Candice Breitz
Inner + Outer Space
Part I: 30.10 – 27.11.2008
Part II: 28.11 – 28.12.2008
OPENING October 29, 2008, 5:30 pm
Schlossplatz, Berlin-Mitte
The opening of Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin
One short year after the Berlin Senate’s decision in favor of an exhibition space for contemporary art on the city’s Schlossplatz, the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, designed by Adolf Krischanitz, will be officially opened by the governing mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, on October 29, 2008, with the inaugural exhibition Candice Breitz / Inner + Outer Space. The Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin is financed by private funding. For a period of two years, the Kunsthalle will present a selection of outstanding positions in international contemporary art at this historically significant and prominent location, bringing art made in Berlin to a broad audience.
The opening exhibition highlights the work of Candice Breitz, an artist who reflects on popular culture, the prominence of celebrity in the public sphere, and the impact and mechanisms of mass media and the culture industry.
Breitz’s solo exhibition will take place in two distinct parts. In the first part, three existing works that were produced from Breitz’s Berlin studio will be shown in Berlin for the first time. The video installations Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) and Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) were shot in 2005 and 2006. In making these works, the artist invited a series of fans of the respective icons to each re-perform an entire album by Madonna, Michael Jackson or John Lennon. In each of the final installations, the filmed performers re-sing the relevant album in synchronization with each other, their performances merging into a kaleidoscope of voices, facial expressions and body language, to constitute a diverse collective interaction with a pop icon.
In her most recent work, Him + Her (2008), which will be debuted in Berlin during the second part of Breitz’s exhibition in the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, the artist uses found footage to examine the cult of celebrity from a different angle. Him places 23 Jack Nicholsons (from a range of films made over 40 years) into confrontation with one another, while Her is essentially a showdown between 28 Meryl Streeps (cut out of 28 films made over a period of 30 years). The actor/actress is thrown into a series of psychological encounters with him or herself as s/he is in each case multiplied across a seven-screen structure.
Candice Breitz (*1972 in Johannesburg, South Africa) lives and works in Berlin. Her work has been shown in international museums and galleries of world renown. Since 2007 she has been a professor of fine art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig.
CURATOR
Dr. Gerald Matt (Artistic Advisory Board of Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin and Director of the Kunsthalle Vienna)
OPENING
October 29, 2008, 5:30 pm
CATALOGUE
Candice Breitz / Inner + Outer Space, with texts by Jennifer Allen, Angela Rosenberg, and an interview with Candice Breitz by Dr. Gerald Matt, German / English, approx. 120 pages, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, ISBN 978-3-86560-546-7.
OPENING HOURS
daily 11 am – 6 pm, mondays to 10 pm.
TALKS / PANELS / EVENTS
Friday, 11/07/2008, 8 pm, “Eine Wolke kann man nicht bauen”
Gerwald Rockenschaub (artist), Adolf Krischanitz (architect), Philipp Oswalt (architect)
Presenter: Bernhard Schulz (cultural editor, Tagesspiegel)
Friday, 11/14/2008, 8 pm, “Fan Culture. Active and Passive Consumers”
Candice Breitz (artist), Joko Winterscheidt (MTV moderator), Florian Hayler (founder of the Ramones Museum), Peter Hein (musician / Fehlfarben)
Presenter: Raimar Stange (critic / ACO)
Friday, 11/21/2008, 8 pm, “What’s in a song?” (in English)
Dave Allen (artist / Dominique), Ingar Dragset (artist / Asia Today), Annika Ström (artist)
Presenter: Olaf Karnik (journalist, NZZ, Spex)
Friday, 12/05/2008, 8 pm, “Representing Female and Male Prototypes in Film”
Candice Breitz (artist), Isabell Heimerdinger (artist), Alice Koegel (curator)
Presenter: Prof. Dr. Gertrud Koch (film scholar, FU Berlin)
Friday, 12/19/2008, 8 pm, “Art is a man’s name”
Video screening curated by Kathrin Becker with Nevin Aladag, Marc Aschenbrenner, Pash Buzari, Shahram Entekhabi, Annika Eriksson, Patrycja German, Mathilde ter Heijne, Takehito Koganezawa, Bjørn Melhus, Hajnal Nemeth, Larissa Sansour, Erik Schmidt. In cooperation with Video-Forum, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein
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PRESS CONTACT
Bärbel Hartje, phone: +49 (30) 25 76 20 4-31, fax: +49 (30) 25 76 20 4-19, press@kunsthalle-berlin.com, www.kunsthalle-berlin.com
Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin
Schlossplatz, Berlin-Mitte
phone: (+49) 30 25 76 20 4-0
fax: (+49) 30 25 76 20 4-19
office@kunsthalle-berlin.com
