Events/Openings

Opening: 24/02/2017 [7 - 9pm]
Exhibition: 25/02/2017 – 17/03/2017

In cooperation with Leslie and ROCKELMANN&

Artists: Yasmin Alt, Elisa Ewert, Zachary Fabri, artist Duo Bretz/Holliger and Alexander Marchuk

The architectural office KWA (Kim Wang Architekten) is pleased to announce the opening of WHAT WAS AND WHAT IT HAS BECOME, a group exhibition in collaboration with Leslie and ROCKELMANN&. Located at our Langhansstraße 127 , Berlin-Weißensee location, this inaugural event is the first in a new series of collaborations, which we at KWA hope will serve as an open forum for exhibitions, events and other interdisciplinary projects.

WHAT WAS AND WHAT IT HAS BECOME is a collection of works from artists Yasmin Alt, Elisa Ewert, Zachary Fabri, Alexander Marchuk and the artist duo Bretz/Holliger; each piece is the manifestation of each artist’s response to their constantly changing surroundings. With an emphasis on transformations in materiality and objectivity as well as a playful handling of expectations, the artists have created a space in the exhibition that is in a constant state of change itself.

Zachary Fabri (*b. 1977, Miami) Fabri’s work deals heavily with his personal experiences within his surrounding environment and community, as he does in Untitled (EAST WEST 125, 2012). He collects and places said experiences in the context of several large social issues such as class membership, religion and the appropriation of popular culture. At the beginning of each project, Fabri seeks to explore questions and concepts that go far beyond the physical border of “the neighborhood” in search of his answers.

The artist duo Bretz/Holliger (Bernhard Bretz *b. Transylvania, 1980/ Matthias Holliger *b. Basel, 1974) question attributes of traditional architecture, repurposing elements such as stairs, doors and their accompanying door frames in their site specific installations, which encompass the entirety of their chosen space. In All My Studios (2016), they attempt to interrupt the habitual use and function of spatial architecture and structures by introducing new takes on spatial perception by means of physical re-construction and the involvement or their viewers.

Yasmin Alt (*b. Bad Schwalbach DE, 1978) approaches her sculptures with a playfulness that borrows heavily from elements of traditional construction design. Alt’s practice involves the breaking down, modification and personal reinterpretation of the skeletons of architectural structures in order to extract the objectivity of their accepted functionality. By doing so, she allows the viewer to question their initial ideas of what is “useful” architecture. In the large-scale Rituals of a Modern Home (2017) Alt examines the physical importance of façades and underpins their symbolic decoration, by placing them in an untraditional manner, vertically on the floor.

Alexander Marchuk (*b. Belarus, 1983 / lives and works in Copenhagen, DK). Taking a more classical approach, Marchuk’s practice underscores the unobstructed access to the materiality of objects. With Untitled (2015), Marchuk creates a metal-like surface, which is crafted carefully through a method of applying acrylic to layered canvases. In doing so, he places the viewer into a fragile moment of doubt, thus enabling the potential of a second glance and further reinterpretations.

Elisa Ewert (*b. Berlin DE, 1984) works within the idea of the ephemeral, drawing influence from its defining characteristics: material transformations from soft to hard, from moist to porous, from fluid to solidified, become in their objects the symbol of transformation and change. This emphasis of the temporality in the form of rapid production processes visible in the objects is slowed down in the course of the completion, thus addressing their materiality. Ewert's sculptures Deformed 16 (Türkishell) (2016) and Gelegte Gelochte (2016) give the effect of constantly changing organic forms, which they repeatedly combine and create a new relationship in regards to their context and space.

Since 2015, KWA - Kim Wang Architekten has been creating a new 600 sqm project space in Langhansstraße, Berlin-Weißensee. Not only with a dedication to spatial generosity, but also with the commitment of our competent team of architects, KWA offers excellent opportunities to implement the different phases of a project from conception, to planning, production, and to presentation on location. With our collaboration with Leslie and ROCKELMANN&, KWA is presenting its future vision of bringing the disciplines of art, design and architecture into an intersectional dialogue.