Pulling & Opening

PULLING AND OPENING In pulling and opening things are not necessarily what they seem to be at first sight. Something is pulling and twinging behind the large color fields and harmoniously staged compositions. Something unknown grows there, a thing we can not directly perceive but only vaguely imagine. A game of varying degrees of familiarity begins. It challenges us to make an attempt at the process of opening, to relate to the artificial appeal of a colorful exterior and, in case of doubt, to simply let the secret processes of its inner core take hold. Silke Berg‘s textile bodies transport colors and shapes from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional sphere. They structure the room softly and gently. However, all heaviness rolls off its surface, the padded, perfect idyll remains a utopia. What hangs can fall, what is tied down can burst at the seams. Colors that meet in a room can make the scenery look cozy or they can argue loudly with one another. Analogously, Hanna Kaminski‘s picture compositions set hectic figurative elements against calm color surfaces, interlinking what slowly seems more and more threatening to us. Are we being watched? And what lies behind the overlapping surfaces - a labyrinth or merely a large gap? With Felix Pötzsch, too, lethargy and white space, under the postulate of the greatest possible casualness, undermine a dazzlingly colorful selection of goods. Behind this cosmopolitan projection surface, the vitality of the interpersonal comes to light. A tilting figure made of materiality and emptiness winks at everyone who does not want to stagnate. “Blind and clairvoyant at the same time”, the organic paves its way in Alexander Meyer‘s photographs. A network without center shapes the world and, with an open outcome, slowly but blindly deforms what we previously perceived as an indisputable reality. Ultimately, in these exhibition rooms we become like the sleeper in Jule Würfel‘s work “Powernap”, who we see from an intimate-voyeuristic perspective in close-up, trembling and breathing uneasily without being able to know what she is dreaming of, while noises from the outside world penetrate the space through open windows. Between a tempting escape from reality and an accepted loss of control, we are hypnotized in pulling and opening until we manage to take a courageous look behind the surface. We take on the role of those who have only one thing to lose: their own control over the world as we think we know it. Text by Maria Junker Graphic by Katharina Tewes Curated by Alexander Meyer ARTISTS Silke Berg studied painting / printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig in the class of Prof. Ingo Meller and later with Prof. Michael Riedel, where she received her diploma in 2020. During her studies, she attended the painting class at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2018. She has been an artistic collaborator at the Class for textile arts at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art in Halle since 2021. Berg lives and works in Leipzig. www.silke-berg.com @_silkeberg_ Hanna Kaminski, born in San Francisco in 1988 studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig since 2018 and has been in Michael Riedel‘s class for painting and printmaking since 2019. She lives and works in Berlin. www.hannakaminski.de @hanna_kaminski Alexander Meyer, born 1987 in Greifswald (GDR) received his photography training at the New School for Photography in Berlin from 2010 to 2014. In 2014 he began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. During his studies, he attended the classes of professor Peter Piller and professor Heidi Specker in 2016 and 2017. From 2018 to 2020 he worked as an assistant for Annette Kelm. From 2018 to 2019 Alexander Meyer studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel. In 2021, Alexander Meyer completed his studies in Professor Heidi Specker‘s class. The main focus of his work is the examination of rhizomatic constellations and spaces between the inside and the outside. www.alexandermeyer.org @alexander___meyer Jule Würfel, born 1995 in Grimma, has been studying photography in the field of contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig since 2016. In 2019 she studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She lives and works in Leipzig. www.julewuerfel.com @elfriede_huflattich Felix Pötzsch born 1984 in Chemnitz, lives and works in Leipzig and Frankfurt. In 2016 he completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. He lived in Athens for two years and completed his master class in 2019 with Prof. Heidi Specker. Some of his exhibitions were: Koi_Pond (group exhibition) curated by KVTV Frankfurt (2021), Ming and Jonas (with Georg Thanner) in the Fonda Leipzig (2020), Taurin in the BSMNT in Leipzig (2019), The Idle Wheel on a roof terrace in Athens (2018), Joel (with Philipp Farra) at Luis Leu Karlsruhe (2017). He works with installations consisting of painting, sculpture and film / photography. His works are sociologically motivated balancing acts between emotionality and triviality. www.felixpoetzsch.eu @emotional_gallery