November 12. - December 1. 2000
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.