Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon - Gallery news: Art Forum Berlin | October 31 - November 03, 2008

Art Forum Berlin | October 31 - November 03, 2008 | Entrance hall

Art Forum Berlin | October 31 - November 03, 2008 | Entrance hall

Noé Sendas

" The Sky from under Berlin ", 2008
Sculpture Installation

ART FORUM BERLIN's special exhibition "difference, what difference?" addresses the general question of the value and significance of art. For this reason, the showing reflects upon its special function as a mediating situation on the front between the market and discourse. Curator Hans-Jürgen Hafner poses the crucial questions: What is the function of a curated thematic show within an art fair framework? Is it possible that a work of art is not just seen as a commodity in such circumstances? "Difference, what difference?" as an exhibition format imitates the conventions of the art fair. Not just because its concept reflects on the structure ‚art fair', but also the means and form of display of the art works are derived from the usual conditions of an art fair.

With: Bettina Allamoda / Ian Anüll / Marcel Broodthaers / Victor Burgin / Jacques Charlier / Koenraad Dedobbeleer / Simona Denicolai / Ivo Provoost / Sylvie Fleury / Irene Fortuyn / Andrea Fraser / Peter Friedl / General Idea / Sabine Gross / Lasse Schmidt Hansen / Thomas Huber / Luis Jacob / Josef Kramhöller / Matthieu Laurette / Louise Lawler / Klaus Merkel / Verena Pfisterer / Falke Pisano / Charlotte Posenenske / Kelly Schacht / Noé Sendas / Milica Tomic / Nadim Vardag / Andy Warhol / Stephen Willats / Vadim Zakharov / Elmar Zimmermann / Heimo Zobernig

Noé Sendas_The Sky from Under Berlin, 2008

Mimesis, the foundation of our belief in art, has been increasingly replaced since the beginning of modernity by the "rhetorical" picture of the post-medieval era and the "mechanical" picture of Modernism. The associated idea of the subjective individual as focus, the central importance of the ego as viewer and as creator was not lost, astonishingly, but was spread around the world by photography and film. Nonetheless - or perhaps precisely for that reason - the shaping of the ego as face and body is in crisis. Historically rooted in Christian theology and thus problematical from the beginning, this was to be expected. But the dichotomy between body and soul has meanwhile turned into the contemporary dichotomy between the body and one of its organs, the brain. The fall of the ego is captured in Noé Sendas' most recent art figure The sky from Under Berlin (2008), based on the iconic image from Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire in which the angel Damiel voluntarily falls from heaven into the world. The sky from Under Berlin is the most recent of a series of faceless sculptures that, since 2000, Sendas has put in the waiting line of a sheer endless present. One of the first of these autopoetic figures that are turned away from this world was created, significantly enough, for an art fair and bore unmistakably autobiographical features. The desperate romantic idea of the artist's absolute identification with his work has meanwhile eroded. In its place has come the construction of reality from the stock of existing images, so that one can distance oneself from them. This implies that the artist no longer mirrors the world, but rather the world mirrors the artist.

Text: Susanne Prinz

For further information please contact:
Anne Maier at ART FORUM BERLIM

Messedamm 22, DE - 14055 Berlin

Tel.: +46-30-30 38 18 36/-37, Fax: +49-30-30 38 18 38

E-Mail: majer@messe-berlin.de
Site: www.art-forum-berlim.com

ART FORUM BERLIN

Date

October 31 - November 03, 2008

Professional Preview
October 30, 2008, 2-5 p.m.

Opening
October 30, 2008, 5-9 p.m.

Location

Exhibition Grounds Messe Berlin,

in the Halls 18-20, Hall 11.2 Special Exhibition House Trip,

Palais am Funkturm,
Entrance Hall 19 (Hammarskjöldplatz-Masurenallee)

Hours
October 31 - November 03, 2008, 12 noon - 8 p.m