Since 2020, the ifa-Galerien in Berlin and Stuttgart have been inviting contemporary artists to engage in dialogical encounters with individual artworks from the ifa collection. Out of the Box stands for this practice of re-evaluating individual works. For the exhibition Spheres of Interest, which will be shown in the Berlin gallery from 24 June – 18 September, curators Inka Gressel and Susanne Weiß have asked six artists based in Berlin to approach the nuances and layers of the ifa’s unusual collection of over 23,000 works in an open process. The historic idiosyncrasies and structures of the ifa art collection as well as its composition specifically via the partial preservation of the collection that once belonged to the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) Zentrum für Kunstausstellungen all become opportunities for a collaborative artistic-curatorial investigation.
Spheres of Interest shows these artistic examinations together with 45 works from the ifa collection, which are now being unpacked after long tours with countless stops or have recently been restored. Some works are being shown for the very first time, for example the sculptures Mädchenkopf (Girl’s Head) (1963) and Otto Nagel (1970-71) by Wieland Förster, both of which the ifa inherited from the ZfK and are on permanent loan to the Berlinische Galerie. The exhibition title references the eponymous …
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Image above: Wolf-Rehfeldt, Spheres of Interest, 1975, Zincography, 21 × 29.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Chert Lüdde, Berlin