The Verein zur Förderung von Kunst und Kultur am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz presents the opening of two new exhibitions on Saturday afternoon, 16.09.2023: petrichor by Vikenti Komitzki and soft cruelties by Lena Marie Emrich.
Fig. above: Berlin Art Week 2023, Kunstverein am Rosa–Luxemburg–Platz, Vikenti Komitzki- petrichor
Vikenti Komitzki, petrichor:
In summer, when light rain meets plants and streets warmed by the sun, a very special smell is created: petrichor. A smell that intensely recalls beautiful summer experiences and at the same time brings with it the melancholy that is always associated with memories. The installation of the same name by the Bulgarian artist Vikenti Komitzki, who lives in Berlin, in the foyer of the L40 follows this trail and connects it with the sadness that arises precisely from alienation and loneliness in modern, industrialised life. To this end, he uses a reworked light box with the image of a globe and the addition Weltschmerz from the demolished Hotel Mondial, motifs from John Haslam’s book Illustrations of Madness from 1810 and a huge sculpture in the shape of an X that puts everything into perspective. In this way, Komotzki creates precisely that ambiguity that evokes and simultaneously erases notions of invisible processes and means of control that shape reality. What remains is the feeling of a “deep sadness at the inadequacy of the world” (Jean Paul) – precisely that untranslatable Weltschmerz that seems to exist only in German.
petrichor is the 30th installation in the foyer of the Kunstverein.
Lena Marie Emrich, soft cruelties:
Whether Venice, Sardinia or Uluru – places where beauty becomes a curse are rapidly increasing. Overtourism but also exaggerated expectations are becoming the norm in the race to travel the world. Lena Marie Emrichs’ exhibition soft cruelties revolves around the resulting construction of reality, fiction and speculation. In particular, Emrichs illuminates those moments in which the pursuit of individual pleasure comes into conflict with moral principles. The title thus describes the uneasy feeling we know will inevitably arise when we decide not to pay the 1.99 euros for CO2 compensation when booking a flight.
For this latest production, the artist has developed sunshades, sand-coloured inlaid pictures, wishing wells and a bench from the Garden of Eden from everyday objects and materials that she has removed from their context, manipulated, recreated and/or over-aesthetised. Characteristic is the use of technical materials in new contexts. Polished surfaces, maple, bamboo, coloured sprinkles – in the new works, a cool, yet poetic language of form meets materials from contrary fields of application. The palette ranges from the high-quality solid material HIMACS to a group of slightly trashy sunshades made of plastic raffia to large-format window films. Despite all realism, the individual works remain mostly associative and suggestive in the group, so that in the end the question remains whether we are not all terribel tourist? But first: welcome to paradise by Lena Marie Emrich.
WHERE?
Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
Linienstrasse 40
10119 Berlin
WHEN?
Saturday, 16.09.2023, 13-18h
