Vom 14. bis zum 16. Dezember findet in Berlin-Neukölln die Gruppenausstellung “Split Personality” statt, bei der vier Berliner KünstlerInnen stark aufeinander bezogene Arbeiten an zwei verschiedenen Orten zeigen – dem Artspace EXPO BERLIN und der Bar HELMUT KOHL. Neben Arbeiten von Kae und Sally M. Jaber werden Werke von Alex Tennigkeit zu sehen sein, mit der African Paper bereits ein Interview führte und deren Zusammenarbeit mit dem Musiker Anemone Tube mehrfach Thema unserer Berichte war. Ebenfalls zu sehen sind Gemälde von Fleur Helluin, die neben der Malerei im Bereich Performance aktiv ist und als Musikerin Teil der Gruppen Mille und Plateau Repas ist.

“Curatorial concepts are severely overrated. If the art work you see is good, so is the exhibition and vice versa. However, one is always inclined to say and explain a little more. We decided to invite a group of artists to show (at least seemingly) very different aspects/directions of their artistic work. Furthermore we agreed to emphasize the difference by keeping the dissimilar art works divided by space. Each artist is represented at EXPO BERLIN as well as at HELMUT KOHL BAR. In other words: we went for two  different exhibitions of the same group of artists at two different locations.

As you hopefully will find out yourself, both spaces are in walking distance, yet not just around the corner. If you want to see SPLIT PERSONALITY you have to show a little effort. And since you ask: we generally recommend to put in a little effort when you go see an exhibition, if you just walk in a room and look around for two minutes, it just isn’t the same. Before we leave you alone we would like to underline what should be evident: this is a plea  for diversity, complexity and change. While it might be inevitable to find a certain style,  material or image and to stick with it no matter what if you want to attend an art school or  to be picked-up by an art magazine, repeating the same little shit still remains repeating  the same little shit. So here we are, encouraging you to follow different paths.

The concept you just read is not much more than a protocol of a first meeting long before artists were contacted and selected. ‘Split personality’ in that sense was just ‘a name’ for  exhibiting different artistic practices of the same artists in different locations. However, the term ‘split personality’ guided the selection process in several ways. First of all the artists  selected are all somewhat multidisciplinary. Although tempted at times, we refrained ourselves from choosing to showcase the most apparent differences in their artistic work. Often the difference is rather subtle. Furthermore we selected a group of artists respectively a corpus of art work that addresses, reflects, broadens or deepens ‘Split personality’ with regards to content.

If you look at Alex Tennigkeit’s work for instance, you’ll be confronted with ‘The Self as Allegory’. She writes herself. “By painting myself, for example as a Nazi victim, I show the conflict between this persona and my individual character. The selected roles are in some way connected with my biography, but they also reflect the world I’m living in.” Fleur Helluin on the other hand leads us to a somewhat distorted and multiplied self in the screen, the same screen I’m staring at while writing this little text. We’ll see “the ‘I’ in the screen”, strangely calm and “gazing at its reflection”. Sally M. Jaber is occupied with individual perception and how different individual perceptions might interact and collide as you will find out engaging in her interactive piece here at ‘split personality’. One of Kae’s main themes are clones. Do we need to say more?”

Vernissage:

Freitag, 14. Dezember
18-22 Uhr im EXPO – Berthelsdorfer Str. 12, 12043 Berlin
19 Uhr bis Open End im HELMUT KOHL – Emser Str. 122/123, 12051 Berlin

Austellung:

Samstag und Sonntag jeweils
16-20 Uhr im EXPO
19 Uhr bis Open End im HELMUT KOHL

Abbildungen: 1. Alex Tennigkeit, 2. Sally M. Jaber, 3. Fleur Helluin, 4. Kae

Fleur Helluin // http://www.fleurhelluin.tumblr.com/
Sally M. Jaber // http://www.waardegeschiedenisdemensenvergeet.com/
Kae // http://www.kae-art.com/
Alex Tennigkeit // http://www.alextennigkeit.com/
EXPO – http://www.expo-berlin.com/
HELMUT KOHL – http://www.helmut-kohl-bar.de/