Bettina Pousttchi
24 May - 28 Sep 2014
Bettina Pousttchi
Oskar, 2013
pillar, powder-coated
83 x 60 x 50 cm / 321⁄2 x 231⁄2 x 191⁄2 inch
© Bettina Pousttchi, Photo: Roman März
Oskar, 2013
pillar, powder-coated
83 x 60 x 50 cm / 321⁄2 x 231⁄2 x 191⁄2 inch
© Bettina Pousttchi, Photo: Roman März
BETTINA POUSTTCHI
The City
24 May - 28 September 2014
The German-Iranian artist Bettina Pousttchi is this year's recipient of the Wolfsburg art prize "Junge Stadt sieht Junge Kunst" 2014. The prize is coupled both with an exhibition in the Städtische Galerie and with a considerable publication. It should be added that the Galerie is also acquiring some pieces of art for its collection. Bettina Pousttchi has also developed a spectacular artwork for the Wolfsburg castle’s fa-çade: the photo installation “The City” will be installed on a 2,150 m2 tarpaulin, measuring over 33 metres and covering the Renaissance buildings’ north wing and side flanks. Up to this point, it is her largest photo installation.
Bettina Pousttchi, who lives today in Berlin and was born 1971 in Mainz, has become known by her work „World Time Clock“ (since 2008) in which she flew around the world in order to take pictures of all the different time zones by photographing clocks at public spaces each at exactly five minutes to two. That architecture plays an impor-tant role in her creative work has already been shown in "Echo" (2009/2010) where she covered four outer walls of the former Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin with a photo installation displaying an afterimage of the demolished Palast der Republik. With re-gards to her photographic work, which is monumental, she intends to scrutinise archi-tecture in its respective environment. Likewise she did in her much-noticed “Frame-work” (2010) for the Frankfurt Schirn Kunsthalle where she applied half-timbering elements of the Römer onto the Schirn Kunsthalle, recalling Middle Eastern ornamen-tation. In relating architecture to photography, Bettina Pousttchi is able to extend the realm of photography questioning its historical and social context.
Similarly, as subtle interventions in the course of daily life circumvent our perception, so do the objects of Bettina Pousttchi, which are often taken from public spaces, un-derrun our cognition. They are formed anew as sculptures, referring both to ordinari-ness and art history. In her work she uses barriers or bollards from which she creates new, abstract forms. The barriers are repeatedly made use of, thematising subjects as borders and borderline experience as well as discharge of energy.
How does architecture shape its environment? What kind of changes occur in urban surroundings? The artist constantly challenges those sort of questions whether in photographic works, videos, sculptures or installations. Being concerned with urban surrounding and expressing it multimedially does also become apparent in the Städ-tische Galerie’s showrooms. Entering the first room of the 2nd floor you will discover a mural relief pointing to Pousttchi’s “Framework” of the year 2012. In addition, there will be shown some examples of her series “Squeezer”. Bollards are removed from their original context, twisted and thereby speaking their own aesthetic language. Although having lost their primary function they still refer to delineation in public spaces. In the second showroom glazed ceramics will be presented for the first time leading to the third and final showroom of the exhibition, displaying the video “Dou-ble Empire”. The film has been produced in 2000, unloosening the static structure of the New York Empire State Building through a fragmentary camera perspective. Re-cording the legendary building with a cinematic approach, the film firstly begins with the upper stories then gliding down the façade until it plunges into the deep, seeming like an endless ride along the serial façade-raster.
Her photo installation “The City” is also concerned with skyscrapers. In her condensed skyline she merges ten skyscrapers together which used to be the tallest buildings of their time. The motif is again furnished with Pousttchi’s typical black-and-white-raster, evocating the sense of image interference. But skyscrapers are not the only subject in her work, the history of the town Wolfsburg is also made reference to. Founded in the year 1938 as the ‘Stadt des KdF Wagens bei Fallersleben’ it aimed to provide housings for the workers of the newly-established Volkswagen factory. After World War II the town had been renamed into ‘Wolfsburg’ and name giver was the Renaissance castle. Consequently, the history of the town is very young, originating in modernity. “It is precisely this circumstance which initiated my deliberations. I believe that Wolfsburg and its history are an interesting place to think about concepts as na-tion, history and modernity. Skyscrapers are the architectural icon of modern times”, so Pousttchi in an interview on occasion of her art prize. “The City” will display ten buildings from five cities out of four countries, amalgamating into one edifice or block of houses: a transnational skyline.
The City
24 May - 28 September 2014
The German-Iranian artist Bettina Pousttchi is this year's recipient of the Wolfsburg art prize "Junge Stadt sieht Junge Kunst" 2014. The prize is coupled both with an exhibition in the Städtische Galerie and with a considerable publication. It should be added that the Galerie is also acquiring some pieces of art for its collection. Bettina Pousttchi has also developed a spectacular artwork for the Wolfsburg castle’s fa-çade: the photo installation “The City” will be installed on a 2,150 m2 tarpaulin, measuring over 33 metres and covering the Renaissance buildings’ north wing and side flanks. Up to this point, it is her largest photo installation.
Bettina Pousttchi, who lives today in Berlin and was born 1971 in Mainz, has become known by her work „World Time Clock“ (since 2008) in which she flew around the world in order to take pictures of all the different time zones by photographing clocks at public spaces each at exactly five minutes to two. That architecture plays an impor-tant role in her creative work has already been shown in "Echo" (2009/2010) where she covered four outer walls of the former Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin with a photo installation displaying an afterimage of the demolished Palast der Republik. With re-gards to her photographic work, which is monumental, she intends to scrutinise archi-tecture in its respective environment. Likewise she did in her much-noticed “Frame-work” (2010) for the Frankfurt Schirn Kunsthalle where she applied half-timbering elements of the Römer onto the Schirn Kunsthalle, recalling Middle Eastern ornamen-tation. In relating architecture to photography, Bettina Pousttchi is able to extend the realm of photography questioning its historical and social context.
Similarly, as subtle interventions in the course of daily life circumvent our perception, so do the objects of Bettina Pousttchi, which are often taken from public spaces, un-derrun our cognition. They are formed anew as sculptures, referring both to ordinari-ness and art history. In her work she uses barriers or bollards from which she creates new, abstract forms. The barriers are repeatedly made use of, thematising subjects as borders and borderline experience as well as discharge of energy.
How does architecture shape its environment? What kind of changes occur in urban surroundings? The artist constantly challenges those sort of questions whether in photographic works, videos, sculptures or installations. Being concerned with urban surrounding and expressing it multimedially does also become apparent in the Städ-tische Galerie’s showrooms. Entering the first room of the 2nd floor you will discover a mural relief pointing to Pousttchi’s “Framework” of the year 2012. In addition, there will be shown some examples of her series “Squeezer”. Bollards are removed from their original context, twisted and thereby speaking their own aesthetic language. Although having lost their primary function they still refer to delineation in public spaces. In the second showroom glazed ceramics will be presented for the first time leading to the third and final showroom of the exhibition, displaying the video “Dou-ble Empire”. The film has been produced in 2000, unloosening the static structure of the New York Empire State Building through a fragmentary camera perspective. Re-cording the legendary building with a cinematic approach, the film firstly begins with the upper stories then gliding down the façade until it plunges into the deep, seeming like an endless ride along the serial façade-raster.
Her photo installation “The City” is also concerned with skyscrapers. In her condensed skyline she merges ten skyscrapers together which used to be the tallest buildings of their time. The motif is again furnished with Pousttchi’s typical black-and-white-raster, evocating the sense of image interference. But skyscrapers are not the only subject in her work, the history of the town Wolfsburg is also made reference to. Founded in the year 1938 as the ‘Stadt des KdF Wagens bei Fallersleben’ it aimed to provide housings for the workers of the newly-established Volkswagen factory. After World War II the town had been renamed into ‘Wolfsburg’ and name giver was the Renaissance castle. Consequently, the history of the town is very young, originating in modernity. “It is precisely this circumstance which initiated my deliberations. I believe that Wolfsburg and its history are an interesting place to think about concepts as na-tion, history and modernity. Skyscrapers are the architectural icon of modern times”, so Pousttchi in an interview on occasion of her art prize. “The City” will display ten buildings from five cities out of four countries, amalgamating into one edifice or block of houses: a transnational skyline.