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Sofia Bempeza

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Temporary Language Memorial
Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin
Case Study 2010

The principle idea of my work is the research of public space or to be more specific the urban development in the late capitalist era. My interest in spatial structures is based in aesthetic principles developed in confrontation with existing locations and situations. In this way I execute different strategies to produce local interferences in urban space.
My latest interest in the Karl-Marx-Allee area deals with the evolution of post-socialist architecture in former east European cities. Beyond that I research the socio-political transition in this specific modern socialist ensemble. By working on the manifestation of power and unity in monumental socialistic architecture and related to these manifestations reflecting post-modern trends and impacts of internationalization and globalization I aim to discover socio-mental shifts. With an artistic case study dealing with the Karl-Marx-Allee area in Berlin Mitte, which is a protected monument for its historical and architectural identity, I intend to investigate how city dwellers perceive, define and maybe associate with urban space in a post-socialist context.
Within this framework of creating “place” out of “urban space”, I intend to plan and realise a temporary language memorial. My aim as well is to integrate this memorial into the existing urban landscape of the Karl-Marx-Allee. In this way I intend to interfere with a space, which is defined as relational and historical concerned with an ambiguous identity referring to the post-socialist era. Therefore I am interested in the symbolic use of language in the GDR, whose function was essential for the socialistic regime.
According to the Marxist concept, language is the base as well as the superstructure of society. It is understood as a productive force. In communistic theory it is the commodity (die Ware), which has to become an ideological statement; the language itself is the medium that can induce those statements in the public sphere. On a historical level propaganda speeches or posters were obviously instruments for the State and the authorities in order to control the masses. However the exact meaning of propaganda is constantly debated. By reflecting on these aspects of the communist Language apparatus, I intend to change the arrangement and revaluation of notions. By developing a concept for a temporary language memorial I create a new plastic form in the location. At the same time is this memorial not only a form of dedication to the Failure of the former language but also an attempt to rethink on the significance of this collapse.

Sofia Bempeza 2010

Sofia Bempeza

1979 born in Athens, Greece

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education

2006-2008 University of Arts Berlin, Master of Arts in Context
1998-2004 Athens School of Fine Arts

Grants

2010 Award, Careum Stiftung Switzerland
2006-2008 Scholarship for artists by Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation
2002 Sokrates Erasmus Scholarship at the Fine Arts School in Munich - ADBK

Solo Exhibitions

2005
Private measures - Public meters. D624 project space, Athens

Group Exhibitions

2009
FettesARCHIV: Das Glück ist dick! Arttransponder, Berlin

2008
MachtRaum, Studiobühne Ritterstraße, Berlin
Aus dem Kontext, UdK Berlin
Image-Space-Action 2, Technopolis/Gazi, Athens
Art’s pulse II. Onassis Foundation, Athens

2007
Extended stay, GAF Istanbul
Rooms to let, Action field Kodra. Thessaloniki
VideoVaka. GalleriBOX, Akureyri Island
Anonyme Zeichner 4. Blütenweiss - Raum für Kunst. Berlin
Anonyme Zeichner 6. Meinblau e.V. Berlin

2006
Anonyme Zeichner 3. Blütenweiss - Raum für Kunst. Berlin
Ausserhaus. Alte Fabrik in Berlin Wedding
Knips die Wand an! Berliner Fotoalbum, Linienstr. 127, Berlin Mitte
Traffic – 50 Jpg photo. On line exhibition, dotgalerie, Geneva
Fata morgana, New Benaki Museum - Peiraios, Athens

2004
Afstiros katallilon (strictly appropriate), Old Municipal Hospital, Patra
Afstiros katallilon (strictly appropriate), Byzantine Museum, Athens
Homage to Greece’s national poet Kostis Palamas. Municipal Cultural Center of Athens

2003
First Residence. Art interventions and performance. Dance group Lathos Kinisi and 10 Visual artists. Housing estate for refugees, Alexandras Avenue. Athens
Landscapes of writing. Public building (g.s.e.e.), Athens

Projects

2009-2010
U10 von hier aus ins Imaginäre und wieder zurück
Kunst im Untergrund, NGBK Berlin
www.U10-berlin.de and www.ngbk.de

2007-2009
Research Cluster: Preventive Self.
Interdisciplinary Investigation of an Emergent Life Form
Associated Departments: Humboldt-University Berlin/ Department of European Ethnology, Social Science Research Center Berlin, Charité Berlin - Institut für Allgemeinmedizin, University Hamburg FSP BIOGUM / FG Medizin, University of Arts Berlin
www.csal.de / www.fettesarchiv.org

2006-2007
feels like home! Intervention in 8 public squares in Berlin and Istanbul

Bibliography

FettesArchiv, Das Glück ist dick!, Hg. Wolfgang Knapp, Sofia Bempeza, Anja Sommer, Steffen Krüger, Can Sungu, Berlin 2009.
Kunst im Kontext, Hg. Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin 2008.
Image-Space-Action 2, Hg. Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, Athens 2008.
Art’s pulse II, Hg. Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation,
Athens 2008.
Action field Kodra 07 - 7th visual Arts Festival, Hg. Cultural Organisation Municipality of Kalamaria Thessaloniki 2008.
fata morgana, Hg. The National Book Centre of Greece, Athens 2006.
Strictly appropriate/ Afstiros katallilon, Katalog, Hg. The National Book Centre of Greece, Athens 2004.
Graduation Class 2003-04, Hg. Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens 2004.
Homage to national poet Kostis Palamas, Hg. The National Book Centre of Greece, Athens 2004.
Landscapes of writing, Hg. The National Book Centre of Greece, Athens 2001.

Links

www.fettesarchiv.org
www.U10-berlin.de
www.machtraum.de
www.d624.org
www.culturehall.com/sofia_bempeza

Sofia Bempeza

10178 Berlin

sofiabempeza@gmx.de
www.sofiabempeza.org