erinnerungsspeicher

Ruth Axelrod, Elisabeth Bader, Silke Bartsch, Andreas Gogol, Marion Kahnemann, Jinsuk Kang, Henning Kappenberg, Jakob Kirchheim, and Frank Mardaus

Coordinators: Deborah S. Phillips and Ieva Jansone

Opening: November 1, 2013, at 7:30 PM

NachtundNebel: (changed opening hours) Saturday, November 2, 6 PM - 12 AM

Regular opening hours:
Wednesday - Sunday: 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Page Evening: Wednesday, November 13, 2013, at 7:30 PM. Experience artists' books and a performance by Anja Dornieden, Juan David Gonzalez-Monroy.

Closing event: November 24, 2013, at 7:30 PM with an artist talk and the drawing of the art lottery.

Artists are notorious collectors. We have assembled works in which they explore the order of their respective worlds through words, images, or materials, which then complement each other in the exhibition. The books and installations on display serve as a kind of memory archive. They process personal works and found objects into various, sometimes intimate assemblages.

The initial idea was to showcase artists' books in context while addressing different aspects of a passion for collecting. Our research then led us to broader works that focus on the handling or creation of archives, or the act of archiving itself. This exhibition is an attempt to examine the urge to collect across different media. Our result introduces viewers to various cultural spheres, addresses the past, and presents it in a tactile manner. These are tangible memories that invite exploration.

Ruth Axelrod typically creates her artworks as collages made from found objects. "The streets in my neighborhood Brooklyn/New York and the urban landfill in Monterey/Massachusetts are my best material sources. I collect randomly for years until I finally piece the items together. Sometimes I also create small collages for special occasions, like a birthday or an art event. For the piece shown at kunstraum t27, I wanted to design a fertility talisman for my sister, providing her with a helpful tool."

Elisabeth Bader presents books created during a stay in Spain: a kind of diary that unites important places, moments, and emotions, composed of materials found on-site (maps, measuring tapes, packaging, threads, paper scraps, prints and fragments, embossings, small stories in layers, transparency, permeability, and thick layers, special connections, and of course, playful elements). None of my works have a classic book form; rather, they consist of special folds and treatments of front and back covers.

Silke Bartsch: "Schöner gesunden" is inspired by the project that I sketched in this book. It aimed to make the foyer area of a hospital experienceable through many senses and to provide impulses for communication and encounters in such a place.

Andreas Gogol had been traveling for a while when he began to wonder: "What are cuddle vitamins?", "Is there a power highway?", and "What happens in speed weeks?". These extraordinary yet commonly occurring word creations like Chipsi Super or Wurstthekenpass are found, cut out, and collected by him from advertisements and magazines. This project resulted in a visual text work in A5 format and a limited edition audio piece.

Marion Kahnemann's "Archive of a Contaminated History" is part of a larger art project that deals with Jewish traces in the Chernobyl region, historical overlays, and the ambivalence of language. Her work addresses not only the reactor accident and its immediate consequences but also questions of embedding in a larger historical context and its role in the identity formation of contemporary Ukraine, a re-examination in formerly multi-ethnic societies, and the helplessness of language in dealing with disasters.

Jinsuk Kang uses handmade traditional Korean paper boxes, which can also serve as containers or suitcases – the Bottari. When someone opens a Bottari, they can find traces of the artist related to the manufacturing process. Memories and traces are meant to be preserved.

In his "Labels, Stars, Manchuria Book," Henning Kappenberg created a work from his own destroyed artworks, which he cut up and recombined with Chinese labels and fragments of maps.

Graphic designer Jakob Kirchheim has developed the habit over the years of applying excess paint onto paper with a spatula after a printing process, spreading, compressing, or otherwise creating something with it. The spatula gestures now on display stand alone or relate to drawn, imagined printing forms.

Frank Mardaus's work "Confidential – For Official Use Only" contains meticulously numbered diary texts and photographic negatives from the last forty years, compressed onto a small stack of microfiche.