IDEAL CITY-INVISIBLE CITIES in Potsdam only until October 29, 2006
Do not miss the second part of the exhibition Ideal City Invisible Cities in Potsdam, which closes on October 29, 2006 presenting works by 41 artists from 18 countries at 5 exhibition venues and in public places throughout the city:
www.idealcity-invisiblecities.org
Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Francis Alys, Carl Andre, Archigram, Colin Ardley, Tim Ayres, Miroslaw Balka, Daniela Brahm, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Rui Calcada Bastos, Constant, Jonas Dahlberg, Tacita Dean, Jaroslaw Flicinski, Carlos Garaicoa, Dan Graham, George Hadjimichalis, Rula Halawani, Franka Hoernschemeyer, Craigie Horsfield, Katarzyna Jozefowicz, Jakob Kolding, Ola Kolehmainen, Lucas Lenglet, Sol LeWitt, David Maljkovic, Gerold Miller, Matthias Mueller, Teresa Murak, Brian OConnell, Daniel Roth, Albrecht Schaefer, Kai Schiemenz, Les Schliesser, Melanie Smith, Monika Sosnowska, David Tremlett, Anton Vidokle, Lawrence Weiner, Tilman Wendland, Krzysztof Zielinski
Curated by Sabrina van der Ley and Markus Richter / European Art Projects
Patron: Matthias Platzeck, Prime Minister of Brandenburg
All exhibition venues are open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 6 pm:
Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Brandenburger Strasse 5
Former Military Hospital, Schopenhauerstrasse 5-6
Historical Residential Building, Schlossstrasse 9
Coach Horse Stable at Neuer Markt
Gallery of the FH/University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 6
A central concern of the exhibition is to confront the artists with two plans of Ideal Cities, or with what has survived of them to this day. Not only the two historical cities but also the underlying invisible cities, hidden by time and history became the points of reference for the works of contemporary artists from twelve European and six non-European countries.
After its first venue in Zamosc, Poland, an extraordinary treasure of late Renaissance architecture, Ideal City Invisible Cities moved on to the baroque town of Potsdam. Unlike Zamosc whose old town is almost completely preserved, Potsdam has seen major changes during the centuries. Potsdams old centre was almost entirely destroyed in WW II and parts of the early baroque city extensions including the citys castle were subsequently torn down. Today Potsdams new centre is a melange of restored baroque architecture and buildings from the sixties to the present, more a collage than an ideal or even planned city.
The artists working site-specifically will react to the disparate body of the city and insert their work in public spaces and buildings, courtyards or squares. Most projects are characterized by a distanced, critical and sometimes even ironic way of dealing with the planned urban space. The artists are seeking ways to transpose the pre-existing historical situation into their present and their experience of the city. They are reacting to the city as an artificial body, to which they are adding something, partially completing it, filling a gap. They explore the psychogeography of the city or pursue urban archaeology, analysing structures, grids, proportions and functions, making them the basis of their interventions. Monika Sosnowska placed a Dirty Fountain in the wilderness of Staudenhof, while Miroslaw Balka sculpture reflects the abyss inherent in planned cities. Lawrence Weiners word sculpture embraces the pillars in front of the City Library and David Tremlett took over the rotunda of the Old Town Hall with his geometric pastel wall drawings. Daniela Brahm and Colin Ardley determine squares and passages anew, Franka Hoernschemeyer comments with her installation on the grid of the city plan and Lucas Lenglet created a sombre Potsdam columbarium for the garden of an apartment building. Les Schliesser continues to narrate the story of his fictive Zamosc born architect Mikolaj Chrupkowski now working in Potsdam, Jakob Kolding points out the traps of functional city planning with a poster project and Craigie Horsfield introduces a site-specific sound installation at the coach horse stable at Neuer Markt. Tilman Wendlands installation at Brandenburgischer Kunstverein sculpturally analyzes ideal city plans of the moderns Le Corbusier, Niemeyer and Hansen and Jaroslaw Flicinski installed a large wall painting at the gallery of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
Besides the site specific interventions works by 25 artists relating to the main themes of the exhibition including architectural critique, memory and the grid will be shown at Brandenburgischer Kunstverein and four further exhibition venues.
All in walking distance, the exhibition covers a trail through Potsdams first and second baroque city extensions from 8 September, 2006 until 29 October, 2006.
Ideal City – Invisible Cities is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Further generous support is kindly provided by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, the City of Zamosc and FILIGRAN Group, Leese, DE & Herby, PL
Additional funds thanks to the British Council, Berlin; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Ford Foundation, Cairo; Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green; Instituto das Artes, Lisbon; Luso-American Foundation, Lisbon; Mondriaan Stichting, Amsterdam, Embassy of the Netherlands, Berlin; Paschal-Werk G. Maier GmbH, Steinach and Wienerberger Ziegelindustrie, Hannover.
Project Partners Potsdam: Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam; Filmmuseum Potsdam, Foundation Grosses Waisenhaus zu Potsdam; Greige Buero fuer Design, Berlin; Hans-Otto-Theater, Potsdam; Haus der Brandenburgisch-Preussischen Geschichte, Potsdam; University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam; Zentralverband Sanitaer, Heizung, Klima; Potsdam.
For images and further information please view www.idealcity-invisiblecities.org or contact Anne Maier at European Art Projects, Tel. 49-30-30 38 18 37, Fax 49-30-30 38 18 30, am@european-art-projects.com
