THE AIR IN BETWEEN

Detel Aurand & Claudia Hausfeld 

September 28, 2024 – January 12, 2025

Opening: Saturday, Sept 28, 3–5 pm

Akureyri Art Museum, Kaupvangstræti 8, 600 Akureyri, Iceland

THE AIR IN BETWEEN is an exhibition project based on an ongoing postal exchange of art works between the artists Claudia Hausfeld (*1980, East-Berlin, lives in Reykjavik) and Detel Aurand (*1958, West-Berlin, lives in Berlin), curated by Katharina Wendler. The artists met for the first time in Iceland in 2017. Shortly after, they began a postal exchange, sending each other letters and works of art, sharing their impressions and thoughts, and always also their artistic work. They encouraged each other to respond to their work, to comment on it, to question it, to add to it, to intervene. This game, this dialogue took place without any time pressure or goal, and was exclusively between the two of them. In this way, drawings, paintings, collages, photographs and objects flew back and forth between Reykjavik and Berlin, dealing with themes of life here and there, then and now. Over the years, this dialogue has meandered through many colors, materials and ideas.

The exhibition as well as the accompanying artists’ book collect traces of this conversation and open it up to outsiders for the first time. By embedding selected works from the previous correspondence in a joint installation on site, the exhibition deals with questions of collective and individual artistic practice, proximity and distance, commonality and demarcation.

THE AIR IN BETWEEN is neither a conclusion nor an end point of the project. It focuses instead on the very “in-between” that ultimately connects everything: the elapsing and expectant time between the mailings, the distance between Reykjavik and Berlin, the mental or intellectual space between the two artists, or, as Hausfeld put it in one of her letters, the gap “between thinking and doing”. Sometimes the gestures and style of one artist or the other remain clearly recognizable, sometimes they blend into something completely new. Ultimately, as it becomes clear when reading the letters, Aurand and Hausfeld understand their collaborative work as something fluid, unfinished, even non-linear, allowing for recourse and overlap, as well as different approaches and interpretations by the viewer.

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

OFFFENCE

Jakob Francisco, Julia Gryboś & Barbora Zentková, Sara Kramer, Roman Liška, Eglė Ruybytė, Eduardo José Rubio Parra

August 12–14, 2022

Opening: Friday, August 12, 7–23 pm

Spoiler.Zone, Quitzowstr. 108, 10551 Berlin

The exhibition OFFFENCE is dedicated to the field of tension between public and private spaces, in particular the delimited or limiting states that are found in between. The title forms a fusion of the terms 'fence', 'offense', the attack, transgression or crossing of boundaries, and 'off', an exclusion or distancing from the current state.

The fence is a set, spatial limitation, a clear boundary that creates a separation between an inside and an outside. It marks territorial property, symbolizes security and order, and is a structure (of power) in political and social contexts. The fence is an almost perfidious border, because one can see through it; the other, inaccessible side remains visible and within reach. In this permeability, however, there is also a potential: the fence can be read as a porous membrane, as a quasi-flexible structure that can become a loophole in the system.

The artists Jakob Francisco, Julia Gryboś & Barbora Zentková, Sara Kramer, Roman Liška, Eduardo José Rubio Parra and Eglė Ruibytė address the various aspects of this theme in their works and deal with the materiality of permeable borders, with openness versus  closedness and questions around one's own belonging and orientation in the face of vast global chaos and insecurities.

text / curated by Sophia Scherer & Katharina Wendler

as part of project space festival Berlin

ANOTHER DIMENSION

Christin Kaiser, Conrad, Detel Aurand, Felix Oehmann, Francis Zeischegg, Johanna Odersky, Lucia Kempkes, Marlen Letetzki, Nik Geene, Rahel Götsch, Roman Liška, Samira Gebhardt, Sophia Pompéry, Stefan Alber, Taissa Fromme

February 10–13, 2022

Opening: Thursday, February 10, 4–8 pm

Oranienstr. 161, Berlin-Kreuzberg

The group show ANOTHER DIMENSION brings together artworks by 15 artists who, in their individual ways, focus on distorted scales, units of measurement or dimensions, who play with orders of magnitude or whose narrative revolves around them. Or also those that deal with (multi-)dimensionality, in which temporal or spatial superimpositions occur.

Our orientation in the world usually happens through standardized units of scale, to which everything is put in relation. Similarly, the progression of time is "measured"; through calendars and clocks we come to understand the concept of past, present and future. Human physicality has long served as a measuring tool, placing the body in relation to the rest of the world. In view of standardized units of measurement and weight during industrialization and today's increasing virtual tools, this body-related fidelity to scale is slipping away more and more. Subjective and imaginary spaces can emerge without boundaries and expand the insight into and perception of other, real or fictitious, even virtual dimensions.

At the same time, human-related measurement has not disappeared; we still evaluate things "by eye", judge according to our "gut feeling", perceive indefinable periods of time such as the moment or times of boredom, judge sizes and hierarchies according to cultural imprints and our own socialization. Units of measurement and the sensations associated with them were and are therefore always subjective units.

ANOTHER DIMENSION poses the question of stretchable definitions of dimensions, and how artists continually explore this question anew in their work.

text / curated by Sophia Scherer & Katharina Wendler

for full text [DE/EN], please see pdfs

Exhibition text, EN

Ausstellungstext, DE

Floorplan

Franziska Degendorfer & Petra Gell

A POOL FULL OF YELLOW

August 29 – September 13, 2020

Opening: Friday, August 28, 7–10 pm

basement, Vienna

"Meine Überlegung, euch in einer Ausstellung zusammenzubringen, fußt im Wesentlichen auf der Beobachtung, dass eure Arbeitsweisen formale Ähnlichkeit aufweisen: Ihr beide experimentiert mit Formen und Farben, um teils temporäre, teils bleibende Strukturen zu bauen. In dem Hinzufügen, der Überlappung, dem Nebeneinander und Miteinander teils konträrer Materialien (zum Beispiel Stoff, Karton, Holz, Acryl, Sprühlack, Papier, Tape, Schaumstoff, Holz und vieles mehr) schafft ihr Kunstwerke, die von einer außergewöhnlichen Stimmigkeit gekennzeichnet sind, die an utopische Architekturen erinnern, an Schaufenster-Displays oder an bunte Puzzlespiele aus der Kindheit. Ihr habt beide Malerei studiert und verfolgt doch eher experimentelle Ansätze; zumindest gehen eure Arbeiten weit über die klassische Malerei – Farbe auf Leinwand – hinaus. Ich würde sagen, euer Gebrauch von Farbe ist – neben vielen anderen Aspekten – vor allem ein Ausdruck räumlichen Denkens und eines ästhetischen Gefühls, eines Wohlgefallens an farblicher und formaler Harmonie. [...]"

Franziska Degendorfer and Petra Gell in conversation with Katharina Wendler (DE)

curated by Katharina Wendler

for full text, please visit __in conversation with__

Arnar Ásgeirsson (with Agata Mickiewicz)

Cozy Catastrophe

October 31 – November 3, 2019

Opening: Thursday, October 31, 7–10 pm

Haus1, Berlin

"[...] The series started with one spontaneous drawing of two snakes interacting, intertwining and flirting. I remember the moment I drew it, I was in some strange conflicted mental state. Full of feelings that I didn't really know how to describe or put into words. Maybe this was some attempt to draw that state of mind, or a certain indescribable feeling?

I doubt that I managed to capture that feeling in this one drawing, but I liked this way of making and producing a drawing, so I made more, without too much thought, more just by feeling. Perhaps by not taking the drawings too seriously and allowing them to be abstract. And not deciding beforehand how many there would be, or what I would do with them.

So, I just continued making them whenever I felt like it, sometimes one a week, other times three drawings a day. Looking back, the drawings have some connection to the Rorschach test or even a deck of tarot cards, even though that was not on my mind while I drew them. Most of the drawings depict two or three forces interacting, fighting or balancing. [...]"

Arnar Ásgeirsson in conversation with Agata Mickiewicz and Annabelle von Girsewald

curated by Katharina Wendler and Annabelle von Girsewald

for full text, please visit __in conversation with__

Erin Honeycutt

Cactus Chronicles / Desktop Conversations

June 9–30, 2019

Opening: Sunday, June 9, 1–6 pm

Dzialdov, Berlin

Cactus Chronicles is a performative exhibition project by the artist and writer Erin Honeycutt, curated by Katharina Wendler, which explores the complex relationship between memory and the present through photographs, text and performative elements. The starting point is a photographic series of the same name, an analog photographic film that the artist exposed on the last road trip with her father before he died.

The exhibition is further based on an ongoing conversation between the artist and the curator about remembering and perceiving (digital) reality(s). Under the email subject Desktop Conversations, thoughts on the organization and structure of memory and remembering are interwoven, which often manifest themselves on the desktop, i.e. the digital desk on the computer, in the form of images, texts and folders.

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

for full text, please visit __in conversation with__

as part of Project Space Festival Berlin

Aline Schwibbe

A Thousand Names of Something Else

January 20 – February 10, 2019

Opening: Sunday, January 20, 1-6 pm

Dzialdov, Berlin

[...]

KW: Do you generally in your work or in exhibition situations perceive dominant and less
dominant, stronger and weaker works? How do you solve the problems of heterarchy and nonlinearity
in space?
AS: It’s important for me that in my work in general and in exhibition situations in particular things can
be next to and with one another. Nothing is more important than the other. How one solves that in a
space though is a very interesting question, because the works are of course different in their
visibility and dominance. Visually dominant works often require some effort already during
production; one has to have the courage for that. But I enjoy making things that frighten me. That is
everything but easy, but that’s how I grow.

[...]

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

translation (from German): Matthew Burbidge

for full text, please visit __in conversation with__

Arna Óttarsdóttir

A Soft Power

January 18 – February 9, 2019

Opening: Friday, January 18, 6-9 pm

Åplus, Berlin

Although the textile works and drawings by Arna Óttarsdóttir shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted as being intentionally predefined or political, the exhibition title ‘A Soft Power’ aims to open up a number of possibilities to view her art in the light of connotations commonly or uncommonly associated with the given term(s).

Softness.

A lack of hardness; the quality of being gentle and not loud or forceful; the quality of being weak.[i]

Not hard (changing shape easily, not stiff or firm, less hard than average),

not rough (smooth and pleasant to touch),

without angles/edges,

not too bright, in a way pleasant and relaxing to the eyes (light/colors),

not strong or violent,

not loud (usually pleasant and gentle),

sympathetic (kind and sympathetic; easily affected by others),

not strict (not strict or severe),

crazy (stupid or crazy),

not tough (wanting to be safe and comfortable).[ii]

Power.

The ability to control or effect people or things,

[in people] the ability or opportunity to do sth / a particular ability of the body or mind / all the abilities of a person’s body or mind,

the right or authority of a person or group to do sth,

[in compounds] the strength or influence in a particular area of activity / the influence of a particular thing or group within society,

the strength or energy contained in sth,

a good or evil spirit that controls the lives of others.[iii]

Soft Power.

The term soft power, first introduced in 1990 by political scientist Joseph Nye (US), is used to describe a form of power relation or a style of leadership – especially in foreign policy making and international relations – putting at its base the use of positive attraction and persuasion to achieve collaboration and/or recreation of a set example. It employs the ability to shape other peoples’ preferences and actions through appeal and attraction rather than coercion, command, or threat (Hard Power).

When asked “What is soft power?”, Nye delivers the following explanation: “Power comes in many guises, and soft power is not weakness. (…) When you can get others to admire your ideals and to want what you want, you do not have to spend as much on sticks [threats] and carrots [inducements] to move them in your direction. Seduction is always more effective than coercion.”[iv]

He continues: “Soft power rests on the ability to shape preferences of others. (…) In a [personal] relationship, power does not necessarily reside with the larger partner, but in the mysterious chemistry of attraction. (…) Soft power is more than just persuasion or the ability to move people by argument, though that is an important part of it. (…) Simply put, in behavioral terms soft power is attractive power.”[v]

In order to engender cooperation, soft power calls on shared values and currencies such as attraction, admiration, justness, seduction, empathy, even love. In politics, the soft power of a nation builds on three pillars, namely culture, political values, and foreign policy.[vi] As opposed to other forms of power, it seems to have almost exclusively positive connotations, taking into account resources which might not be quantifiable or objectifiable but which are on the other hand perceptible, sensible, and, well, soft.

In this context, the soft power within the artworks of Arna Óttarsdóttir may lie in their combination of a quite literal softness (the textile, the colors, the shapes within her drawings) and a certain gentleness, unobtrusiveness, and charm radiating from them.

Although their appearance is at first glance rather feminine and delicate, the constitution of the tapestries themselves is quite powerful as the material is robust and almost imperishable. Their shape, size and appearance on the other hand depend entirely on the good will of the artist, all the while in control of the resilient fibers.

The works mostly depict drawings, woven into tapestries taking weeks, sometimes months of labor. The act of giving these seemingly insignificant scribbles and doodles so much attention and devotion can be described as a democratic or non-hierarchical one, as any snippet from her notebook could make it into an artwork, sooner or later.

The works of Arna Óttarsdóttir do not scream for attention but quickly become objects of attraction by merely offering a subtle and discreet reclamation of authority, an invisible hand, and a benevolent narrative.

[i] Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/englisch/softness (04.01.2019).

[ii] Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 7th Edition, Oxford 2005, p. 1454.

[iii] Ibid. p. 1180.

[iv] Nye Jr., Joseph S.: Soft Power – The means to success in world politics. New York 2004, p. x.

[v] Ibid. p. 5f.

[vi] The Soft Power 30 Index (an annual report aiming to „compare the relative strength of countries’ soft power resources; assessing the quality of a country’s political institutions, the extent of their cultural appeal, the strength of their diplomatic network, the global reputation of their higher education system, the attractiveness of their economic model, and a country’s digital engagement with the world.”, https://softpower30.com/what-is-soft-power/ (04.01.2019).

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

Stefan Alber

Multigrade / Object

March 8 – April 15, 2018

Opening: Thursday, March 8, 2018, 7-9pm

Dzialdov, Berlin

[...]

KW: Tell us how you had the idea to work with umbrellas in the first place. You had mentioned briefly that everything started with a photograph.
SA: To be precise, it began with a photograph that I took in Hong Kong. I saw an umbrella merchant on the street and took a photo of an opened umbrella. Suddenly, this coloured circle was available to me as an image, fitted into the format of the photo, and it abstracted immediately – although the object, the umbrella, is very familiar and clearly discernible. It is not about garbling the photographed item; the photo shows too many details like the structure, the seams and the textile of the umbrella. In any case, I showed this photo in my first exhibition, titled “Umbrella”, at the HfBK in Hamburg. The photograph from Hong Kong became the lead image of the exhibition and was also part of the exhibition, however, developed and cambered on the stick of an umbrella, like a real one.

[...]

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

translation (from German): Kristina von Bülow

for full text, please visit __in conversation with__

Dieter Roth & Karin Sander

Mixed Media

September 18, 2016 – January 28, 2017

Opening: Sunday, September 18, 2016, 1-5 pm

Safn Berlin

The last exhibition in the Safn Berlin art space, which this time extends over two floors, presents two artists who have close ties with the collection. Both Karin Sander and Dieter Roth spent a lot of time in Iceland, leaving their mark on the country's artistic landscape through co-operations with Icelandic artists and curators, through their commitment to Iceland's Academy of the Arts, and not least through their friendship, extending over many years, with Pétur Arason and Ragna Róbertsdóttir.

Karin Sander (born in 1957) came to Iceland for the first time at the invitation of Pétur Arason and Ingólfur Arnasson, since when she has exhibited in a number of the country's institutions and project spaces. Karin Sander works in a range of media and materials, spaces and situations, each of which provides a starting point for her artistic deliberations. Sometimes her interventions are on a large scale, architectural in dimension. Sometimes her modifications are almost imperceptible as she integrates into her work the activities of exhibition visitors, natural influences, or temporal processes such as the journey of a Mailed Painting or the accumulated tarnish on a Patina Painting.

Dieter Roth (1930-1998) moved to Reykjavik in 1957 and became an important figure in the local art scene. From the beginning of his creative life, Roth worked in a wide range of media, to include drawing, painting, sculpture, film and music. In addition, he was active as a writer and publisher, producing more than 200 books on a vast range of topics, to include volumes of poetry, novels, theoretical pamphlets, children's books, and diaries. The Safn collection includes a large portion of Roth's artists' books, created in particular from the 1960s onwards, as well as numerous prints, vinyl records, drawings and art objects.

The Mixed Media exhibition presents a selection of works by both artists from the Safn collection as well as more recent works by Karin Sander. The latter include an artist's book recently published by the Salon Verlag publishing house in Cologne, in its ex libris series – directly based on Dieter Roth's Kinderbuch [Children's Book], published in 1957 in his own forlag ed publishing house in Reykjavik.

However different their work may appear at first sight, one thing both artists have in common is their use of everyday materials not normally associated with artistic creativity – for instance a slice of sausage in Roth's Kleiner Sonnenuntergang [Small Sunset] (1972) or Sander's polished hen's egg (1994). Another shared interest is participatory art: processes, materials, performative actions, and the observer's own perceptions are all directly integrated into their works of art.

But whereas Roth's art always betrays a penchant for self-presentation, one may search Sander's works in vain for privatist propensities. Roth, who declared his entire life to be a work of art and whose creative production, in particular after 1965, was based on the principle of copiousness, stands in this respect in direct contrast to Sander, the strength and impact of whose art is characterised by precise, purposeful intervention. The profusion apparent in Dieter Roth's work is also particularly evident in this exhibition, in contrast to which Karin Sander's art creates an orderly frame of reference without sacrificing idiosyncrasy and perspicacity. Both positions represent a concept of art marked by a tireless search for new discoveries and new beginnings.

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

translation (from German): Stephen Richards

Bjarni H. Thorarinsson & Hanne Darboven

Visiology / Methodology

March 18 – July 17, 2016

Opening: March 17, 2016, 6-9 pm

Safn Berlin

"You do not have to be literate to enjoy my pictures. One Visio-Rose is like nuclear fusion; writing, linguistics, imagery and sound, some with a clear meaning and others with less clear meaning. This is like a small glossary, and I play with language”, says artist BJARNI H. THORARINSSON (b. 1947) in an interview from 1997, a decade after he began creating a personal philosophical universe, which has occupied him since. His original intention was to come to a better understanding of forms and their composition. He soon began to explore form by using sound, language and concepts as constituents for building a panoptic system. The oldest products of this discipline are his Visio-Rose (Rose of Wisdom) drawings, hundreds of mandalas, reminiscent of ancient magic symbols. In his drawings, he plays with the rhyming of self-invented words and with the ways language can be portrayed visually. He develops and identifies keys to linguistic forms by using a taxonomic system for his new words, resulting in new texts comprising strong rhythmic components, aligned to phonetic poetry. Thorarinsson has systematized his research, as a whole system of thought; Visiology. This field of research forms the beginning of an academic discipline collected in the Visio-Academy. As dean of the Visio-Academy, with his findings performatively mediated through his Visio-Congresses, he refers to himself as a Visio-Congressman.

The faculties of the Visio-Academy are: Visio-Mannerism, Bend-Philosophy, Visio-Manuscriptology, Visio-Literature, Visio-Linguistics, Visio-Explanatory Studies, Visio-Formalizing Studies, Visio-Patternology, Visio-Symbolism, Visual Constructive Poetry-Donnets and Visio-Biology.

In a recent interview, thirty years after he received access to his Bend-Visio Da-Visio secret code, Thorarinsson states; “My Visio-Academy has become a volcano and will erupt at any moment.”

Bjarni H. Thorarinsson Studied Fine Arts at the Icelandic School of Arts & Crafts (1973-77) and at Jan van Eyck Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht, Netherlands (1974-75). He has since then been occupied with many art forms, such as drawing, performance and ojperas. His works have been presented at all major art museums in Iceland, and widely in Europe.

In a separate room, Safn Berlin presents “Welttheater” (theatre of the world, 1979), a single work by German Conceptual artist HANNE DARBOVEN (1941-2009). On 366 plates, Darboven systematically portrayed little objects and figurines, each of them placed on their own individual theatre stage.

text / curated by Birta Gudjonsdottir and Katharina Wendler

Alan Johnston & Stanley Brouwn

Invisible Lines

September 25, 2015 – January 30, 2016

Opening: September 24, 2015, 6-9 pm

Safn Berlin

ALAN JOHNSTON (b. 1945, Edinburgh, Scotland) is considered one of the leading British geometric abstract artists. He is best known for his large-scale wall and ceiling drawings and architectural interventions. His subtle pencil works are characterized by a rigorous minimalistic style and a tendency towards the invisible, or, as the artist puts it, an “ever-present engagement with the creation of shadow."

The exhibition Invisible Lines at Safn Berlin will feature several wall drawings as well as a number of small scale paintings. The wall drawings take the form of short irregular pencil marks, closely interwoven to form geometric shapes. These delicate shapes, although hardly recognizable, are prompted by the walls around them, heightening our awareness of the architecture. The exhibition space undergoes a mundane, yet powerful and almost magical act of transformation.

This effect extends to the smaller works, which consist of wood or canvas on which heavy beeswax and pencil lead is applied. Often these works are constructed with a similar attention to space and/or negative space, while at the same time containing a much higher density of black in contrast to the muted wall works.

Johnston’s installations create an active relationship between the observer and the work which somehow lies between the visible and the invisible, the optical and the physical. His works are undoubtedly demanding on the viewer, bringing into play the complex connection between mind and eye.

Alan Johnston lives and works in Edinburgh. He has taken part in numerous exhibitions and biennials; solo exhibitions include Tate Britain (London, UK), Henry Moore Institute (Leeds, UK), Sleeper (Edinburgh, UK), U8 (Nagoya, JP), New Bedford Art Museum (New Bedford, USA), Arts Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory (Tbilisi, GA), Museum of Fine Art Houston (Texas, USA), Haus Wittgenstein (Vienna, AU), The Living Art Museum (Reykjavik, IS), Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, UK), Von der Heydt Museum (Wuppertal, DE), Shimada Gallery (Yamaguchi/Tokyo, JP).

Safn Berlin is also featuring one piece and a selection of books by Dutch conceptual artist STANLEY BROUWN (b. 1935, Paramaribo, Suriname). In his work Brouwn deals with distances, measurements, and spaces between two points, persons, or places. The results are delicate drawings, text works, and artist books which oscillate between the visible and the invisible - yet again.

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

Hreinn Friðfinnsson & Roman Signer

Notions of Time

March 20 – July 25, 2015

Opening: March 19, 2015, 6-9 pm

Safn Berlin

“Time, or notions of time, are always compelling. I read what comes my way about physics and mathematics, but I read as one who’s uninitiated. It’s very difficult to get your mind around these concepts, but it is possible to read about them with fascination. My interest in the essence of time is serious, but my dealing with time is not knowledge-based; it’s more exploratory and feeling-based." (H.F. 2007)

HREINN FRIðFINNSSON (b. 1943, Dalir, Iceland, lives and works in Amsterdam since 1971) is considered one of Iceland’s leading conceptual artists.

His works consist mostly of mundane and familiar everyday objects and materials. In rearranging, combining or transforming these seemingly insignificant materials, Friðfinnsson identifies and activates their conceptual potential. Through minimal interventions he reveals the poetic dimensions within the already existing.

Friðfinnsson’s art is rooted in his memories and experiences of his homeland, oftentimes echoing aspects of its nature and its lyricism, its legends, rumors, secrets, and dreams. The use of narrative and storytelling is combined with a stark, minimalistic and unobtrusive visual language. Friðfinnsson works within a wide range of media such as photography and text, drawing, painting, installation, and in the last a few years video and film. All works seem to be linked by a common sensibility which leads one to contemplate the possibility of discovering something extraordinary within each work. It is precisely this durational approach to looking, thinking and experiencing with which Friðfinnsson is engaged – time seems to be standing still for just one moment…

Time can be considered one of the central themes within Friðfinnsson practice. It seems that his individual approach to, or rather understanding of time is the starting point for many of his undertakings. The artist reflects on subjective and intuitive notions of time within the contexts of physics and astronomy and is not afraid to touch upon the essential questions of life. Hreinn Friðfinnsson experiments with the possibility of parallel constructs of time and intersections between them. In his art works he visualizes time leaps and accelerates or decelerates temporal processes, thus questioning the concept of linearity.

Friðfinnsson’s works often appear as excerpts from an overarching story line or as little episodes of everyday life. They are characterized by a captivating serenity and intriguing calmness which makes them stand out amid the flood of images that we are confronted with every day.

In a separate room, Safn Berlin presents works by Swiss artist ROMAN SIGNER (b. 1938, Appenzell, Switzerland, lives and works in St. Gallen). Time, as in process, change, and transformation, is an essential part of Signer’s art works:

“I prefer to use the term ‘events’ to characterize my work. Something has happened, and is now simply there, as evidence – evidence of a force that exerted itself in the space. Always in my work something is going to happen, is happening or has happened. Or could happen.” (R.S. 1984)

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

Kristján Gudmundsson & Donald Judd

Cause and Consequence

September 12, 2014 – January 21, 2015

Opening: September 11, 2014, 6-9 pm

Safn Berlin

"I am trying to work within the field of tension that exists between nothing and something." (KG)

KRISTJAN GUDMUNDSSON is considered one of Iceland’s most well-known contemporary artists. A pioneer of Icelandic conceptual art, he played a vital role in the short-lived but enormously influential avant-garde movement called SÚM, which radically challenged and ultimately transformed the understanding of art-making in Iceland in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His artworks can be described as minimalist or conceptual, concise and clear. They explore issues of time, nature, and art in a very direct and often humorous or playful way.

The exhibition at Safn Berlin introduces early works by the artist that can be considered milestones in Guðmundsson’s career and his overall understanding of art and material. Part of the exhibition title refers to a work series from the 1970s, “Cause and Consequence”, in which Guðmundsson went through numerous possibilities of cause and consequence within geometric line structures.

Also in the 70s, the artist began to experiment with drawing, although he did not do so in the conventional sense. By expanding his drawings to the three-dimensional, he pushed the limits of the medium while at the same time denying its decisive two-dimensional quality. The act of drawing was replaced by arranging industrially produced materials, such as pencil leads and entire rolls of paper. Guðmundsson’s drawings, or his "lines and objects", were independent of the paper or any other surface and became their own inherent support.

Also on display are various artist books, in which Guðmundsson refers to both natural and artistic phenomena, again within the context of the inevitable law of cause and consequence.

For the artist book “Punktar” (“Periods”, 1972), for example, Guðmundsson selected periods from a book of poems by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness and enlarged them 1500 times. In doing so, the artist examines the concepts and imagery of “poetry” and literary principles of structure and process. Like many other early works by the artist, his books often have a strong reference to the literary culture of Iceland.

Kristján Guðmundsson was born 1941 in Snæfellsnes, Iceland. He lives and works in Reykjavik. Solo exhibitions include: National Gallery of Iceland (2009), Safn Reykjavik (2007), Reykjavik Art Museum (2001), Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft, Nürnberg (1994), Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (1993), Kunsthalle Rostock (1993), American Scandinavian Foundation, New York (1986); group exhibitions include: Boden Arts Center (2013), MOCA Los Angeles (2012), Haus der Kunst, München (2012), Reykjavik Art Museum (2011), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2008). He was the 2010 recipient of the Carnegie Art Award.

In a separate room, Safn Berlin presents another minimalist yet very different approach to drawing by artist DONALD JUDD (1928-1994, Missouri, USA), a pioneer of American Minimal Art. These drawings, which are dominated by variations of colourful and geometric patterns, are typical of the late work of the artist.

text / curated by Katharina Wendler

Lawrence Weiner, Ragna Róbertsdóttir & Richard Long

The Light of Day – Magma Works

March 14 – July 31, 2014

Opening: March 13, 2014, 6-9 pm

Safn Berlin

LAWRENCE WEINER (b. 1942, New York), a central figure in the conceptual art movement of the 1960s, is considered one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th century. He drastically challenged traditional assumptions about the status and nature of art by dematerializing objects and reducing art works to ideas and concepts. His works are mostly language-based and often take the form of descriptive, typographic texts. He composes works that describe process and material, often evoking a poetic vision which unfolds the viewer’s imagination. Weiner first came to Iceland in the early 1990s when invited by Pétur Arason and has spent a notable period of time of his life there, creating works that correspond to site-specific natural phenomena and processes.

RAGNA RÓBERTSDÓTTIR (b. 1945, Reykjavík) is among the most well-known and respected contemporary artists in Iceland. Her main topic is landscape, which she encounters in an unconventional, conceptual and minimalistic way. Her material ranges from natural resources such as mud, stones, and sand which she collects from the countryside in southern Iceland, to industrial materials such as glass and plastic. Directly applied onto the wall and therefore corresponding to the exhibition space, these works not only quote the place of their origin but create new imaginary abstract landscapes. Róbertsdóttir examines contrasting characteristics of landscape such as light vs. dark, chaos vs. order, plenitude vs. emptiness, and translates them into her works.

SAFN is the private collection of Pétur Arason (b. 1944, Reykjavík). From the early 1960s, when he started collecting art works, he was interested in both Icelandic and international art which followed a conceptual and/or minimalistic approach. In 1987 he founded his first gallery called 2nd floor together with the Icelandic artist Ingólfur Arnarsson in Reykjavík, to which he invited artists to create works in situ. Since 2007 Arason runs his space Safn (Icelandic for collection) in Reykjavík, exhibiting art works from the collection. Starting in Spring 2014, Safn Berlin will serve as a new platform for both Icelandic and international artists and aims to introduce the collection to a broader audience.

Safn consists of more than 1200 art works, including pieces by Carl Andre, Birgir Andresson, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Stanley Brouwn, Alan Charlton, Olafur Eliasson, Dan Flavin, Seal Floyer, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Hamish Fulton, Franz Graf, Katharina Grosse, Kristjan Gudmundsson, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Roni Horn, Alan Johnston, Donald Judd, Ilya Kabakov, Ragnar Kjartansson, Richard Long, Sara Lucas, Max Neuhaus, Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Dieter Roth, Karin Sander, Roman Signer, Richard Tuttle, Günter Umberg, Gillian Wearing, Lawrence Weiner, and others.

text / curated by Katharina Wendler