Opening 10. September at 7 pm

Exhibition: 11.09.-02.10.

Just as Jens Schubert’s intricate prints evoke the elusive nature of memory and fantasy, they also posit intuitive exploration as legitimate artistic strategy. His works – one-of-a-kind single leaf prints, series, installations or large-scale prints – create complex pictorial worlds through countless layering of colour prints with an impressive density of ornament, an exploration of a subtle range of nuances. In doing so, a process of foraying, layering, experimenting is an integral part of the creative method and of the finished work.
His strangely captivating prints show evidence of intimate knowledge of the printing craft, confidently reinventing its techniques.
Schubert’s elaborate method of playing with effects of layering and erasure constitutes a focussed artistic research in its own right.

He reappropriates the inherent but usually hidden process of trial-and-error in woodcut and linoprint to his own cause and claims the chance elements and cacophony that are seen in test prints as his own methodical modus operandi.
In its genesis, the work goes through many stages of being, as more and more layers are added, partially erasing and anulling each other, while simultaneously giving rise to the complex graphic compositions that appear on the surface of the finished work.
The woodcut or linocut thus becomes a tool, like a brush and palette, as Schubert orchestrates transparencies and opacities through multiple print layers, overlapping graphic elements and constructed surfaces.
The young Leipzig-based artist’s large-scale woodcuts and dense prints are animated by a vibrant tension between the traditional practice of reproduction graphic media and contemporary pop iconography.
Schubert has developed a broad graphic vocabulary with elements of high culture and art as well as the East German graphic craft tradition, which, using a technique analogue to sampling, he arranges in new surprising compositions.

———————————————————————————-

Während sich Jens Schuberts aufwendige Drucke thematisch mit der flüchtigen Natur von Erinnerung und Fantasie befassen, etablieren sie ebenso einen Prozess intuitiver Erforschung als legitime künstlerische Strategie. Seine Werke (Einzeldruckblätter, Installationen, großformatige Drucke) beschwören durch Überlagern unzähliger Druckschichten komplexe Bilderwelten herauf, gezeichnet von einer beeindruckenden ornamentalen Dichte und einer Vielfalt subtiler Nuancen. Somit sind Experimentieren und Überdrucken zentrale Bestandteile sowohl der künstlerischen Schaffensmethode als auch des vollendeten Werks.

Seine seltsam fesselnden Drucke bezeugen von einer engen Vertrautheit mit dem Druckhandwerk: souverän formuliert er dessen Techniken neu. Schuberts Arbeitsprozess, der mit Effekten von Farbüberlagerungen und Ausblenden spielerlisch experimentiert, stellt in sich eine selbstständige und konzentrierte künstlerische Recherche dar.

Er macht sich die üblicherweise verborgene Trial-and-Error-Methode, die der Drucktechnik innewohnt, für sein eigenes ästhetisches Ziel zu eigen und erklärt somit die Zufallselemente und Kakophonie, die in Probedrucken (test prints) offenbar sind, zu seiner eigenen methodischen Schaffensweise.
In seiner Genese durchläuft das Werk mit jeder zusätzlichen Druckschicht mehrere Etappen und Seinsformen, sich teilweise über- und gegenseitig ausblendend; so entstehen auf der Oberfläche nach und nach komplexe graphische Kompositionen, deren Tiefe nur erahnt werden kann.
Der Holz-oder Linoleumdruck wird somit zum Instrument, gleich einem Pinsel und Palette, mit denen Schubert Transparenz und Opazität orchestriert, mit Hilfe von mehrmaligem Überdrucken, sich überschneidenden grafischen Elementen und konstruierten Oberflächen.

Die großformatigen Werke und dichten Drucke des jungen Leipziger Künstlers sind beseelt durch ein Spannungsverhältnis zwischen dem traditionsreichen Handwerk der Reproduktionsgrafik und gegenwärtiger Pop-Ikonographie.
Schubert hat ein weites Bildvokabular aus Elementen sud Kunst-und Kulturgeschichte sowie Westdeutscher Grafiktradition entwickelt, die er in einer Technik, die dem Sampling nicht weit entfernt ist, zu neuen überraschenden Arrangements komponiert.

Bongoût
Torstr 110
10119 Berlin – Germany
www.bongout.org

Bongoût Gallery in collaboration with curator Carolina Hellsgård proudly presents the second installment of its series of film screenings »Outside the Box«. Over the course of three evenings, we will continue our exploration of contemporary perspectives on short film and video art.

In this summer program, we will present 26 international short films that utilize a variety of filmic strategies to exploit the narrative and formal potential of film. An entire program is devoted to Swedish film production, in addition to the two international programs that will showcase films from South Korea, Cuba, Germany, Russia and the US among others.

Friday 16. July at 9 pm | Swedish film program »Nordic Topographies«

The Swedish film program »Nordic Topographies« showcases an exciting cross section of contemporary filmic visions by Swedish filmmakers. It covers a great deal of subject matters and film genres, including art, porn, animation, fiction as well as documentary films. Some of the films take place in such diverse places as Thailand, Lapland and the US. Other films utilize the confined space of a car, the living room or just the bed, to tell captivating stories.

Featured Swedish filmmakers include: Annika Ström, Susanna Wallin, Johannes Nyholm, Pella Kågerman, Ruben Östlund, Jens Jonsson, Hanna Heilborn, David Aronowitsch, Sara Preibsch and Johanna Aust.

Saturday 17 July at 9 pm | International film program »World dominance«

The international program »World dominance« presents a wide spectrum of film making; from 16mm film and low-fi video to advanced digital technologies that push cinema to its limits. Several of the films display protagonists that seem to exist in a state of limbo, alternating between the adolescent and adult world, the twilight moment between wake and dream or even digital layers of reality. Other films concentrate on the reality that is present, may it be as an existence trapped in a small body or as conjoined twins.

»World dominance« presents films by the American filmmakers Harmony Korine and Eliza Hittman, the legendary Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, experimental work by the Norwegian filmmaker Inger Lise Hansen and Paris-based Vincent Moon. It furthermore showcases work by the German filmmakers Astrid Rieger and Ute Ströer as well as the alien resident Vlad Kromatika.

Sunday 18 July at 9 pm | International film program »Crashing visions«

The international film program »Crashing visions« deals with themes like violence, pain and shattered illusions in various ways, often involving a great deal of humor and dark comedic undertones. Formally it is a diverse program, presenting animation, experimental, performance, documentary as well as fiction work.

The second part of the international film program »Crashing visions« features German films from the artist duo Markus Löffler and Andree Korpys, as well as Berlin-based Helene Hegemann and Hanna Doose. The program showcases international films by South Korean director Nayoon Rhee, US based experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeder and Australian artist Jemima Wyman. It also includes a Berlin documentary by American director Julius Onah, and a rarely shown short film by the legendary UK-German performance group Gob Squad.

——————-

TORSTR. 103, MITTE, U-BHF- ROSENTHALER PLATZ
030 280 93 758, info@bongout.org, www.bongout.org

DAVID SANDLIN “SLEEP O’HISTORY”

Opening Friday 28. May at 7 pm
Exhibition 28.5 – 10.7

Bongoût Gallery is proud to present New York artist David Sandlin in his first exhibition in Berlin. He will be showing his books; new paintings; “puritanical novelty items”; and a collection of drawings from his 2006 book An Alphabetical Ballad of Carnality.
This will be the first major showing of Sandlin’s artist’s-book opus A Sinner’s Progress, an eight-volume series comprised mostly of large-scale hand-printed books, including his most recent work, Slumburbia, a nine-meter silkscreened panorama of sloth and indolence in sumptuous hand-separated color silkscreen.
David Sandlin floats between the worlds of painting, printmaking, comics, and artist’s books. Since he began his career in the 1980s, visual narrative, usually nonlinear, has been a core component of his work. He uses it as a structural device to build content and express ideas while still being able to experiment with form, using symbolism and allegory to amplify his social commentary.
Sandlin’s books range in form from complex hand-bound silkscreened editions to offset pulp-style comics — each volume’s form in service to its content to some extent. “The book rather than the single image is the ideal medium for me to explore content and experiment with form”, says Sandlin.
Eccentric modernist painters like Beckmann, Ensor, and Guston have inspired Sandlin’s explorations into the mythic/transformative utility of personal history. His love of words and literature also draw him toward narrative: “I was born in Northern Ireland and moved to the USA, to Alabama, when I was a teenager — both places steeped in the narrative-literary tradition — so I’m not surprised that I need to incorporate words into my images. I love the wordplay used by Irish and southern American artists like James Joyce, Flann O’Brien, Flannery O’Connor, and Hank Williams”.
Other works in the exhibition reflect Sandlin’s love of narrative. “The Sleep of History”, a large work on canvas, is part of his ongoing series of epic paintings. Drawings upon which he based his abecedarium, An Alphabetical Ballad of Carnality, are also on display as a 22-meter-long panorama. He will also be showing components of “The Pur-Ton-o-Fun Co. Reading Room”, a multimedia installation piece based on A Sinner’s Progress.
David Sandlin’s work has been displayed in galleries and museums worldwide, and his comics have been published by Fantagraphics and Cornelius Editions and have also appeared in many anthologies, including Raw, Strapazin, The Ganzfeld, and The Best American Comics 2009. He is currently preparing to start his next book, a graphic novel, as a Fellow of the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, at the New York Public Library, in NYC.

David Sandlin, Sleep O’History, acrylic on canvas, 3 x 5 m.

David Sandlin, Slumburbia, silkscreen book.

David Sandlin, A Sinner’s Progress…the Beast Years of My Life, silkscreen book.

See more of Sandlin’s books here (Download PDF).

Bongoût Gallery
Torstr. 110
10119 Berlin
Germany

Bongoût’s 15 Year Anniversary
presents

Naked in the Gallery
Photographs by Christian Gfeller
Opening reception: Friday, April 16 at 7:00 pm
Exhibition dates: April 16 – May 22, 2010

AND

A Night of Film, Curated by Carolia Hellsgård

Artists included: Gregor Dashuber, Bjørn Melhus, Joanna Rytel, Scott Cummings, John Bock, Keren Cytter, Carolina Hellsgård, Janine Rostron, Mary Hestand

Exclusive show times: Friday, April 16
7:00 pm & 9:30 pm

GALLERY

Since april 1995, in the duration of 15 years, Bongoût has hand-printed over 100 silkscreened artist books, designed over 150 posters, 100 record covers, participated in 75 exhibitions, hosted 20 exhibitions, collaborated with countless artists, designers, musicians, movie directors, curators, institutions, moved through 3 cities, and now invite you to celebrate at their Berlin-Mitte location.

Since the opening of the show space in 2008, the rough walls of 110 Torstrasse have hosted a range of solo and group exhibitions, from local to international artists. It has been an experimental space including numerous collaborative projects, guest curators and ideas defining art today.

Reacting to the energy behind each show, Christian Gfeller set out to capture and archive the space within each exhibition, with a series of photographs. To help him with this, he invited various nude models to play within the inspiration that each show uniquely created. What resulted was an explosion of energy, and a whole lot of fun. These photos are archived in 200 small slide records, arranged as precious samples of a time, not too long ago. The installation pays tribute to its own creation, allowing the viewer to interact with the inherent intimacy.

The entire body of Bongoût’s publications will be uniquely on display for viewing.

—–

FILM SCREENING
Curated by Carolina Hellsgård

Bongoût Gallery proudly presents a diverse and international selection of film and video work that each display a strong personal visual language and refuse easy categorization. Some of the chosen films feature a performance character and a fragmented narrative, others simply tell us about the world in new and exciting ways. In all, the film screening at Bongoût is a unique opportunity to view innovative, experimental and boundary-crossing filmmaking from Berlin and beyond.

The program begins with Gregor Dashuber’s animated film “Never Drive a Car when You are dead”. Dashuber’s stunning hand drawn 2D animation takes us on a bizarre exploration of Berlin’s darker parts. In Bjørn Melhus’s “Murphy”, the artist utilizes the soundtrack of an action film to set the rhythm of stroboscopic light effects. Ultimately, “Murphy” creates a unique viewing experience and powerful abstract vision of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the following short film “Unplay”, the Swedish filmmaker Joanna Rytel investigates taboos and gender roles in a highly personal situation. As in many of Rytel‘s works “Unplay” puts the audience in an equally entertaining and awkward voyeur position. Scott Cummings’ narrative short film “Storm Tiger Mountain” about two children in Los Angeles, depicts the darker side of childhood in a subtle and deeply compelling way.

On the other spectra of filmmaking, John Bock’s “Gast” uses home-movie aesthetics to depict an apartment from a hare’s perspective. The hare moves around a chaotic living room, clearly on top of the world, but for how long? In Keren Cytter’s claustrophobic work “Der Spiegel”, a 42-year-old woman sees herself as a 16 year old, but her mirror image contradicts this idea. As in many of Cytter’s films, “Der Spiegel” ends in a cruel way. Another bleak situation is to be found in Carolina Hellsgård’s lyrical short film “Hunger” which centers around two children and their immigrant neighbors in Berlin-Marzahn.

We are happy to present two videos by Janine Rostron aka “Planning To Rock”. Rostron creates within the disciplines of visual art, performance, theatre, art objects and music, and her videos are inspired by ancient North European mythology and ritual, the contemporary urban world and the lessons coming out of performance art of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The last film in the program “He was once”, is made by American director Mary Hestand. “He was once” is a fascinating tale about parental abuse, starring children in the roles of adults and vice versa. It also features a young Todd Haynes.

Artists included: Gregor Dashuber, Bjørn Melhus, Joanna Rytel, Scott Cummings, John Bock, Keren Cytter, Carolina Hellsgård, Janine Rostron, Mary Hestand

Enjoy the screening!

Lubok Exhibition at Bongoût gallery
Opening reception: Friday, March 5 at 7:00 pm
Exhibition dates: March 5 – April 10, 2010

Since 2007 Lubok is publishing extraordinary artists’ books with a focus on original graphic linocut-books. Renowned artists like André Butzer, Tal R, Matthias Weischer, Christoph Ruckhäberle, and Volker Pfüller have already been published. Lubok will not only display their book releases but will take this opportunity to present some fine young artists’ work as well.

HAGEL, Simone Wassermann
, Katja Schwalenberg
, Gabriela Jolowicz, 
Oliver Kossack
Jens, Schubert
Christoph, Ruckhäberle, 
Christoph Feist
, Sebastian Gögel

Lubok’s artists are using the technique and aesthetics of linocut. This old fashion approach is taken as an inspiring challenge to younger generations. The Lubok-linocuts are printed using an original “Präsident” cylinder printing press which was built in 1958. Each page is an original piece of art, however they are printed in editions and bound to be sold and distributed inexpensively.

Although the artists do not sign or number each single linocut, they still maintain the value and aura of an original. The publishers Christoph Ruckhäberle and Thomas Siemon want to create affordable books that contain affordable works of art within the pages. They intend each page to function as art. To exhibit the Lubok-books at a gallery is therefore just another playful element toward the discussion of original vs reproduced works and their inherit hierarchy or status. 
In this exhibition, everyone who walks in, can afford to take one home.
—–
Lubok is an awarded project, and has exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig and in 2009 participated at the New York Art Book Fair in NYC. March 2010 Lubok will be exhibited at the Independent Art Fair in New York.

]]> http://tajga.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/miron-zownir/feed/ 0 tajga http://tajga.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/exhibition-schone-neue-welt/ http://tajga.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/exhibition-schone-neue-welt/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:56:05 +0000 tajga http://tajga.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/exhibition-schone-neue-welt/ Continue reading →]]>
Schöne neue Welt 

Opening: 12 March 2009, 7 pm

12 March – 18 April 2009 

Welcome! Welcome to the Brave New World. Robin Hood? That was yesterday. These days the rich take it from the poor. 

Bongout Gallery presents funny, wild and absurd stories on fallen heroes and anti-heroes on the rise. Laurent Impeduglia’s bizarre oil paintings feature grotesque stars: Rambo speaking of the miracle of life, Badman swearing that he is not bad, and Care Bears seem about to throw themselves off a building.

In Kottie Paloma’s hand-made books, Superman still wears his super tight, super-sexy dress. But judging from his beard, the beer can in his hand and the cigarette dangling from his mouth, our hero in panties has obviously changed. 

The animated films by the artists Stéphane Blanquet, Yann Jouette, Wojtek Skowron and Sabrina Tibourtine also deal with weird guys: a grumpy hunter gets himself a new skin; a factory worker falls in love with a headless woman; a world is reduced to machines; a girl sets out to seek herself. 

All the works in this exhibition are about lonely figures, exceptional encounters and weird situations in life. In other words, about what the world needs: losers who struggle with daily life like heroes.

+ Film Evening // SUPERCASUALLFRAGILISTIC

Saturday, 21. March, 8 pm

With Kottie Paloma & 667 Shotwell. 

Bongout Gallery
Torstrasse 110
10119 Berlin – Germany
www.bongout.org