About
DUVE Berlin is pleased to present the third solo exhibition of German artist Halina Kliem titled, *Flucht um
Mitternacht* (Fleeing at Midnight). The exhibition features new neon works and works on paper.
âI want to burn with the spirit of the times.
I want all servants of the stage to recognize their lofty destiny."
Vsevolod Meyerhold
"Anger is naturally different from sulkiness, hatred from distaste, love from liking;
but the corresponding fluctuations of feelings are portrait economically"
Bertholt Brecht
In 1935 Berthold Brecht witnessed Mei Lan Fang's incomparable travesti, or Dan, performance in the Chinese Drama
shown at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, marking the beginning of Brecht's interest in Chinese culture. *Flucht um
Mitternacht* refers to a specific scene that presented key aspects of dance, acrobatics, posture, and gesture and
highlighted the theatrical technique called zitai ju, meaning "particular poses." Kliem traces the context between
Brecht, Chinese Opera, Meyerhold and the Sowjet Theatre, questioning the relationship between impulsive expression
and abstract form within the context of revolutionary avant garde Theater.
Concurrent with Brecht's initial interest in Chinese opera, Vsevolod Meyerhold was developing his theatrical research
into biomechanics by using provocative experiments. He attempted to understand physical being by connecting
psychological and physiological processes. Meyerhold stated that, "The emotional state of an actor was inextricably
linked to his physical state and that one could call up emotions in performance by practicing and assuming poses,
gestures, and movements." It was these notions of meeting the body and the dramatic concepts of Chinese Opera that
Brecht also considered in his own work. Brecht took the basic principles from the 1935 performance at the Bolshoi and
tested them alongside the early experiments of German Epic Theatre of the 1920s.
In the exhibition, *Flucht um Mitternacht*, Kliem premieres several body-written neon light artworks, which
transform movement into shapes, indicative of a communicative gestures within the gallery setting. The works link
theories of alienation to the stage that is the white cube. The neon works continue her research investigating one's
obsession with an object and furthermore the desire to become that object. Kliem's pursuits are grounded in the
canons of dance history, theatre, and gesticulation. The neon artworks demonstrate an abstraction of words that are
playful in gesture and expressive in movement, indicative of a writing methodology similar to traditional Chinese
calligraphy, where creation of the piece itself is the performance. During the development of these new works, Kliem
was completing an artist in residency program in Xiamen, China. Kliem's work combines western body concepts with
the Chinese ideas of Qi, testing minimal gestures and their meaning.
Halina Kliem lives and works in Berlin. She studied with Prof. Katharina Sieverding at University of the Arts in Berlin,
Carnegie Mellon University of Art, Pittsburgh as well as Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Her work has been
exhibited widely in group shows including Berlin 2000 at PaceWildenstein, New York, and to: Night at Bertha and
Karl Leubsdorf Gallery (in cooperation with Hunter College NYC), curated by Joachim Pissarro.
Halina Kliem was rewarded the scholarship by the Berlin Senat, Department for Cultural Affairs in 2008, the Point B
residency in New York 2009 and in 2011 was awarded the URRA Artist Program, Buenos Aires, residency as well as
the residency for the Chinese Center For European Art, Xiamen. Kliem's work is presented in public collections of the
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein in Berlin, the Videonale Archiv, Kunstmuseum in Bonn, the Video as Urban Condition
Videopool, London as well as the Archivo Escoria Nuevos Medios in Ecuador.