Jesper Nordahl
There are two kinds of contemporary political art: the bold, know-all approach, which conveys a good feeling to its viewers, and painstakingly researched projects, in which art nears the limits of its traditional field of influence. In his exhibition in the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Jesper Nordahl presents the Women’s Center self-help project and the Kotmale hydro […]
What is Modern Art?
The exhibition What is Modern Art? (Group Show) shows wide-ranging research into art history – not on the basis of old masters and originals, but on that of anonymity and the copy. It gathers together a series of works and projects that could be regarded as milestones on the road to an art form for […]
Reiner Maria Matysik
At the Bethanien, expectations raised by art and culture as concerns their social potential have recently been at the core of a fierce ideological battle over how art can make itself useful and who may take advantage of it. Reacting to this public debate, Reiner Maria Matysik’s project presents itself less as an exhibition in […]
Tea Mäkipää
Man himself is a genus in the work of Tea Mäkipää, although the habitat of this species is the globalised cultural society of the West. In her often monumental installations, photographs, films and objects, man’s social behaviour and strategies for survival are critically illuminated alongside his attitude towards Nature and her creatures. Biological constants like […]
Lucas Lenglet
Lucas Lenglet’s spatial scenarios often remind us of operative base camps, protective set-ups for use in case of catastrophe, or temporary military hides – or they display the materials and objects characteristic of such places. With “tools for rescue/tools for hiding”, Lucas Lenglet has now realised an installation filling an entire room of the Künstlerhaus; […]
Jannicke Låker
In legend, the director has always adopted the role of the all-powerful potentate. The greater his genius, the less inhibited his autocratic regime over the actors on the set. Perhaps it is repressed envy that leads the average citizen to conceive film direction as a licence to sadism. Jannicke Låker does not harbour such prejudice, […]
Shin il Kim
If you have chosen – perhaps due to theoretical suspicions – not to imagine the fourth dimension before now, Shin il Kim still offers some insights into a more reserved, but equally challenging interim sphere. The artist, who was born in South Korea and lives in New York, actually works on the 2 1/2th dimension, […]
Thomas Kapielski
Counting up the great number of disciplines and genres in which Thomas Kapielski has worked since the seventies, he might be regarded as one of the last Berlin “universalists”. For a long time, he was known to insiders as a fine artist, qualified geographer and philologist, lecturer, musician and author; the initiated recommended his work […]
Yoshiaki Kaihatsu
For Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, art is not an object, but interaction. It permits itself to be used, demands dialogue, can transform itself into services and makes offers to the audience. Kaihatsu’s recipient is a user and not just an observer. This also applies to his project at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Here, Kaihatsu will appear as operator and […]
Maarten Janssen
In a museum, paintings are hung like sacred objects. Only art historians and others who are initiated are able to determine the history of their development from “secret” information. From the outset, Maarten Janssen revokes this aura of the complete. It is his aim to make processes of development and traces of construction visible in […]