Reading an East German Photo Archive, 1967–1990

Halle 14 - Zentrum für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig
06.05. – 01.07.2012


Double Bound Economies begins with a photo archive from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) by photographer Reinhard Mende. Produced as commissioned works, the photographs dramatize the situation of productions in Volkseigene Betriebe and the Internationale Leipziger Messe from 1967 to 1990. From the archive, Double Bound Economies moves toward contemporary artistic and spatial positions, historical and theoretical analyses, and the production of a video project. Artists, theorists, scholars, and former participants were invited to view, comment on, or select from the archive. This collective work method resulted in a polyphonic dramatization of the archive while also reporting on a nonlinear approach to the GDR.
Following the presentation in Leipzig, Double Bound Economies will be exhibited at the Centre de la Photographie, Geneva (September–October 2012) and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (January–February 2013).










Image Credits (from top): © Reinhard Mende: Vertreterempfang in Falstaff Rundgang Minister Mozambique 16.03.1978; © Reinhard Mende: Leuchtenbau Leipzig, Polytechnik MMM Ausstellung 08.05.1974; © Installationview; (2 x) © Olaf Nicolai; Girlfriends, 2012; © Kiluanji Kia Henda: Karl Marx Luanda, 2006.

alexanderlevy
28.01. - 24.03.2012

With Punishment I gallery alexanderlevy shows new works by the artist Julius von Bismarck. The title of the exhibition points to a pre-Christian legend that says that the Achaemenid King and Egyptian Pharaoh Xerxes had the strait at Hellespont punished with 300 lashes, after bridges that had been built on his order were destroyed by a storm shortly after construction. At impressive locations in Switzerland, South America and the United States Julius von Bismarck plays with the rhetorical power of this traditional retaliation, whipping nature, defying its power, until he is exhausted.

Galerie Max Hetzler
12.11.2011 - 28.01.2012

Galerie Max Hetzler presents an exhibition of Günther Förg featuring works from 1987 to 2011. On this occasion the gallery is turned into a quite commanding immersive environment with the seminal black and white photograph “Ika” (1987) as an introduction to the exhibition. A specially commissioned wall painting is on view along with a mirror, photographs from the series of rationalist architecture „Città Universitaria“, paintings from the nineties and noughties, including very large formats and recent paintings from the series known as the grit or dot paintings. Thus underscoring Förg's interdisciplinary investigations and his use of the space conceived as one work.







Credits: Ika 1987; Williamsburg 2000; Untitled 2007; Città Universitaria, Mineralogia 1990; Città Universitaria, Auditorium Maximum 1990

Galerie Podbielski
24.09. - 15.11.2011

Hrair Sarkissian’s Zebiba series from 2007 consists of portraits of pious men in Egypt, who all have the 'Zebiba' or prayer scar on their foreheads. For the second, correspondent series he photographed churches that no longer serve as sacred spaces, but have been turned into public ones for social activites such as reception halls, or music and dance clubs.

Galerie für Moderne Fotografie
09.09.2011 – 05.10.2011

Our world can be described in relation to many incidents, few of them as recent and momentous as 9/11. Markus Jans and his fellow artist friends explore this turning point of contemporary human history in a very unagitated way, far from the visual language of CNN and the likes.

Galerie Neu
06.04.2011

The New York artist collective Bernadette Corporation combined the poem "A Billion and Change" with the images of a fake Jeans Campaign by David Vasiljevic and created a complex artistic object at the intersection of poetry and photography. In the artists own words: "a witty, handsome and epic poem for New York".

Galerie für Moderne Fotografie
20.01.2010 — 25.01.2010

As a contribution towards Berlin Fashion Week, Sissel Tolas curated this collaboration between Gareth Pugh and Nick Night with SHOWstudio. Apart from a video by Night and a one-off dress by Pugh, the show also featured portraits of Gareth Pugh by Sølve Sundsbø.

Galerie für Moderne Fotografie
29.01. - 10.03.2010

"The German photographer Ute Mahler became one of the G.D.R.’s fashion visionaries, her work a testament to the subversive role fashion can assume as a mode of expression in an authoritarian state. Mahler was focused not on extreme fantasy but on a heightened sense of reality. She presented women as strong individuals, concerned more with style than with the latest fashions."
Sameer Reddy, New York Times.