Vernissagen | Wartist

Lisa Glauer: “…later, she will build nuclear vessels” (OKK Berlin)

From 22 February until 3 March 2013, Berlin-based gallery Organ kritischer Kunst (OKK, organ of critical arts) presents the exhibition “…später baut sie Atomschiffe” (…later, she will build nuclear vessels” with works by Lisa Glauer. The exhibition will be opened with the performance “experimental production of evidence by visualisation”. Lisa Glauer uses breast milk as material for her works. This project is part of her PhD dissertation on Art and Design at Bauhaus University Weimar.

Two Years Later – Arab Spring Under Fire? (BICC Bonn)

From 21 February until 30 April 2013, Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) presents photos by Ahmed Khalifa. On the occasion of the opening, a panel discussion on “Two Years Later – Arab Spring Under Fire?”will be held. Working at BICC as a peace researcher, Khalifa was taking photos and documenting the Arab Spring and the Egyptian presidential elections.

Nach der Schlacht, Nähe Tahrir-Platz, Kairo, November 2011 (© Ahmed Khalifa)

2 + 2: Phoenix Chemnitz – A Peace Day Exhibition (Chemnitzer Künstlerbund)

On 12 February 2013, the exhibition “2 + 2: Phoenix Chemnitz” will open on the premises of Chemnitzer Künstlerbund (association of Chemnitz’s artists). In this established format, two local and two external artists meet to address a specific subject. This time, the Chemnitz Friedenstag (Chemnitz Peace Day) is this issue: on 5 March 1945, Chemnitz was severly damaged – more than 2,100 people died in this bombing. How can this central event be remembered? What has contemporary art to say on war? Peggy Albrecht (* 1974) and Rose-Marie Güttler (* 1978) are the two local artists in this show, while Jan Bejšovec (* 1975, Konfliktstoff) and Martin Bayer (* 1971, Wartist) from Berlin provide external perspectives. Continue reading

Otto Herrmann: The Damned (E.M.Remarque-Friedenszentrum, Osnabrück)

On 31 Januar 2013, the exhibition “Die Verdammten” (The Damned) with lithographs by Otto Herrmann (1899-1995) will be opened at Erich Maria Remarque-Friedenszentrum (E.M.Remarque Peace Centre) in Osnabrück. The cycle was made in the late 1940s and thus immediately after the Second World War. The artist was inspired by Theodor Plievier’s novel “Stalingrad”. 70years after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, the majority of these works will finally be presented to the public.

Otto Herrmann: Im Schutz der Toten (© Otto & Maria Herrmann Stiftung)

Steve McCurry: In the Flow of Time (Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg)

From 19 January until 16 June 2013, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg shows the exhibition “In the Flow of Time – Photographs from Asia 1980-2011” with pictures by Steve McCurry. Thus, the colourful work by the US photographer (* 1950) will be presented in Germany for the very first time. The exhibition consists of 115 images by the Magnum photographer from countries such as Afghanistan, India, Cambodia, Kuwait, China or Nepal: “I see it was the vibrant colour of Asia that taught me to see and write in light”. While quite many of his photos appear to be arranged, he refuses this method and solely takes photos of moments happening, on which the exhibition’s title is referring to.

Ahmadi Oil Fields, Kuwait, 1991

Camels and oil fire, Kuwait, 1991

Sandwiched between blackened sand and sky, camels search for untainted shrubs and water in the burning oil fields of southern Kuwait. Their desperate foraging reflects the environmental plight of a region ravaged by the gulf war. Canby, Thomas Y. (August 1991)

"The first Gulf War taught us a new lesson in unconventional conflict. Saddam Hussain's army filled the skies of southern Kuwait with black poignant smoke from the burning oil lines. It was a powerful, debilitating symbol. And there was another. McCurry, who was covering the war, saw camels running in terror from the fires. Both images -whether of the fires or of the animals- were powerful representations of the chaos of that time. Central to McCurry's reputation as a journalist is his discipline to wait, and to search, and then to recognize the most telling image. The juxtaposition of the fire and smoke and camels running amok creates an icon of that war." - Phaidon 55

National Geographic, Vol. 180, No. 2, pgs. 2-3, August 1991, The Persian Gulf: After the Storm

Phaidon, 55, Iconic Images, final book_iconic, final print_milan, iconic photographs

As his army retreated from Kuwait, Saddam Hussein ordered the ignition of the oil fields that scatter the country. The effect was an ecological disaster of unimaginable scale. These camels are running from the fires. It is a futile effort: soon they will covered in oil that rails down from the sky.

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Alois Nebel – Graphic Novel by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromir 99 (AID Berlin + Czech Centre Berlin)

On 12 January 2013, the exhibition “Alois Nebel – Graphic Novel by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromir 99” will open on two parallel locations: Akademie für Illustration und Design Berlin (AID Berlin) and Tschechisches Zentrum Berlin (Czech Centre Berlin). Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír “Jaromir 99” Švejdík show the origination process of their successful three-volume graphic novel about the life of train director Alois Nebel (2003-2005), that has been made into a film in 2011 by Tomáš Luňák (and was awarded the European Film Award 2012 as best animated feature film. “Alois Nebel” addresses the issue of the forced displacement of Sudeten-Germans from Czechoslovakia after the end of the Second World War.

Jaromir 99 (* 1963) lives in Prague as comic artist, painter and musician. Jaroslav Rudiš (* 1972) works as author, screenwriter and playwright; he writes in Czech and German and lives in the Czech Republic and Germany. Continue reading “Alois Nebel – Graphic Novel by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromir 99 (AID Berlin + Czech Centre Berlin)”

Erik Schiemann: The Day is Coming (Sprechsaal, Berlin)

From 11 January to 10 March, Sprechsaal in Berlin presents photos by Erik Schiemann. The artist, born in 1963, is dedicating himself to the people, the traces and atmospheres in locations such as Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, Buchenwald and Belzec. His pictures show former inmates and young people, damaged lives and wounded landscapes. A selection of some 30 pictures from a series of 60 black and white photos will be shown: portraits, thoughts and landscapes from the past seven years, supplemented with parts of Schiemann’s work “c’était son monde” from 1995.

Wartist presents: “Peaceful Places” by Henning Kappenberg at ARD-Hauptstadtstudio, Berlin

We are pleased to announce our next exhibition at the both centrally located and well-visited ARD-Hauptstadtstudio in Berlin. The single show “Peaceful Places” of Berlin-based artist Henning Kappenberg circles around landscapes and maps: what do we see in landscapes, and what do we think we see? Maps, on the other hand, do always represent a political system. Curated by Martin Bayer, the exhibition will be opened on 17 January 2013.

o.T. (Guernica) © 2007 Henning Kappenberg (photo: © 2011 Martin Bayer)

Margaret Bourke-White: Photographs 1930-1945 (Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin)

RESCAN Date taken: 4/1945 Description: American soldiers w. rifles kneeling to pray amidst bombing rubble in the main body of Cologne Cathedral as an Army chaplain holds first mass since it bombing on Mar. 2. City: Cologne Country: Germany cr: Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images OWNED

From 18 January until 14 April 2013, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin presents the exhibition “Photographs 1930-1945” with numerous works by American Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971). In a male-dominated world, she successfully fought for her position: she shot the title of the very first Life magazine of November 1936 and continued to work for this and other magazines. Not the least her pictures from World War II became famous throughout the world.

Tony Vaccaro: Retrospective – 70 Years of Photography (Willy-Brandt-Haus Berlin)

© Tony Vaccaro, Camilla-Mayer-Truppe beim „Todeslauf”, Frankfurt/Main, March 1948

From 22 November 2012 until 27 January 2013, Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus Berlin presents a retrospective with 100 photos spanning seven decades by the US photographer Tony Vaccaro. Not the least in Germany, Vaccaro – who will turn 90 years on 20 December this year – is known best for his pictures from the Second World War and post-war Germany: since the Normandy landings in 1944, he fought in the European theatre of war. Until 1949, he worked for Weekend, a supplement to the magazine Stars and Stripes. After his return to the USA, he was photographer for magazines such as Life, Look and Flair.

Continue reading “Tony Vaccaro: Retrospective – 70 Years of Photography (Willy-Brandt-Haus Berlin)”