OPEN SPACE 5: KATJA STUKE | Supernatural

Opening: Thursday, 7 January 2010, 7 p.m.
Exhibition: 8 - 30 January 2010
Curated by Claudia Stein

Artist Talk: Thursday, 21 January 2010 at 7 p.m.
Claudia Stein speaks with Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber about »10 years Böhm-Project«


No plane can fly for ever 
No one will always be a winner
No car can run for ever. 
Peter Hein/Fehlfarben, Rhein in Flammen 

We are pleased to present the exhibition »Supernatural« for the first time in Berlin, a series of portraits by Katja Stuke. 

Concentration is the conscious focus of attention on a specific activity, the achievement of a goal reachable at short notice. Focusing means that whatever is currently being done or felt is given undiverted attention for a certain amount of time. Concentration calls for mental effort and lessens after a while. 

The effect of this total concentration, the ability of athletes to forget thousands of spectators in that instant of concentration prior to their peak performance in the realm of sport is a fascinating theme. 

The pictures of artistic athletes and high divers were taken during the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008). Some were photographed live from a television screen. Only the noticeable television raster reveals the origin of these images. Stuke chose the classic portrait format. The typical characteristics of television (channel identifiers, overlays, the television landscape format) are excluded. 

The singular Olympic Games idea, the particular competition situation directly before the decisive sporting performance, and the question of the identity and development of girls and women plays a key role in this photographic work. The recent portraits of high divers extends the series to include the notion of vulnerability and exposure. 

We would also like to extend an invitation to a discussion with artists Katja Stuke / Oliver Sieber and Claudia Stein (photography.now) on Thursday, 21 January 2010. The two Düsseldorf photographers Stuke and Sieber have been producing this photographic project in magazine form since 1999 under the title “Frau Böhm” and later “Die Böhm”. This was added to in time with an Internet exhibition space, cooperation with other artists, joint exhibitions and a photo blog. The exhibition series Antifoto takes place in 2010. 

Three new publications of the Böhm|Kobayashi Publishing Project coincide with the exhibition/artist discussion: the Böhm/Kobayashi Encyclopedia on the joint work Einflüsse und Ideen (Influences and Ideas), Katja Stuke’s Supernatural and Oliver Sieber’s J_Subs. All three publications appear in a numbered edition of 150 issues.
 
o.T. Peking | 2008 | inkjet print, framed | 86x106 cm
o.T. Athen | 2008 | inkjet print, framed | 86x106 cm
o.T. Athen | 2008 | C-Print, on aluminum behind acrylic glass | 46x53 cm
installation views | Loris Gallery | 2010
installation views | Loris Gallery | 2010
installation views | Loris Gallery | 2010

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