From a Poem to a Sunset at Daimler Contemporary, Berlin

Daimler Contemporary

Haus Huth
Alte Potsdamer Straße 5
10785 Berlin
Germany

Artists: Arakawa + Gins, Sarah Browne, Natalie Czech, Katja Davar, Sibylla Dumke, Guan Xiao, Lee Kit, Li Ran, Liu Ding, Pak Sheung Chuen, Philippe Parreno, Qiu Zhijie, Max Uhlig, Xu Zhen produced by MadeIn Company, Yang Fudong, Zhang Peili, Zheng Chongbin, Zheng Guogu

Curated by Dr. Renate Wiehager and Christian Ganzenberg
Curatorial advisor: Andreas Schmid

In 2013, the Daimler Art Collection began adding a significant new aspect to its international profile, with the acquisition of more than 40 artworks by about 20 Chinese artists. This year, these new acquisitions will be presented to the public in two exhibitions, in Berlin. The two-part exhibition of the new acquisitions in Berlin will present the work of the Chinese artists in the context of the Daimler Art Collection. This ‘dialogue’ with international artistic concepts will bring out the unique qualities of the new acquisitions, but it will also bring out parallels and relationships in the form of shared artistic concerns. The first part of the exhibition – From a Poem to the Sunset – is primarily devoted to conceptual tendencies, which first became observable in contemporary Chinese art in the mid-1980s but which, notwithstanding this, form the basis of the working methods of many younger artists.

The prelude to this exhibition is provided by poems, chosen either as linguistic inspiration or as an artistic means of expression. The Irish artist Sarah Browne (*1981, IRL) is represented by an artwork series in several parts that the Daimler Art Collection commissioned her to create, in which she evokes memories of the designer Eileen Gray. For the conclusion of her artwork From Margin to Margin (Looking for Eileen), 2010, the artist herself commissioned a poem. At every presentation of this project, Remembering Gray, this poem, by Alice Lyons, will take a new and autonomous form. Previously using the gallery space as a signal point to communicate through Morse code, whether in light or using shortwave radio, in this version of the work the poem will be distributed by carrier pigeons.

The exhibitions are accompanied by an extensive program of events. At the heart of this is a series of talks: an autonomous forum on specifically Chinese themes that will bring together a selection of art protagonists from China, with the hosts acting in the role of moderator. The talks will concern the artistic background and ethos behind the presented artworks, alongside fundamental issues and current themes of cultural and social development in China. The discussions, lectures and performances will give the artists featured in the exhibitions the opportunity to speak. The insights arising out of these events are published online, and in an accompanying publication.

Exhibition continues until August 30, 2015. More information here