Berlin has a vibrant new gallery quarter, just behind the Hambuger Bahnhof – Berlin's Museum für Gegenwart. The complex spanning Heidestrasse 41-52 was discovered three years ago by former Zurich based gallery owner Jürg Judin, who set up the generous Haunch of Venison Berlin enterprise on Heidestrasse and now runs the Nolan Judin Gallery next door. An impressive number of interesting galleries have moved in to the old factories and workshops, transforming the area in remarkably short time.
The general opening for the first shows of the year on January 9th attracted large crowds, scurrying back and forth between venues in a hurry to escape the freezing cold of the Berlin winter. The big attraction was surely the superb Bill Viola exhibition in the huge Haunch of Venison space. I had always been rather sceptical of Bill Viola's work - but this one here really won me over through sheer beauty, depth, subtle humour and stupendous technical skill.
As grand as this Viola show is, I want to focus on an exhibition by a lesser-known artist at the Nolan Judin Gallery, just across the yard from Haunch of Venison. The artist is my colleague Uwe Wittwer and the show is titled "Verwehung" (drift).
Wittwer's work on show is based on photographs from Eastern Prussia, dating from around 1935 - 1945. The images depict the seemingly idyllic life of members of the local bourgeoisie – mostly Nazis – up to the Russian invasion.
The focus of Wittwer's Watercolours and Inkjetprints is on everyday subjects: children sledging, hunt scenes, a boat on the river, a merry-go-round... Only now and then there's a glimpse of a Nazi uniform or a scorched building. The seemingly banal subjects do not lessen the darkness radiating from the pictures; even without background knowledge, there is a general feeling of unease coming from the works. Wittwer has truly sussed the art of making beautiful pictures simmer with evil.
It is not all darkness though in Wittwer's world. There's an almost humorous thread, which – albeit its traceable connection to the subject of the show – strengthens the autonomy of the single image, easing it away from too much history and politics. Take the figurines for example, the porcelain statues generally admired by the burgeoisie and despised by those with opposing lifestyles: In one large-scale watercolour, we see two figurines – man and woman – engaged in a teasing dance at a masked ball. Wittwer portrays the pair in a way that makes them seem engaged in a lethal struggle, where the woman's fan becomes a bludgeon with which she is about to batter the man after ripping off his mask. This subtle satirical aspect returns in a number of works throughout the show, see for example the boy missing from the group of boys playing the harmonica in the entrance, – you will find him in the last room, playing his instrument between a dead stag and a rocking horse.
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Uwe Wittwer, «Figurine», 2008, Watercolour, 179 x 152 cm |
The show is intriguingly complex, because its subject touches on a burning issue (particularly in Germany) from recent history, yet – with the risk of this becoming a catchphrase for Uwe Wittwer – stronger than ever before in Wittwer's work, this show is about images, – about what we make of them, how images influence each other and how they fight for a place in our memory.
In this show, even pictures that are not obviously referential to works by other artists, begin to shove their way through our minds, until they find a spot next to a better-known picture. It is so, that your average woman walking down the steps in that Eastern Prussian forest ("Grosse Waldtreppe") demands to be seen next to Richter's and Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase", or the man steering his boat ("Boot negativ") through a river near Königsberg (Kalingrad), might as well be steering towards Böcklin's "Isle of the Dead".
Uwe Wittwer, "Boot negativ", 2008, Inkjet, 150 x 229 cm
From my own reaction as well as from numerous discussions overheard between visitors, it can be said that this exhibition, which at first seemed so cool and tidy, really strikes a nerve with a lot of people. This may be what one should expect from any exhibition, yet I find it remarkable, how strong the reactions were and how thorough the work was debated on the spot.
The exhibition is accompanied by a limited edition of 500 books, 33 of which come with an Inkjet print. The English translation of Heinz Stahlhut's text is available for download from uwewittwer.com
See photos of the entire exhibition here. All photos by Kevin Mueller, except "Heidestrasse buildings by night" by Sarah Huber.
The Uwe Wittwer show ended on February 14th. The upcoming exhibition at Nolan Judin Berlin is "George Grosz - The Years in America, 1933 - 1958" February 28th - April 25th. Bill Viola at Haunch of Venison Berlin runs until February 21st, followed by Adam Pendleton from February 28th.
The Heidestrasse Galleries:
AA Galleries, Bereznitsky, Edition Block, Fruehsorge, Hamish Morrison Galerie, Haunch of Venison, Infernoesque, Nolan Judin Berlin, Oswald, Plan B, Schink Schauraum, Galerie Schuster, Tanas, Tape, Zern.
For more information visit the following websites:
heidestrasse.com | nolan-judin.com | haunchofvenison.com | uwewittwer.com
