Ulla von Brandenburg 8, 2007
Ulla von Brandenburg 8, 2007
Ulla von Brandenburg Band, 2007
Ulla von Brandenburg 8, 2007
16 February – 20 April 2008
Ulla von Brandenburg
Where there's a network of red over the green
Ulla von Brandenburg uses a variety of media - drawings and silhouettes are juxtaposed with wall paintings, works in cloth with 16 mm films. Her works refer to older, inherently expressive or theatrical conventions of representation, such as tarot cards and early photography, but also tableaux vivants and funfair sensations. Von Brandenburg adapts the poses and gestures of these representations or perhaps a theatrical quality, which examines the relationship of appearance and reality in abstract manner. In so doing she is less interested in adopting existing content than in formal staging, which exposes a wealth of cultural and representational patterns of interpretation. She traces social behavioural patterns, rules and rituals without giving them concrete expression. The bias towards the ornamental, which characterises many of her designs, is geared more to the delineation of representative patterns of order, which can be transferred to the individual and society. Moreover, von Brandenburg's often historically inspired motifs function by means of their transference to a current temporal mode of reference, rather like a filter placed between representation and reception. It is precisely the inherent ambiguity of the scenarios that turn the viewer into an accomplice in the assumed act of deciphering.
Ulla von Brandenburg will present the broad spectrum of her work in this show in the Kunstverein tailored to suit the specific properties of the building. Alongside new large-format drawings and a wall painting, which arises in a dialogue with the surroundings, it will also be possible to see von Brandenburg's new 16 mm film »8«. The title »Where there's a red network over the green« has been taken from Anton Chekhov's play »Uncle Vania«. Like Brandenburg's works, it refers associatively to the theatre and theatrical means of depiction beyond unequivocal representation. In a slow tracking shot the black and white film »8« charts the suites of rooms in a baroque castle. The filmic tour is structured by the sudden confrontation with tableaux vivants and objects referring back to earlier works, which for their part are predicated upon visual codes. The artist presents her 16 mm projection within a labyrinth-like structure made from coloured lengths of fabric corresponding to the castle's floor plan. Modelled on the Bauhaus' farbenlehre or theory of colours and the so-called Lüscher Colour Test, a series of colour spaces arise, through which the viewer walks and which contrast the distanced aspect of the cinematic images. A game of contrasts and references, stasis and motion is unleashed in both the film and the display and involves the viewer in a direct manner. The linking of the diverse media used by von Brandenburg is continued in the new drawings pertaining to »8«. Like all of von Brandenburg's work, the exhibition is characterised by a tight sense of cohesion despite the manifest variety of the media.
Ulla von Brandenburg was born in 1974 in Karlsruhe and initially studied theatre design and media at the Design School there, proceeding to study art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg. She lives in Hamburg and Paris. In 2007 the artist received the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung advancement award for exhibitions and catalogues, which has enabled both the show itself and the accompanying publication. The exhibition is also sponsored by the Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung for the support of emerging artists from whom Ulla von Brandenburg received a scholarship for the year 2006/2007.
Accompanying the exhibition the catalogue "Elk used to be common there" has been published.
Catalogue and exhibition are supported by:
The exhibition is further supported by:
