Exhibition
Martin Schmidt | Aufbruch
10 Dec 2021 – 25 Mar 2022
Regular hours
- Monday
- Closed
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 18:00
Address
- Markgrafenstraße 67
- Berlin
Berlin - 10969
- Germany
Winner of the 2021 HAP Grieshaber Preis der VG Bild-Kunst, awarded by Stiftung Kunstfonds
About
With »Aufbruch«, his site-specific installation at Deutscher Künstlerbund, Schmidt urges us to make a decision with a provocative, pointed comment on the spaces that remain available to us within society: political spaces where the hope of change is forever under threat; living and working spaces to which only capital has easy access; and mental spaces that are constantly contracting under the pressure of fear and the challenges of everyday life.
In »Aufbruch« (»new start« or »departure«), whose sculptural minimalism could almost be read as a rejection of the space in which it is presented, promise and potential exist alongside uncertainty and risk. For when a new start is not voluntary but forced, then it means flight or displacement. Or it happens for want of better alternatives, out of an inability to adapt, or due to simple frustration.
In each of the several dozen cardboard boxes that make up the installation, Schmidt seems to want to place a question in the space. Start afresh or stay still? Move away or adapt? Break free or run a risk? Leave everything behind or face the challenge? Take to the road or settle down? Look elsewhere or give up?
»Where are we going?« seems to be the key question here, a question faced not only by artists in the current situation, but also by every human being, again and again, with varying degrees of urgency. What do we know about the situation of refugees fleeing to escape violence and death? Is our new government really capable of making a new start with us? Or will the parties block each other in their dispute over objectives? And where are we going? To the new studio or apartment that now costs half our income? Withdrawing because we are unable to change anything about the pandemic or about politics?
»Aufbruch« is a decision. And, whatever happens, it is a change.
In addition to the installation, a large-format exhibition book presenting Schmidt’s artistic oeuvre, and especially his interventions in public space, can be viewed in the gallery.