NOWs: Life Is a Staircase by Matthias Sohr

07 October - 19 November 2016 / Nows

Opening Reception: Thursday 6 October, 5 – 7.30pm

The Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) in London presents Riptide, a new exhibition from their 2016 ‘Artist of the Year’, Koo Jeong A. The artist presents 20 large-scale line drawings recontextualised from her book project Koo Jeong-A: R (2006). Transforming a solo exhibition into a dynamic collaborative project, Koo Jeong A invites a judicious selection of international artists to respond and exhibit alongside her existing works.

Participating artists include Kyung Roh Bannwart, Melissa Dubbin & Aaron S. Davidson, Yva Jung, Hanqing Ma & Mona Yoo, Martin Roth and Matthias Sohr.

The exhibition takes Koo Jeong A’s intricate drawing Civilising Process (2005) as its departure point, in which to explore topical issues concerning artistic practice and collaboration today. Published by Swiss Re, Koo Jeong A: R (2006) – made up of 1001 individual line drawings – refers to One Thousand and One Nights: the classic collection of Middle Eastern stories, folk tales, myths and legends dating from the 8th Century. Mirroring the process of storytelling – by nature spontaneous, responsive and heterogeneous – the artists respond to Koo Jeong A’s Civilising Process with site-specific installations, as well as existing works refigured within the space. Each response unearths alternative narratives within Koo Jeong A’s drawing, including Martin Roth’s untitled (persian rugs) installation, which sees a number of Persian rugs brought to life with the cultivation of grass. Through the work’s sensual qualities – the damp smell and the ever growing grass – Roth questions the complexities of documentation, and explores how we obtain, translate and communicate narratives from cultural objects. Reflecting on the global nature of the participating artists, Riptide describes the various clusters of opposing energies which meet to form the exhibition.

Installation details by Matthias Sohr:

Matthias Sohr: Life Is a Staircase, 2016 (installation detail). Photo Julien Gremaud

Life Is a Staircase (2016)

Solder resist mask on copper, epoxy resin and glass fibre, platform lift

In Life Is a Staircase, Matthias Sohr tries to gain access to a very material effect of Koo Jeong A’s drawings, notably to the colour of the fountain pen she made use of. Blue is the point of departure of Sohr’s series of monochromes industrially made from printed circuit board, a composite material that is at the core of each and every electronic device that surrounds us, no matter if big or small.

NOWs: Gletschermusik by Robert Lippok, Askat Zhetigen and Lillevan

17 October 2016 / Nows ⟶

photo: Lillevan.com 2008-2016 NOWs: Gletschermusik Musik: Robert Lippok & Askat Zhetigen (Kirgisien). Video: Lillevan 20:00 h Roter Salon in der Volksbühne | Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz | 10178 Berlin/Mitte Gletschermusik (Glacier Music) uses the sounds and images of Central Asia’s melting glaciers as source material and inspiration. Berlin’s Robert Lippok & Kyrgyz musician Askat Jetigen were invited to create an audio-visual performance and a series of concerts. The project promotes the exchange between science and the arts, creating awareness of the human-induced deterioration of our pristine environment and was instigated by the Goethe-Institutes in Tashkent and Almaty. The album crowns the 12 month traveling festival through the countries of Central Asia in 2013 featuring multimedial concerts, promoting dialogue between artists, scientists, nationalities, genres and traditions. The music Robert and Askat created together is magical and thematically relevant to the theme of melting glaciers, a fascinating blend of ancient Kyrgyz tradition and new musical ideas. After the first concerts it was obvious that a recording must be made and released, and here we are: the Gletschermusik recordings, also featuring a track by pianist SooJin Anjou – the piano in dialogue with the sounds of Central Asia’s melting glaciers. Gletscher Musik initiated by Goethe Institut Almaty & Tashkent explored Central Asia’s melting Glaciers, using the recorded sound of the glaciers a range of art events and symposia spread over 4 years, 5 countries and 60 artists. Featuring Omnibus Ensemble, Gebrüder Teichmann, Askat Jetigenov, Robert Lippok & Artyom Kim and many others. Tickets kosten 15,- Euro. photo: Lillevan.com 2008-2016 NOWs: Gletschermusik Musik: Robert Lippok & Askat Zhetigen (Kirgisien). Video: Lillevan 20:00 h Roter Salon in der Volksbühne | Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz | 10178 Berlin/Mitte Gletschermusik (Glacier Music) uses the sounds and images of Central Asia’s melting glaciers as source material and inspiration. Berlin’s Robert Lippok & Kyrgyz musician Askat Jetigen were invited to create an audio-visual performance and a series of concerts. The project promotes the exchange between science and the arts, creating awareness of the human-induced deterioration of our pristine environment and was instigated by the Goethe-Institutes in Tashkent and Almaty. The album crowns the 12 month traveling festival through the countries of Central Asia in 2013 featuring multimedial concerts, promoting dialogue between artists, scientists, nationalities, genres and traditions. The music Robert and Askat created together is magical and thematically relevant to the theme of melting glaciers, a fascinating blend of ancient Kyrgyz tradition and new musical ideas. After the first concerts it was obvious that a recording must be made and released, and here we are: the Gletschermusik recordings, also featuring a track by pianist SooJin Anjou – the piano in dialogue with the sounds of Central Asia’s melting glaciers. Gletscher Musik initiated by Goethe Institut Almaty & Tashkent explored Central Asia’s melting Glaciers, using the recorded sound of the glaciers a range of art events and symposia spread over 4 years, 5 countries and 60 artists. Featuring Omnibus Ensemble, Gebrüder Teichmann, Askat Jetigenov, Robert Lippok & Artyom Kim and many others. Tickets kosten 15,- Euro.

NOWs: Zirkon Kompass by Markus Hoffmann

07 - 09 October 2016 / Nows ⟶

NOWs: Markus Hoffmann: Zirkon Kompass, 2015 Markus Hoffmann winner of Celeste Art Prize 2016 – Installation, Sculpture & Performance Prize; awards and final exhibition 7-9 October, The Bargehouse, OXO Tower Wharf, London – Markus Hoffmann: Zirkon Kompass, 2015 Filled with different zircon sands from all the continents of the world, the work Zirkon Kompass consists of sixteen hourglasses that are suspended from the ceiling. Positioned at eye level, the hourglasses are arranged in a circle with each object at the quarter-wind point on a 16-wind compass rose. A thin steel rope is mounted at the narrowest point of each hourglass, keeping them in horizontal equilibrium. Zircon minerals are the oldest known materials on Earth. Resistant to chemical changes, they offer a window into time going back as far as 4.4 billion years ago. Zircon is omnipresent in all stones and contains the radioactive elements uranium and thorium in minute amounts – the clock within the zircon. With the passage of time, it converts to the element lead. In the work both the semiotics of the hourglass as a metaphor for vanity and the utility as scientific instrumentation are transformed. Instead, the sand forms a seemingly stable horizon: a layer representing the oldest stratum we could hypothetically stand on. While the hourglass has lost its socially determined function, the zircon clock invisibly continues to transform, subconsciously reminding the viewers of their precious and yet transient time on earth. The zircon is a metaphorical semblance of the element of time. As the oldest material on the planet, it establishes an abstract meaning of time that is limited by the current capabilities of scientific research. It thus inherently addresses the relative stability of scientific knowledge, which depends on technological progress and the creation of measurement methods, enabling us to expand our limited horizon. Paradoxically, zircon is used to create storage vessels that may be durable enough to hold the radioactive waste products of our species – the future fossils of the Anthropocene. But even zircon is not eternally durable. Everything eventually decays, and even permanence becomes relative. Celeste Prize 2016, 8th edition, curated by Ellen Blumenstein, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. The jury: Juliana Bardolim, Marc Bembekoff, Sandro Droschl, Chris Fitzpatrick, Martin Germann, Felix Hoffmann, Chiara Ianeselli, Marianna Liosi, Zane Onckule, Barbara Piwowarska, Alya Sebti, Moritz Wesseler. NOWs: Markus Hoffmann: Zirkon Kompass, 2015 Markus Hoffmann winner of Celeste Art Prize 2016 – Installation, Sculpture & Performance Prize; awards and final exhibition 7-9 October, The Bargehouse, OXO Tower Wharf, London – Markus Hoffmann: Zirkon Kompass, 2015 Filled with different zircon sands from all the continents of the world, the work Zirkon Kompass consists of sixteen hourglasses that are suspended from the ceiling. Positioned at eye level, the hourglasses are arranged in a circle with each object at the quarter-wind point on a 16-wind compass rose. A thin steel rope is mounted at the narrowest point of each hourglass, keeping them in horizontal equilibrium. Zircon minerals are the oldest known materials on Earth. Resistant to chemical changes, they offer a window into time going back as far as 4.4 billion years ago. Zircon is omnipresent in all stones and contains the radioactive elements uranium and thorium in minute amounts – the clock within the zircon. With the passage of time, it converts to the element lead. In the work both the semiotics of the hourglass as a metaphor for vanity and the utility as scientific instrumentation are transformed. Instead, the sand forms a seemingly stable horizon: a layer representing the oldest stratum we could hypothetically stand on. While the hourglass has lost its socially determined function, the zircon clock invisibly continues to transform, subconsciously reminding the viewers of their precious and yet transient time on earth. The zircon is a metaphorical semblance of the element of time. As the oldest material on the planet, it establishes an abstract meaning of time that is limited by the current capabilities of scientific research. It thus inherently addresses the relative stability of scientific knowledge, which depends on technological progress and the creation of measurement methods, enabling us to expand our limited horizon. Paradoxically, zircon is used to create storage vessels that may be durable enough to hold the radioactive waste products of our species – the future fossils of the Anthropocene. But even zircon is not eternally durable. Everything eventually decays, and even permanence becomes relative. Celeste Prize 2016, 8th edition, curated by Ellen Blumenstein, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. The jury: Juliana Bardolim, Marc Bembekoff, Sandro Droschl, Chris Fitzpatrick, Martin Germann, Felix Hoffmann, Chiara Ianeselli, Marianna Liosi, Zane Onckule, Barbara Piwowarska, Alya Sebti, Moritz Wesseler.

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NOWs: Life Is a Staircase by Matthias Sohr

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