Exhibition

Robert Barta, Crossing Half a Million Stars

22 Jun 2013 – 7 Aug 2013

Event times

Wed-Sat 12-6 PM and by appointment

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Galerie Sherin Najjar

Berlin, Germany

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  • U+S Bahnof Potsdamer Platz
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Robert Barta, Crossing Half a Million Stars

About

We are pleased to announce our upcoming opening with works by artist Robert Barta on Friday the 21st of June at 6 PM. In his first solo exhibition at Galerie Sherin Najjar the artist Robert Barta (1975, born in Prague) will be showing recent work, which he made for the gallery space. In the installation CROSSING HALF A MILLION STARS, which consists of roughly half a million (8mm) metal balls (ball bearings) that cover the entire floor, visitors are invited to use the exhibition space. To be able to actually walk on this surface without slipping and falling, one has to be extremely careful. It creates an ongoing performance shared by all present - a kind of collective entertainment that forces visitors to focus differently on themselves and each other. In CROSSING HALF A MILLION STARS the piece becomes the gallery space and the visitor becomes the object of desire. „The Dymaxion map or Fuller map is a projection of a world map onto the surface of an icosahedron, which can be unfolded and flattened to two dimensions. The projection depicts the Earth‘s continents as “one island,“ or nearly contiguous land masses. The arrangement heavily interrupts the map in order to preserve shapes and sizes. The map was created by Buckminster Fuller in 1943.“ (Quote: Wikipedia) SABOTAGE reveals the large surface of a disco ball with the diameter of 50cm, in the shape of the dymaxion map. The imagination of the world beeing flat confuses our usual perception of time, because that would mean, the time would be exactly the same in every time zone. Also the change between night and day would take probably only a few seconds. Misusing jeans‘ bottom pockets, Barta carries the intrinsic logics of useful items to the extreme. In his work NEVER LOST ANYTHING SINCE 6 YEARS the pockets are stitched on upside-down, according to the logic: “You can‘t put anything in, ergo you can‘t lose anything by having it drop out.“ (Heinz Schuetz, The Art of Reversal or the Poetics of Pure Non-Sense, 2006) When meeting someone in most countries, we are used to shake hands but nevertheless there are plenty of other rituals how people say “hello“ to each other. It is even common to look in the other person‘s eyes in order to introduce ourselves better and in a meaningful way. So how deep do we actually really mean to express something through our relatively new handshake ? With the piece NICE TO MEET YOU, this question becomes more complex. Once both opponents are holding the object inside their hands, they can instantly feel each others power. „Barta casts an amused eye on the world and finds the material for his artistic work in everyday objects or situations - the foundations of his unbridled world. With slight alterations, incongruous combinations, plays on words and shifts in meaning, he establishes a strategy of misuse which transforms the nature of familiar objects to reveal their inner essence and the paradoxes and tensions that give them life.“ (Raphaël Brunel, Robert Barta, in: The Causes of Things, 2013) Robert Barta studied at Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste Munich and at San Francisco Art Institute. His works have been represented in several major exhibitions, including THE CAUSES OF THINGS (curated by Sébastien Faucon) Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels; CECI N‘EST PAS UN CASINO (curated by Kevin Muhlen and Jo Kox) Casino Luxembourg; ROHKUNSTBAU XVI: ATLANTIS I - HIDDEN HISTORIES - NEW IDENTITIES (curated by Mark Gisbourne) Schloss Marquardt, Potsdam; PHOENIX VS BABEL (curated by Patrice Joly and Colette Barbier) Fondation Ricard, Paris and ROMANTIC MACHINES (curated by Marc Wellmann) at Georg-Kolbe Museum, Berlin. Barta lives and works in Berlin. For more information and image material, please contact the gallery: contact@sherinnajjar.com Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 12 pm to 6 pm, and by appointment

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