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until 29.05. | #3037ARTatBerlin | EIGENHEIM Berlin shows from 30th April 2021 on the occasion of the gallery weekend the solo show “the truth of fragile” by the artist Anna Bittersohl. Parallel to this, the exhibition “Die Konferenz der Tiere” (> The Conference of the Animals) by the artist Gökcen Dilek Acay will be presented in the salon.
Anna Bittersohl – the truth of fragile
Anna Bittersohl’s painting is permeated by an enigmatic poetry, her expressive gestural brushwork is characterized by overlaps and breakthroughs, fragmentary figurative elements lie close beside abstract hints of landscapes or floral elements. For the artist, this painting style is a metaphor for memories and their persistence. These are often present only fragmentarily in excerpts, are superimposed by new events. The protagonists are accordingly involved in an unclear plot or marked by phlegmatic absence.
Anna Bittersohl, Title pending / Oil, acrylic, gouache on paper / ca. 292 x 327 cm / 2021, courtesy by EIGENHEIM Weimar/Berlin
The exhibition title “the truce of fragile” is just such a poetic approach to a dialectical state between standstill and the ongoing transformation of given circumstances. Universal questions of our present come up: Why are we here? What are we doing here at all? Who do we want to have been? Why are we so trapped in given structures and why is it so difficult to break out of them? What happens when familiar mechanisms fall away and insecurity takes hold? Anna Bittersohl examines the actual state in this way! She accepts the moment of insecurity – even challenges it. She has dared to look at the world and her work with a fresh eye, open and unprejudiced, has questioned habits, has broken out of the situation of bias, has allowed new encounters and in this way has gathered entirely new impressions.
Anna Bittersohl, Title pending / Oil on Canvas / 170 x 150 cm / 2021, courtesy by EIGENHEIM Weimar/Berlin
Regardless of the danger of not living up to one’s own expectations and those of others, “the truce of fragile” will pursue this state of affairs. In the course of a realignment of the gallery space, in addition to isolated canvases, it is the large expansive paper collages, films, sound works, objects and found objects that will express the freedom to be fragile. The artist has profound confidence in herself and the world, she lays down her arms, puts aside the uncertainty, the fear for the moment of failure, and gives herself and us deep confidence for the moment of fragility, the moment of realignment.
Anna Bittersohl, truce of fragile / Oil on Canvas / 160 x 230 cm / 2021, courtesy by EIGENHEIM Weimar/Berlin
Anna Bittersohl, Born in Dachau in 1982, she studied free painting with Ralph Fleck at the AdBK Nuremberg from 2003-2009. In 2013-2015 she received the studio funding of the Free State of Bavaria, in 2014 the special prize artist in gallery (ART re.FLEX Gallery – St. Petersburg) of the Arte Laguna Prize Venice / Anna Bittersohl lives and works in Leipzig.
Gökçen Dilek Acay – Konferenz der Tiere (Conference of the animals)
In her work, Gökçen Dilek Acay discusses concepts of oppression, power and the destructive aspects of human beings. In doing so, she works in a wide variety of media. Sometimes with textiles and embroidery, sometimes in the form of extensive multi-channel video installations, 3D printing or sound, photography and sound, installation and object. Also in the exhibition The Conference of Animals at EIGENHEIM Berlin (Salon), with entirely new works, many different materials and media are used.
Acay‘s works are characterized by multifaceted levels of fantasy, whereby she deals with contemporary socio-political and ethical-moral issues in a manner similar to a fable, transferring them into surreal, fairy-tale-like, bizarre, abysmal-Kafkaesque visual worlds and narratives. Personified animals play a leading role – the raw and animalistic in man is revealed. Bitter seriousness goes hand in hand with playful, naïve sincerity. Acay manages in this way to bring us closer to the harsh reality and many unpleasant messages that affect us daily – to reveal to us her finely honed sense of presence and justice. Her often hidden messages address the hubris of human actions towards nature, as well as current global political discourses around women‘s equality or the tense relationship between world religions.
Gökçen Dilek Acay, Don’t kiss the frog / fine Art Print on Hahnemühle and embroidery,
two parts 70 x 50 cm / 2021 / courtesy by EIGENHEIM Weimar/Berlin
Born in Istanbul (Turkey), she has lived in Germany for 15 years, and because of this experience she has developed an enigmatic and at the same time radical language to do justice to her political interests without putting herself in bondage or danger in her homeland. So also in this exhibition – elaborately embroidered banners or flags, as an object of the expression of power claim, show hermaphrodite creatures between man and animal as holy figures, finest drawings on paper represent outlined groups of people, which are involved in unclear relationship to each other, similar to a psychogram, in mysterious actions, a video shows a creature, oscillating between monkey and man, which through facial expressions and gestures openly expresses the inner states between pain and joy. Just as this video was created during an artist residency in Taipei, the artist has produced many works in recent years during countless artist-in-residence programs around the world, whether in China, Korea, Azerbaijan, Norway, Spain, America or Taiwan. Therefore, it is obvious that many allusions to these cultures flowed into her works – from Japanese masks, Orthodox images of saints to American pop art, there are versatile borrowings from the global web of cultures. In this way, Acay‘s works can be read as both framed in her biography and universal, grasping and communicating the world.
Gökçen Dilek Acay, don´t kiss the frog, Mixed Media (Needle Punching, Paint & charcoal on linen),
2021, 71 x 61 cm, courtesy by EIGENHEIM Weimar/Berlin
Gökçen Dilek Acay, 1983 born in Istanbul / 2003-2008 Bachelor studies in violin at the Yildiz Technical University, Art and Design Faculty, Istanbul / 2006-2007 Exchange Program Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar / 2009-2012 studies of free art at the Bauhaus-University Weimar with diploma / 2010-2011 Exchange Program Minneapolis Collage Art and Design, USA / 2012-2016 Studies of Media Art in the Master’s Programme at the Bauhaus – University Weimar / 2021 Working Scholarship for Contemporary Art from the Free State of Thuringia / 2021 Studio Support Programme of the BBK Berlin / Lives and works in Weimar and Berlin.
Online vernissage: Friday, 30 April 2021 at 7 pm at www.galerie-eigenheim.de and on social media channels
Exhibition dates: Friday, 30 April – Saturday, 29 May 2021
To the Gallery
Exhibition Anna Bittersohl – Gökçen Dilek Acay – EIGENHEIM Berlin | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
