until 17.09. | #2808ARTatBerlin | Galerie Z22 presents from 15th August 2020 the group show Cars: from Beauties to Scrap. with photographies by the artists Tina Winkhaus, Dirk Krüll and Hardy Brackmann.
Cars: from Beauties to Scrap.
Icons, myths, marvels of technology, cars have made their long journey throughout history. Cars have their own stories to tell indeed and yet we, as creators and consumers of these timeless travel machines, have been telling stories about them since their birth in the late 1800’s.
From being man’s best friend to landing on the floors of some of our greatest museums to their death as pieces of scrap in a junkyard, Galerie Z22 shows with a wink the automobile industry as it likes to see itself and at the same time is a farewell to an epoch.
In this exhibition cars in their functional and timeless beauty will be explored, the true technical and artistic marvel they are, alongside of a car industry caught up in the games of greed and glamour which is well aware of the reality of our time: that with mass transit and other innovation cars are indeed becoming a relic of the past.
Winkhaus offers in her own provocative style a retrospective view where she questions the intentions of the owners and the car industry itself. She doesn’t give answers but instead poses conflicting realities that gets the viewer to explore on their own a discussion that has many facets. She dispenses with the socio-political commentary typical of this topic and instead plays with other themes which reflect another equally important part of this story.
Dirk Krüll takes us first to scrap yards where we see the remains of cars suspended in space by cranes. Then he brings us back in time with his series on classic cars that have either been destroyed by fires or are withering away in the graveyard of a private car collector. Finally, he presents us with his calendar projects showing us the contrast between the “transience of our current environment and the seemingly timeless fascination and durability of classic cars in their original aesthetics.”
Finally, Hardy Brackman brings us to “the end” exploring how the car plays both a literal and thematic role in our lives. He addresses specifically the finality of things: the end of a car escape, the end of a life and how a car is a cause or a means of bringing something to an end. He shows us how the car itself mirrors the themes playing out in our inner lives and collectively: how, for example, the car in all its facets symbolizes both our capacity to expand and our desire to destroy.
Start of the exhibition: Saturday, 15 August 2020, 11:00 – 20:00
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 15 August – Thursday, 17 September 2020, to be visited during regular opening hours and by appointment
To the Gallery
Exhibition Cars: from Beauties to Scrap – Galerie Z22 | Contemporary Art – Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin – ART at Berlin