klaus Speidel discuss these and similar questions in their new book Playing with Ludwig / Jouer avec Ludwig, published by Éditions Dilecta and Centre d’art contemporain Les Tanneries. Taking Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations as their starting point, Gansterer and Speidel have developed various works and formats, talking, drawing, assembling or doing all at the same time. Rather than just presenting results, the book documents the joint working process in numerous transcripts, which also reflect the genesis of the book itself.
In the context of Nikolaus Gansterer’s exhibition Strange Wor(l)ds at Galerie Crone Berlin, Fasanenstrasse 29, a book presentation in collaboration with Motto Books will take place on Saturday, 21 January 2023. The afternoon begins at 4 pm with a dialogue between Nikolaus Gansterer, Klaus Speidel and the drawing expert Jan-Philipp Frühsorge. Afterwards, Gansterer and Speidel invite you to the first Berlin Language Game Lab, in which they will work with drawings and objects based on a remark by Ludwig Wittgenstein, resulting in an installation that takes up the methodology developed in the book.
Galerie Crone, Motto Books and Éditions Dilecta cordially invite you to attend.
Playing with Ludwig opens with a conversation between the authors and the book’s designer Grégoire Romanet, where the first graphic ideas are discussed. It ends with the dialogue How to close a book, which prepares the final series of images. Exhibition photographs and works from the first exhibition documenting the research project Figures de pensée at the Centre d’art contemporain Les Tanneries have been annotated, continued or completed in drawings. Different styles and methodologies, which unfold in the chapters of the book, correspond to different methods and themes in Wittgenstein’s work. Two additional precise essays by Eric Degoute, director of Les Tanneries, and Roger Malbert, curator and drawing expert, elaborate on the dynamic relationship between thinking and drawing and reading as a form of friendship. In the series Philosophical Deviations, Nikolaus Gansterer draws on various paragraphs of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, exploring various forms and procedures. Gansterer explains: “It’s important to say that none of these drawings are illustrations. I try to record how the text operates within me, how it influences my ways of thinking and feeling and then to take this movement as a springboard for drawing. It’s not so much about what is being said, but how it moves a reader.” At the centre of the book stand the paragraphs of the Philosophical Investigations themselves, to which the various works and conversations in the book refer, annotated in writing and drawing by Klaus Speidel. Memories of Colour, Just imagine a Rod and Now as One Thing, Now as Another are based on collections of hues, rods, and boxes (respectively). As Speidel, who obtained a PhD in philosophy from Sorbonne University, explains: “In our joint work, I am also interested in exploring the limits of philosophical abstraction. If we fail in our attempt at artistic concretization, this failure can in itself convey new insights in the sense of what Wittgenstein called ‚going against the frontiers of language’. I believe that art production enables philosophical insights.” This interference between philosophy and art can be experienced concretely in the titular series Playing with Ludwig. In this performative experimental arrangement, two or more people sit opposite each other. Starting from a text, a new language game unfolds with drawings and objects.
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Wie sind Farben mit Erinnerungen verknüpft? Wie verhält sich Sprache zur Welt (und umgekehrt)? Lässt sich Unsichtbares wie Gedanken, Atmosphären oder Schmerz künstlerisch fassen? Diese und ähnliche Fragen diskutieren der Künstler Nikolaus Gansterer und der Philosoph Klaus Speidel im neu erschienen Buch Playing with Ludwig / Jouer avec Ludwig, publiziert von Éditions Dilecta und Centre d’art Les Tanneries. Ausgehend von Ludwig Wittgensteins Philosophische Untersuchungen, auf die sie sprachlich, zeichnend und performativ reagieren, haben Gansterer und Speidel verschiedene Arbeiten und Formate entwickelt. Anstatt nur Ergebnisse zu präsentieren, dokumentiert das Buch in zahlreichen Transkripten auch den gemeinsamen Arbeitsprozess, bis hin zur Entstehung des Buches selbst.
Im Rahmen von Nikolaus Gansterers Ausstellung Strange Wor(l)ds in der Galerie Crone Berlin, Fasanenstrasse 29 die zahlreiche Werke aus dem Buchkorpus und auch viele neue Werke zeigt, findet dabei am Samstag, 21.1.2023 eine Buchpräsentation in Zusammenarbeit mit Motto Books statt. Der Nachmittag beginnt ab 16 Uhr mit einem Gespräch zwischen Nikolaus Gansterer, Klaus Speidel und dem Zeichnungsexperten Jan-Philipp Frühsorge. Danach laden Gansterer und Speidel zum ersten Berliner Language Game Lab ein, bei dem sie ausgehend von einer Bemerkung Ludwig Wittgensteins mit Zeichnungen und Objekten arbeiten, so dass am Ende entsprechend der Methodologie von Playing with Ludwig eine Installation entsteht.
Dazu laden Galerie Crone, Motto Books und Éditions Dilecta herzlich ein.
Zu Beginn von Playing with Ludwig / Jouer avec Ludwig steht ein Gespräch der Autoren mit Grégoire Romanet, dem Designer des Buches. Am Ende steht der Dialog How to close a book, der die letzte Bildstrecke vorbereitet. Ausstellungsphotographien und Werke der ersten großen Projektausstellung Figures de pensée im Centre d’art Contemporain Les Tanneries werden zeichnerisch kommentiert, fortgeführt oder komplettiert. Die unterschiedlichen Stile und Methoden der Werke entsprechen dabei verschiedenen Themen und Methoden, die sich in den Kapiteln des Buches entfalten. Zwei Essays, einer von Eric Degoutte, Direktor von Les Tanneries, ein anderer von Roger Malbert, Kurator und Zeichnungsexperte runden das Buch ab und diskutieren einerseits die Beziehung zwischen Denken und Zeichnen und andererseits das Lesen als Freundschaft. In Philosophical Deviations reagiert Nikolaus Gansterer zeichnend auf verschiedene Paragraphen von Wittgensteins Philosophical Investigations (Philosophische Untersuchungen). Gansterer erklärt: “Keine dieser Zeichnungen sind Illustrationen. Ich versuche festzuhalten, wie der Text in mir wirkt, wie er mein Denken und Fühlen beeinflusst und dann diese Bewegung als Sprungbrett für das Zeichnen zu nutzen. Es geht nicht so sehr darum, was gesagt wird, sondern wie es den Leser bewegt.” Im Zentrum des Buches stehen die Paragraphen der Philosophischen Untersuchungen selbst, auf die sich die verschiedenen Arbeiten und Gespräche des Buches beziehen. Klaus Speidel hat sie schreibend und zeichnend annotiert. Die Kapitel Memories of Colour, Just imagine a Rod und Now as One Thing, Now as Another basieren auf Sammlungen von Farbtönen, Stäbe und Kisten. Speidel, der an der Sorbonne in Philosphie promoviert hat, erklärt: “Mich interessiert bei unserer gemeinsamen Arbeit auch das Ausloten von Grenzen philosophischer Abstraktion. Wenn wir beim Versuch einer künstlerischen Konkretisierung scheitern, kann das im Sinne eines ‚Anlaufens gegen die Grenze der Sprache‘, wie Wittgenstein es nennt, neue Erkenntnisse vermitteln. Ich glaube, dass Kunstproduktion philosophische Erkenntnisse ermöglicht.“ Diese Interferenz zwischen Philosophie und Kunst wird in der titelgebenden Serie Playing with Ludwig konkret erfahrbar. Bei dieser performativen Versuchsanordnung sitzen zwei oder mehr Menschen einander gegenüber. Ausgehend von einem Text entspinnt sich ein neues Sprachspiel mit Zeichnungen und Objekten.
Playing with Ludwig / Jouer avec Ludwig Authors: Nikolaus Gansterer, Klaus Speidel, Eric Degoute, Roger Malbert Publisher: Éditions Dilecta, Paris Year: 2022 Pages: 160 Dimensions: 21 x 28 cm Language: bilingual English / French Graphic Design: Gregoire Romanet ISBN: 978-2-37372-165-2
This book is an anomalous and layered object. It is split into chapters, following the way the Matrice exhibition was developed and completed over many months of work. Some key phases in the construction of the project in fact took place in the period prior to its opening, in a form that straddles the private dimension of an artist’s work and the public dimension of the exhibition. As also discussed in the critical text, Jacopo moved his studio to the spaces of the Fondazione Carispezia in the months preceding its opening. Here, within a triangular, uterine structure, the physical ‘matrix’ of the exhibition to be precise, he produced most of the works that would then be exhibited. And indeed many things took place inside it. The catalogue thus attempts to account for all of this. The colour photographs were taken by photographer Andrea Rossetti to document the two moments in which the project came into being. The first is made up of the so-called ‘invisible exhibition’: in order to understand the genesis of Matrice, we in fact need to understand how the exhibition is the final result of the ‘real’ exhibition that no one but the artist and very few others had the pleasure of seeing. All the works in this closed space, built in the very heart of the Foundation space, were in fact displayed on the walls, yet destined never to be seen by any visitor and then to be brutally dismembered. As the photos show, the works displayed are covered with a series of sheets to prevent them from being seen during Jacopo’s performance a few days prior to the opening. Only the photographs installed horizontally above the sculptures are partially visible. In the centre of the room, on the other hand, we can still see the tools used in the creation of the works, and the musical instruments that would later be played during the performance. The second moment taken by Rossetti consists of the actual Matrice exhibition itself, which the public could then view during its opening months. Andrea is one of the world’s leading exponents of that fine art which is the documentation of artworks and especially of contemporary art exhibitions. It is indeed an approach that requires great sensitivity and critical outlook. It is a translation process in which a – fruitful – betrayal of the material to be translated is and always will be necessary. A loving and respectful betrayal which was indeed requested by Benassi when he brought Rossetti on board for this task. The two sections of the catalogue must therefore be seen as a true collaboration between the two, in the wake of the many already developed by Jacopo with other artists in the fields of performance and sound research. The black-and-white photographs in the book were instead all taken by Jacopo Benassi or devised, prepared and coordinated by him. They recount the most performative and moving moments of the exhibition and its making, and are very much integrated with Andrea Rossetti’s work, adopting the same brutality with which Jacopo intervened in the Foundation exhibition space.
