Miriam Wuttke: Secret Garden

About

Frances Hodgson Burnett's most popular novel The Secret Garden (1910/1911) is ostensibly a classic of children's literature, tracking the common longing for a return to childhood innocence and the development in the process of private, very secret imagination as the road to healthy maturity. This longing is certainly anything but a childish concern, which becomes obvious at the latest when Nancy Friday titles her exploration of female sexuality and fantasies My Secret Garden (1973). Gardens have a special meaning in our collective imagination, providing the backdrop for an at times extremely personal art project by the young artist Miriam Wuttke. In 2013 the artist visited an abandoned lot and makeshift garden in Berlin's Neukölln district. The lot has since been bulldozed to make way for the advancing development of every corner of Berlin. During her extended visits the artist collected souvenirs, impressions and experiences which are blended together and documented to recreate her imaginative landscape in Emerson Gallery Berlin's very different space along the banks of the River Spree. With minimal intervention, Wuttke marks off a space allowing gallery visitors to consider their own secret gardens. Experiencing the space is also unsettling, however, as one becomes subconsciously aware of the transition across town and the incongruity of capturing the outdoors in the closed confined of an art gallery. With very reduced means, the artist invites us on a nostalgic journey, considering what is both gained and lost when growing out of childhood. This journey mirrors the gains and losses of Berlin's own transitions as the urban landscape is developed and gentrified, leaving little more than memories of the spaces which razed in the process. Curated by Barbara Fragogna Duration of the exhibition: 13 February to 08 March 2014 Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday 2:00 — 7:00 pm, Saturday 12:00 — 4:00 pm and by appointment With an expression of gratitude to THE CORPORATE SUPPORTERS PROGRAM. The EGB Intermezzo series features up to four exhibits per year, each with a duration of just 7 to 10 days. Intermezzo exhibits are intended to expand or even contrast with EGB's normal program, to offer groundbreaking and often formerly undiscovered artists the opportunity to reach out to a broader audience — for example with their very first solo exhibition. The openness of the series encourages artists to experiment with new trends which might otherwise not find a public forum