The installation “Absurd Berlin Diary ’64” by the Italian painter Emilio Vedova (1919–2006) is one of his major works and is unique in its complexity and monumentality within his oeuvre.
Image Caption: Emilio Vedova, Absurdes Berliner Tagebuch ’64, 1964, Berlinische Galerie, © Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Foto: Lutz Bertram.
The work consists of asymmetrically sawn wooden panels, painted on both sides and connected with iron hinges to form movable structures. Vedova called these pictorial elements, freely positioned in space and only fully comprehensible by walking around them, “Plurimi” (multiple structures). With the development of Plurimi, Vedova liberated painting from the conventional form of the panel painting.
Vedova created the work in 1964, while living and working in West Berlin for a year on a grant from the US-based Ford Foundation. The Berlin Plurimi emerged as a reaction to the divided city, which Vedova experienced as a “clash of contradictory situations.” The work was executed in the former studio of the National Socialist sculptor Arno Breker, which now houses the Kunsthaus Dahlem. Later that same year, the work was exhibited at documenta III in Kassel. In 2002, the artist decided to donate the work to the Berlinische Galerie for the building in Alte Jakobstraße.
WHEN?
Exhibition date: Friday, 17. April until Monday, 14. September 2026
WHERE?
Berlinische Galerie
Alte Jakobstraße 124-128
10969 Berlin
 is one of his major works and is unique in its complexity and monumentality within his oeuvre. Cultural news, art exhibitions + art events to discover.){kind=link}