The DICTATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY - SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2008

Total Theatre - Communual Theatre

pencil, 297 x 210

Total Theatre - Communual Theatre, Wood/ Plywood; 500 x 650 x 520

The Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 is contemporary art event in urban public space of Riga City seeking experimental and innovative cooperation forms between different social groups to develop active civil society. The main objective of DICATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY - SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2008 is to encourage dialogue between art professionals and consumers of the public art. The event fosters understanding and links between the centre and periphery in contemporary art. THE SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2008 aims at breaking down elitism in art and culture space through openness and culture accessibility, involving groups of the society whose environment rarely is a site for contemporary art practice. The main interests of the event are emotions and lifestyle of the residents of marginal and disadvantaged city areas instead of the identification of particular city space.

The DICTATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY - SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2008 is an open-air contemporary art exhibition that will take place in Riga, Latvia August 29 – October 10, 2008. The exhibition is a starting point for the dialogue between general public, society and art professionals on the issue of contemporary public art and its role in the urban culture of the city of Riga.


links:
www.mmic.lv
www.sculpturequadrennial.lv
www.pinkhouse.lv

'EINS ZU EINS' SKULPTURENAUSSTELLUNG IN DEN PARKANLAGEN KARTZITZ UND PANSEVITZ AUF RÜGEN, 2008

The Colonist descending slowly - the lighthouse on the wrong place; Der erschreckte Gärtner - der Leuchtturm am falschen Platz; 2008

Bleistift; 29,7 x 21

Modell; 55 x 33 x 30



550 x 330 x 300; 2008, Dachlatten, Schrauben

Der Verein Parkkultur Rügen veranstaltete in diesem Jahr zum ersten Mal die Skulpturenausstellung "EINZUEINS Rügen". Dabei sollen in dem Zeitraum von Mitte Juni bis Mitte September die Werke von sechs bis acht ausgewählten Künstlern in den Parkanlagen Kartzitz und Pansevitz auf Rügen ausgestellt und für die Öffentlichkeit erlebbar gemacht werden. Im Vordergrund der Ausstellung "EINZUEINS Rügen" steht die Auseinandersetzung mit den Parkanlagen als künstlich und künstlerisch angelegte Naturräume. Alle eingeladenen Künstler sind aufgefordert, sich individuell mit den Parkanlagen auseinander zusetzen. Die in Kartzitz und Pansevitz präsentierten modernen Kunstobjekte sollen mit den "Wasserräumen" und der Parklandschaft in einen Dialog treten und sie neu beschreiben. Letzterer wird wiederum durch die "eins zu eins" Auseinandersetzung der Besucher mit den Kunstwerken fortgesetzt. Dem Besucher soll so eine neue Perspektive auf diese einmaligen historischen Anlagen ermöglicht werden.In den Parkanlagen sollen jeweils vier Kunstwerke an ausgewählten Orten positioniert werden. Maßgeblich für Auswahl des jeweiligen Standortes ist dabei die individuelle Korrelation zwischen Kunstwerk und Standort einerseits, sowie die Schaffung einer neuen Perspektive auf die Gesamtheit des jeweiligen Parkensembles als natürlichem Gestaltungsraum anderseits.

Die Ausstellung wird am 14. Juni mit einer Veranstaltung auf dem Gut Kartzitz eröffnet. Die Abschlussveranstaltung findet dann am 14. September im Schlosspark Pansevitz statt. Einen ersten Eindruck von den beiden Parks Pansevitz und Kartzitz können Sie sich auf den Websites www.gut-kartzitz.de und www.stiftung-schlossparkpansevitz.de verschaffen. Begleitend zur Ausstellung werden ein Katalog, ein Handout und eine Website erscheinen.

Villa Romana, Florence 2008

RURAL DELIGHTS -
The garden as an unexpected proposition

An archisculpture - a project – a symposium
Opening: 21 June, 6pm – 12pm
The sculpture stnds in the Villa Romana garden until the onset of winter and can be viewed and used during office hours (Mon – Fri 9am – 7pm) and on appointment.



The project
A garden is a closed space, in which we realize our beliefs in and our visions of social and natural ideal(s). It is an island, not a fathomless place such as utopia. The garden is a showcase space, 1:1 implemented in the ground. It does not separate imagination from reality. A garden needs walls for its protection.
The Villa Romana garden has for the most part taken shape over the last 30 years. Different zones were created on the 15,000 meters square area of land, niches were created and personal dedications were installed in order to celebrate visions of a bohemian life. Although the Villa Romana building was extensively restored in 2006/2007, the structure and furniture of the garden has remained untouched until now.
With the RURAL DELIGHTS project, Villa Romana raises the question of how to use and design the garden of a contemporary artists’ residence. Inviting the Berlin sculptor, Kai Schiemenz, is a first initiative for adoption and public discussion.
RURAL DELIGHTS renegotiates the garden as an area of social and political actions. On the garden’s upper slope is a meadow, surrounded by neighbouring buildings. Here Kai Schiemenz has placed his plywood structure, which paraphrases a type of gazebo, such as can be found in parks and public sites and which is usually free standing and shade producing. Kai Schiemenz uses the ornamental qualities of this classical piece of garden architecture and its function as place of shelter for small and large groups. The structure of his sculpture, which is accessible from all sides, serves as a testing ground for discussions, performances and film showings… It is a matter of designing a public area and the dimensions of producing and relaying knowledge.
The first garden forum starts on 21 June. Architects, sociologists, dancers and film producers from Germany and Italy are invited to the evening to present their work (see below for programme). During the summer, other actors will use Kai Schiemenz’s ‘Archisculpture’. The Italian curator Lorenzo Bruni is preparing two project weekends, in co-operation with artists from the regional and international scene, with the title "Noi adesso siamo qua".

The sculpture
The sculptor Kai Schiemenz, who lives in Berlin (born 1966 in Erfurt), works with plastic space models. For some years, his research has been directed at areas of social organization and projection. A prototype of this is the stadium. Kai Schiemenz has collected an extensive atlas of pictures on the archaeology of the stadium from the ancient arena to the mass-medial container, excerpts of which are exhibited in Villa Romana.
"Since the beginning of that which in art is generally called the modern trend, the most important thing has almost exclusively been to clarify the complex problem in the conflicting areas of physiology, philosophy and history of art, which is how the view and the picture come together in the actual space. To put it bluntly, one could claim that the task of art in the age of mass media is the socialization of seeing and hearing. Galleries are usually the places where this is made possible these days, as well as in archives and museums. In the past on the other hand, it was in places of ritual such as churches, fairs or sports stadiums. Since that time (by means of installations and staged exhibition concepts), galleries and museums have confirmed their status as particularly entertaining places, which not only stand outside of everyday life, but also offer unusual experiences. Beat Wyss has described, somewhat polemically, the observer of these productions - one is inclined to call him a user - as a completely crazy peeping Tom. Kai Schiemenz operates on the ruins of this staginess as it were, by building architectures/sculptures, which create a view and a display in equal measure." (Susanne Prinz)

In the garden of Villa Romana, Kai Schiemenz has realised a work several meters high consisting of two formal levels: a layered and tilted ground architecture (which calls to mind stage elements as well as the ice floes in Caspar David Friedrich’s painting) and semi-circles rising upwards, whose fragmented technical construction takes up the idea of the Disegno as well as the dynamics of a rollercoaster. The sculpture signifies a virtual area and an actual place.







The symposium
RURAL DELIGHTS
The garden as an unexpected proposition
Saturday 21 June, 6pm – 12am in the garden of Villa Romana

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Events begin at 6pm
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Peter Pleyer
DANCING QUEEN MEETS WALKMANWORDS
MP3 Choreography
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Sandra Bartoli and Stefan Schreck
BORDERLINE ANIMALS
Radio Play
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Picnic
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Helmut Höge
KLEINE TYPOLOGIE DES GARTENS - LICHTBILDGESTÜTZT
(Small typology of garden – supported by photos)
Lecture
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Minze Tummenscheit, Arne Hector
IN ARBEIT / LAVORI IN CORSO / EN CONSTRUCTION / W TOKU
A series of interviews on film
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Film programme:
Rosa Barba, OUTWARDLY FROM EARTHS CENTER, 2007
and much more
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Participants:
Peter Pleyer, artistic director of the Berlin dance days since 2007. After some years as an actor in the German speech theatre, Peter Pleyer studied dance at the "European Dance Development Center" at the academy of art in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He worked as a dancer and choreographic assistant with Yoschiko Chuma in New York and Mark Tompkins in Paris and, since his period of study with the Hungarian dancer Eszter Gal. Joint choreographies and improvisations have been shown in Holland, Germany, France and Hungary as well as at the New York improvisation festival. He teaches at various dance festivals in Europe and has helped to create higher education courses for contemporary dance in Berlin.
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Sandra Bartoli, born 1967 in Cortina d’ Ampezzo, lives and works in Berlin. She studied architecture and landscape architecture and is the co-founder of Terraform with Andreas Ziegeler. Together with Silvan Linden, she created the Office for Constructivism in 2006. The office publishes the magazine Die Planung / A Terv (with Martin Conrads, Levente Polyák and Katarina Šević) as well as the publication Kristalle (published in the "disko" series of publications of the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts).
Stefan Schreck, born 1968 in Cologne, studied journalism and German studies in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin. He is the co-founder of the (net) radio collective convex tv by mikro e.V. - an association to support media cultures and of the edit suisse group. Since 1995 he has worked as a freelance sound designer, author, data base developer, web designer and web programmer in Berlin.
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Helmut Höge, born 1947, worked first as an interpreter in the US Air Force and for an Indian animal dealer, then studied social sciences in Berlin, Bremen and Paris. He subsequently worked as a farmhand on various farms in West and East Germany as well as in Italy and in addition he began to work in journalism. Since 1986, he has earned his money through journalism. Finally, the following were released by him: "Neurosibirsk" (publishing house Peter Engstler, Ostheim/Rhön 2006) and "WPP - Wölfe Partisanen Prostituierte" (Wolves partisans prostitute) (cultural publishing house Kadmos, Berlin 2007). An essay collection is in preparation with the title "Anti- Darwin" (together with Peter Berz and Cord Riechelmann as editors) as well as a book about agriculture and farmers.
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Minze Tummescheit and Arne Hector work together as "cinéma copains" on the production of documentary films. The focus of their interest is humans in the context of their social and economic conditions. Between 2000 and 2004, the film "Jarmark Europa" was made, which premiered in the forum program of the Berlinale 2004 and was shown among other places at the exhibition "Steps for the Flight from Labor to Doing" in the Museum Ludwig. At present, the "cinéma copains" are working on the production of ‘in arbeit/lavori in corso/en construction/w toku’, a series of interviews on film, which explore the possibilities and conditions of working collaboratively and the adaptability of social actions.
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links: Sandra Bartoli part one www.featureladen.de/MOL.mp3
part two www.featureladen.de/bounce_florenz_17_juni_2008.mp3

Ministry for Foreign Affaires, Berlin 2008

Tower To Nowhere

photos: Sven Hagolani

The sculpture was developed as two seven meter high wooden staircases loop round alongside each other, come together at a viewing platform and separate again. These curling twin stairways in the Atrium at Ministry for Foreign Affaires are accessible at any time for anyone to climb and descend. The idea for a seven meter high construction comes from a hollywoodlike Möbus-strip as a double loop. It is developed during a grant in Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles) and related with stage designs of musicals in the 1930th years. From the entrance you will walk upstairs on the outside and then descend from the inner staircase – or vice versa. Ideally the sculpture creates a situation, where the observer (spectator) observes the observer during observing (on the way up or down).

photos: Sven Hagolani

photos: Claudio Kocking

drawings and modells: Kai Schiemenz

links:

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/de/AAmt/Ausstellungen/Tower/080404-tower.html
http://www.villa-aurora.org/index.php?page=bildergalerie

Kappatos gallery, Athens 2008

Dwellings of a suspended Empire

First soloshow of Kai Schhiemenz in Kappatos gallery (in Athens; 12 Athinas St, Monastiraki, tel 210-321-7931).
The centralpiece of the exhibition, goes back an idea developed for Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum for the exhibition ‘Speculation’, as a walk-on sculpture. The sculpture was build as a model and painted in the way, like the US Navy painted there ships during the Second World War with a ‘dazzle camouflage’. Inside was projected a film about a Dance-piece a Solo choreography of Peter Player, projected as a dobble-side-projection. The solo is filmed with two fixed cameras. They are fixed in such way, that they don’t face each other and they can’t record the whole set-up at once. They work like engines without moving. Both cameras create a two lens corridor a and b. The choreography on the other hand takes up the whole space. For each camera it means that the dancer is sometimes seen in the corridor of camera a , sometimes in the corridor of the camera b and sometimes in both (a+b). The sculpture creates a situation between using and observation.

photos Kai Schiemenz, 'Dwellings of a suspended Empire'

filmstill with Peter Player

modells exhibited in the gallery

links: http://www.kaput.gr/01/page15EN.htm
http://www.mixtape.gr/t.asp?sec=4&sub=1&uid=81
http://www.cineek.gr/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2285

Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum, 2008

The Empty Dwelling, the Vain Tower and the Mad Colonist, 2008




Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum sits on 62 vacant lots of downtown real estate owned by various private companies and individuals. It is an urban void which was formerly part of the "Mauerstreifen," the militarized zone within the Berlin Wall, but is now overgrown with weeds. The land remains vacant to this day. With approximately 5 hectares of open lots, it offers a vast space and unique history to host various socio-cultural activities.
Kai Schiemenz's spiraling architectonic sculpture consists of 3-parts, a staircase, a smal enclosed platform and tower. The structure rises up from the park’s lone hill, a mound of building foundations from before the Wall. If the sculpture truly has historical foundations, it appears like a blown-up scale-model of a collision between Constructivist forms and more recent Post-Structuralist mega-buildings where “form follows function” does not always preside. Its plywood and lattice structure rises intuitively from the ground. Viewers can ascend its stairs and into the empty platform. Similar to the artist's past work, the tower operates as both a monument standing alone in the park’s vast field and as a pavilion from which to view. It provides the practical purpose of seeing and of being seen. However, its form also suggests a utopian architecture which placed on the historical site of the former Berlin Wall defiantly takes a last stand before its surrounding area is at last absolved and run over by urban renewal. http://www.skulpturenpark.org/

photo from http://www.skulpturenpark.org/

photo from http://www.skulpturenpark.org/

after winter storm Erika

picture from http://www.skulpturenpark.org/

movie under http://www.architekturclips.de/holzturmend/holzturm.html

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/Ticket;art2811,2488453
February 2, 2008. TAZ, Berlin. "Aus der Spirale heraus mit Blick f¸r das Bereichernde," by MJ. p. 25