Archive 2021 KubaParis

spring water tastes funny

Laura Franzmann, exhibition view "spring water tastes funny" KVJ, 2021
Laura Franzmann, exhibition view "spring water tastes funny" KVJ, 2021

Location

KVJ

Date

20.03 –04.05.2021

Curator

wecuratroial.com

Photography

Fred Dott

Subheadline

From Sunday, March 21, 2021, KVJ shows the exhibition "spring water tastes funny" of the artist Laura Franzmann (*1990 in Wismar).Franzmann studied sculpture and time-based media under Matt Mullican at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK) and at Goldsmiths, University of London. She graduated from HFBK Hamburg in 2017 with an MFA. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

Text

Laura Franzmann's artistic practice is characterized by an interest in the manifold communicative potentials of images. The artist explores the ways in which an image can tell stories, awaken associations, or trigger thought processes. A research-intensive, well-founded content-related examination of cultural-theoretical, philosophical and also political topics creates an intellectual basis as well as the motivation for Franzmann's work. The artist succeeds in combining aesthetic expression with complex theoretical issues. Laura Franzmann's objects and installations are found in scenarios she has created that allow for different options of perception and sometimes seem like snapshots of a process that has not yet revealed the end of its course. spring water tastes funny" illuminates the theme of "transformation" from multiple perspectives. The artist lets her works tell of transformations, initiates subtly orchestrated chains of associations, and lets viewers take on different receptive perspectives. Franzmann makes us think, about the man-made dualism of nature and culture, about the belief in the all-souledness of the environment and the possibility to look emphatically at the living beings that are different from us humans. "What words do we choose, and how do they determine our thoughts and actions? Is it enough to leave deep empathy to all living beings to our children, in fairy tales and picture books? To let animals and plants speak, to grant waters and insects a personality, an independent agenda, consciousness and a sense of pain? Which of our problems might be solved if we merely gave more importance to certain narratives more space in our lives?" Questions like these are explored by Laura Franzmann in her solo exhibition, questions that could hardly be more topical, especially in a present like ours, where the desire for touch, commonality, connection and hope, is very present and palpable.For the KVJ, Laura Franzmann has created a room-sized installation, produced using techniques predominantly used in lining and decorating interiors with textile appliqués, such as tufting, a technique for creating three-dimensional textile surfaces. The artist has changed the architecture of the exhibition space of the Kunstverein Jesteburg e.V., providing more light permeability and viewing possibilities from the outside. Her works emphasize the architecture of the former bank building in a special way. With virtuosity, Laura Franzmann makes it possible to experience a play of colors and surfaces in the space and in this way creates numerous connections, the discovery of which has a lasting effect.

Isa Maschewski