4 Spaces - 4 Artists

November 12. - December 1. 2000

Press photos

The participating artists:

Lotta Antonsson (S), 
Diego Castro (D), 
Lise Harlev (DK),
Cornelia Schmidt-Bleek (D)

 

The artists describe themselves as follows:

Lotta Antonsson (S)
Lotta Antonsson combines, frequently, photography with other mediums. Often, her works are charged with psychological tension. At Sparwasser HQ, Antonsson presents pictures/models that investigate the secret, emotional borderlines of personality. Lotta Antonsson was born in Sweden in 1963; she lives in Berlin.

 

Diego S. Castro (D)
Themes of self-staging and hedonistic escape, as performed by young men, are visible in the works of Diego S. Castro, forming a vocabulary for the artist's investigation of gender and, in particular, masculinity. Castro is interested in romantic self-staging by teenagers, their almost unhealthy over-identification with idols, and how teenagers, through strategies of reality, escape, and ritual, transgress the limits of self-destruction. The archetype of the teenage-boy reccurs in Castros works; the artist uses himself as a model, incorporating autobiographical references both in the creation of fictional characters (a mixing of stereotypes), and in more straightforward performances. Castro presents an ironic view on the processes of growing, aging, and becoming a man. He creates a Casper David Friedrich tableau especially for the exhibition. Castro lives in Berlin.

 

Lise Harlev (DK)
Lise Harlev shows three works that investigate the speaking of a foreign language and the questions raised consequently about translation, language politics, and language identity. The works consider foreign language in general and comment on the German language in particular.

 

Cornelia Schmidt-Bleek (D)
An egg and spoon race, a parade, jumping through tires, cheering at a rugby game are leisure activities or rituals familiar to us in the western world. These occasions can be places of communication, bringing together local, regional, and international communities. The Rose Parade in Pasadena, California examplifies the unifying aspect of leisure events. An annual event, the Rose Parade assembles people in California (and in front of their television screens) to celebrate sunshine and flowers, symbolized by the procession of flower-covered floats. A model float by Schmidt-Bleek is exhibited at Sparwasser HQ in Berlin. The vehicle is decorated not only with flowers and photos of leisure activities from the far-off country of New Zealand, but also provides party refreshments on the opening night of the exhibition.