TREASURE
A multidisciplinary exhibition of 10 international Art - Pirates
"… the object is picked from its utility context and thrown by waves to the shore, contains only the advantage of neglect, an unusable object prepared for all this nothing that is alive. Being within the border of absurd self-existence. An object that moves un-silent is the first step toward art" Jean BazanThe 21’s century is the age of one -night hoarders. All is available, all is disposable. Factory lines turn out millions of fantastic objects of desire, to be discarded promptly. People manning those factories, keyboards, mines, phones, fields and cameras, they too are temporary beings – they are valuable only when used. To be constantly discarded. Replaced.
The proprietors and purchasers of items themselves are not immune- they only exist as long as their bank balance or tinsel morsels of fame hold true. Memories, identities, vocations, emotions - they all turn into an unsustainable mirage of themselves – shimmering matter with no real substance. Like dragons crouching on a pile of shiny objects – some priceless gems, some glittery glass – all we have left now is fools gold. Soon to be rendered redundant.
In the exhibition TREASURE, to be opened on the 17’s of October @ GDK Galerie der Künste in Potsdamer Stasse, a cloak-and-dagger curator and a group of 10 artists from Europe, Asia and the Middle East set our to search for sustainable value: They go treasure hunting.
Minna Gabriele Eichstätt (Germany) creates the sword of Excalibur from castaway shreds of glass found on the streets and by the sea- shore.
Alex & John Gailla (Switzerland) weaves from light and sounds an installation of blood cell like shapes: Floating in a surprising perspective.
Maayan Strauss, (Israel) is striving to capture the poetic elements hidden within the most practical, foul, and coveted treasure: OIL.
Wu Zhi (China) digs for treasure in the conflicts and affiliations between East and West, spurting a hybrid synthetics a brave new world of experiences and cognition
Zabo Chabiland, (France) Introduces the Void, a buried treasure lurking in the collective unconscious.
Michael Steger (Germany) sends us on an interactive treasure hunt and reconstructs the treasure chest in its function as a container of secret thoughts.
Amnon Friedman (Israel) renders the “sacred” water of The Sea of Galilee into a rare elusive treasure, juxtaposed with the ransomed wealth of drinking water looted and withheld from the people of Ramallah.
Noam Braslavsky (Germany) documents the tides of TIME harbouring a treasure buried in the sea. A treasure due to emerge only in 50 years - a mythological generation.
Avital Isakov (Israel) constructs a wasp nest from concrete, in reference to the constricting and aggressive urban jungle law of property owners vs. tenants and squatters. "It’s more efficient to destroy the nest than to deport wasps from your own property", she quotes Julia Crüsemann (Germany) deals with the endangered treasures of nature and creation itself – showing the inevitable cycle of life, growth and development contained in every small seed and cell and its iconisation.
The curator of the exhibition, Evegenia Ish Shalom, describes the conceptual thinking behind TREASURE:
“The concept of TREASURE and the deconstruction of value are deeply entrenched in the history of abstract art. One simply has to invoke “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich (1913) or the idea of ”object trouve”(“found object”) presented by Marcel Duchamp in 1914. A TREASURE can be all that one perceives as a precious object: a letter, a single sound, a drop of water on a hot day, or the finest craftwork from any material known to man. TREASURE is a transformation of raw material into art, often placed behind lock and key, no longer mortal, no longer an integral part of life- a relic. This is no less then Alchemy – turning common earth into gleaming gold.”“In the exhibition TREASURE we seek to explore diverse facets of personal treasures via three aspects of representation:
(1) The Object: found, stolen, or invented.
(2) The Treasure Chest/vault: Any container - material, tactile or conceptual - that holds and defines the treasure.
(3) The Story: the interpretation, which creates a treasure, its degree of value - be it a fairytale, a legend, a myth a norm, a law, or a stock exchange report. “
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