Andreas Greiner exhibition in Berlin - Dittrich & Schlechtriem Gallery till the 23rd of June 2018.

I was invited to a talking event. When I arrived at the venue I barged into the room  in which I thought the event was taking place only to find that there was a film screening instead. I interrupted the film screening but instead of being kicked out by the organisers they asked me to stay and watch the film. The film director came forward with two other people on his team and said we need someone who is not part of the group to give an honest opinion about the film; if you see anything that doesn't look right, or sound right, please let us know, we are fed up with people telling us how wonderful our film is  and we just want an honest opinion before showing it to a wider audience. So I said ok as I was told the original event I was supposed to attend had been moved. I watched the entire film which actually was very good. At the end the film director and his team came forward and said: what did you think? I said it's very good, I enjoyed it but there is a scene towards the middle of the film that is not right, the sequence is not right. Great they said, Thanks for that, we will rectify it. They gave me some free tickets for another event, which was cool!

Photo By Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest

Andreas Greiner is a Berlin based artist who works with bacteria, as for example in his work 'Roundabout' a gyroscope sculpture that when moved spins a cube containing bioluminescent bacteria to create a natural glow. The photographs entitled 'Entladung' are a series of explosions see pic above that took place in different parts of Berlin between 2012-2013; 'Flygate' depicts a machine that lets flies get out of the room through a motorised gate managed by a camera sensor. He takes photographs of chickens, making portraits of them, including radiography images of their skeletons, DNA sequencing from a liver sample, and portraits of living entities.

Photo by Andreas Greiner  courtesy of http://www.andreasgreiner.com

These are entitled Studie (Portrait) zur Singularitat des Tieres and include pictures that range from microscopic algae to a rooster called Heinrich see pic above. Chickens are ancient birds in terms of evolution; nowadays, sadly, one associates them with mass production and consumption and fattening of the birds for their commercial value. It took him some time to find someone who gave him a chicken that had died in an industrial plant due to its rapidly  acquired body weight which had led to the chicken's legs breaking. He cleaned the chicken, froze it, and took it to a laboratory for a precise CT scan, thereby producing a final 3D model. The dead chicken had turned into a digital archive.

The live element of the exhibition performs, it is about time and space and the process of living. The works defy traditional sculpture, movement is an intrinsic part of them showing the abnormal life span of the industrial chicken. He has a keen interest in the microscopic world; he grows his own bioluminescent algae for use in his work see pic below. We use algae in food, in gardening. He is also trying to show  organisms as individuals, seen as distinctive subjects and not just as what they bring in terms of consumption for humans.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest

The portrait series highlights the unseen, making visible something that is usually overlooked and taken for granted. A close bond between humans and one of the oldest living beings on the planet is suggested. His work requires specialised technology and working at close contact with scientists and different institutions. He utilises scientific methods combined with aesthetic vision. Examples of this  are his canvases that include bacteria cultures see pic below which are left to develop under natural processes, creating living artworks, which are open to different futures including unanticipated accidents.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest.

He seeks to see beauty in the unexpected, in the unnoticed everyday, and his works make you think about the relationship between humans and other lifeforms on the planet; what are the boundaries between man & other living creatures? The human footprint is everywhere and is the overpowering creative force on the planet, impacting on other living creatures. Humans are now recreating nature and taking over from natural processes. He said in an interview: My view is rather characterised by my generation's estrangement from nature,  the dissolving border that man is creating between technology and nature.

In the exhibition at Dittrich & Schelechtriem entitled Hybrid Matter, this specific work looks at how humans manipulate and reconstruct nature through genetic engineering while speculating on the future of mankind's own genetic code. What is the essence of 'nature' in an age of digitalisation and synthetic biology? Nature has been modified by man - an example is genetically modified crops this showing human manipulation of nature for the benefit of humans.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Dittrich -Schlechtriem Gallery.

The first thing one sees in the exhibiton is Replicating Seed which shows cell division. This is followed by Edit Yourself KIT. Also in the main room is: The Molecular Ordering of Computational Plants created in collaboration with Tyler Friedman, who worked on the music and text.

Along the walls are a new series of photographs showing magnified microscopic cellular clusters, cancer tumour cells, and syntethic bacteria created by the Craig Venter Institute. As with the pictures of chickens these are considered to be portraits in their own right.
http://www.dittrich-schlechtriem.com/exhibitions/hybrid-matter/

Karine Maussiere's polaroids exhibition till 5th June at Galleria Gallerati, Rome + Francis Alys on walking.

In this exhibition there is a selection of Karine Maussiere's polaroids at Galleria Gallerati in Rome. These are minimalist, the individual pictures combine to produce a sense of the infinite. Her working practice is about walking so as to absorb the landscape around her.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

The polaroids, which are small and pale, give you a sense of the calm and sublime. In the exhibition in Rome at Galleria Gallerati titled Hyberborees, Water, and Mountains, Flowers the horizon is seen as an open space, the surrounding landscape to be taken in, nature as sublime, intangibly calm. Sometimes nature envelops, sometimes - in the case of the mountain peaks - it makes you giddy due to their height.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

Photography here is used as detractive, in a zen way to actually accentuate the beauty of the landscape. She combines this with the walking to create gaps between the images. These gaps represent a fraction of displacement. The images are then reassembled to give a high of the subliminal landscape. The images together make you think of a log book, a diary of her journey across the landscape, creating a story, a narrative, through reassembled images. Taking a photograph as an act of truth but then reassembling the images makes you think  of the relation between memory and fiction.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

In the walk Le Temps en Friches, part of her residency in Instres in 2013, where she criss-crossed the GR2013 on the Western territory of the sea of Berre, she observes the changes taking place in this territory. This area experienced its economy based on traditional activities such as managing the salt marshes, and soda plants; this has been replaced over time by an industrial economy.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

Through her polaroids she observes the buildings left behind. With any one polaroid she does not show the whole building but selects a section of the building and combines the polaroids together to form one picture. She is interested in architectural heritage. Her walks are a journey of discovery. She uses the small format of Instant Mini and enjoys the instantaneous process of the polaroid which she feels accentuates the ghostly appearance of the buildings she encounters. The images, put together and carefully framed, create a process which reinforces the presentation of the unsympathetic impact on the landscape of the derelict buildings, which in fact are creating a wasteland. The detritus of civilisation.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

We might compare this with the work of Francis Alys (as both artists use walking in their practice), a conceptual Belgian artist, where he walked the streets of London, a busy urban environment, and took pictures showing a collection of neighbourhoods and a personal view of the city. His walks are transformational; the alien surroundings are turned into a space tailored to human dimensions, he maps the city through his walks. A walk is a complete action in itself and his walk changes the space. He is influenced by the Flaneurs and the Situationist and their free flowing approach. He uses photography to document the ephemeral. First the performance, then the photograph, a document that will continue the initial work inside the gallery, basically a photographic documentation of the original action. Like for example in Los Zapatos Magneticos 1994 see pic. below where he was walking the streets of  Mexico City with magnetic shoes and collecting coins along the way, the shoes represented recycling and they are a reflection on consumerism, the attraction of consumerism.

Francis Alys photo courtesy of Pinterest

Or for example his other work titled Paradox of Praxis 1 1997 see pic. below. In the photographs he is seen rolling a block of ice along the street for 6 or 7 hours till it melts, mimicking the work of the labourers in the city who spend most of their time pulling and pushing carts. The final result in both cases is the same, nothing to show for it because the ice has disappeared. Walking in this sense is a form of resistance as in our contemporary society all our technology and life is based on speed. Walking is immediate and anybody can do it,  there is nothing consumerist about it.

Francis Alys courtesy of Pinterest

He is a story teller. In other photographs you see him from afar or from behind. Another time he stood still in the middle of a square until a crowd formed around him,  people dash through the cityscape not really noticing their surroundings, but some of them stopped and engaged with him, the still figure in the middle of the square, and then he left. This shows that the engagement to other people in his work is important. His work is not fixed in one place, he has walked through several cities including London, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Jerusalem and Copenhagen. He enacted the walks in different parts of London with a 5 year project for Artangel in 2005 observing the everyday, the inhabitants' daily rituals. The work came under the title of 7 Walks,  where he observed and engaged in everyday life. His action creates something from nothing. Performing his own futility and insignificance he creates a story. In one we see a photograph of him playing with a drumstick on the railings on a West London House see pic. below. another critique on the capitalist wealthy society obsessed with speed and achievement.

Francys Alys photo courtesy of Pinterest

There is organisation in this work unlike the Flanuers walks. He said to have been overwhelmed by the immensity of the city of London, the combination of old traditional ceremonies, like the changing of the guards, with technology and modern buildings, titled Guards 2004-2005 see pic. below. He uses a counter productive approach for example that of tapping the drumstick against the railing. He observed the increasing homogenisation of London and positioned himself as an actor, creating scenarios. See website: francisalys.com

Photo by Francis Alys courtesy of Pinterest