Every year, Preview Berlin brings attention to promising students from the leading art schools in Germany. Stefan Stark, a recent photography graduate, is exhibiting his photographs printed onto hard surfaces. Absolute Geography/ Total Geometry is a series based on his travels in Asia, featuring European architecture reproduced at Chinese tourist attractions. Stark printed the photographs onto metal, which lends a painterly aesthetic to the work, and fitted them into imitation wood. Stark is interested in the outcomes related to layering material and transferring surfaces.
As an international art fair, Preview Berlin showcases a long list of international galleries together with Berlin based galleries. The Taiwanese gallery, Idolonstudio, based in Taipei, exhibited work for the first time in Berlin with the artists Kao Chung-Li and Kuo-Wei Lin. Kuo-Wei Lin works in Berlin with material taken from public spaces. Using a mirror within a photo booth his work displays an altered image of shared spaces. Kao Chung-Li’s work is very personal. Experimenting with film and photography he has created an archive relating to his father’s experiences in the Korean War. Chung-Li’s father survived the war but was shot in the head and still has the bullet lodged in his neck to this day. His work, consisting of projections and collected imagery, are documents representing individual stories within conflict.
Kim De Ruysscher is an artist representing himself at Preview Berlin. His sculptural objects are set up within his booth like items within a store. Ruysscher’s installation is site specific and influenced by the main concept of the art fair, to sell artwork. The stone sculptures are hand made by the artist and are designed to look like artist materials such as painting tubes, canvases, and packaging. Because the marble and limestone objects are handmade, imperfections are noticeably visible upon closer inspection, a stark comparison to the commercial world surrounding. A stone block for sculpting and artist materials are also on sale within his booth at discounted prices.
Through the week Preview Art Fair will be hosting video screenings and panel discussions at various locations. A major event at this Berlin Art Week, it is well worth a visit.
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Additional Information
PREVIEW BERLIN
Sep. 19 – 22, 2013
Tickets: 10 Euros
Opening Reception: Thursday, Sep. 19; 6-10pm (Tickets: 5 Euros)
Opernwerkstätten Berlin, Zinnowitzer Straße 9 (click here for map)
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Blog entry by Jazmina Figueroa, an artist and writer based in Berlin, photos by Emelie Flood in Berlin; Saturday, Sep. 21, 2013.
