Artists: Hodan-Ali Farah, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Aria Farajnezhad, Sonia Gomes, Anneli Käsmayr, Silvia Kolbowski, Effrosyni Kontogeorgou, Bubu Mosiashvili, Patricia Okkels, Claudia Piepenbrock, Dana Reina Téllez, Chris Reinecke, Tim Reinecke, Elif Saydam, Doris Weinberger
Exhibition title: Everyone an Island After All?
Venue: GAK Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany
Date: May 27 – June 27, 2023
Photography: All images copyright and courtesy of the artists and GAK Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst
The starting point for “Everyone an Island After All?” was the GAK’s history of public art projects. But instead of doing more of the same, we first wanted to examine the contagions, stratifications, and territorial structures that permeate the city in its current complexity. The images that can be seen in public space mainly serve the purposes of capitalism and consumption, suppressing subjective realities instead of addressing them. How can artistic and, not least, painterly ways of working create a space of imagination in relation to these orders?
The project consists of an exhibition, continues the (semi-)public reappraisal of the GAK archive, initiates a dialogue between Bremen and external actors, and invites further guests to lectures and talks. Together, these parts can be understood as forms of approaching urban complexities. They have to do with money and with work, with consumption and distinction, with stories told and untold, with identities, with power, with structures of violence, and always with the question of who enters and can enter which spaces.
The major public art projects that the GAK has previously been involved in dealt with similar themes. What are the points of contact today? Has the optimistic wish “No one is an island” formulated back then come true? What is actually at stake in Bremen’s public space?
Chris Reinecke: Radius 8.5.2023, 2023. Foto: Franziska von den Driesch
Chris Reinecke: Radius 8.5.2023, 2023. Foto: Franziska von den Driesch
Everyone an Island After All?, installation view (Chris Reinecke), GAK 2023. Courtesy: Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf.Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Chris Reinecke: Animali / Ober- und Unterstadt, 2008–2016. Courtesy: Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Chris Reinecke: Ansteigendes Wasser, 2006. Courtesy: Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Chris Reinecke: Verschiedene Basis Elemente,1992–2008–2014. Courtesy: Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Chris Reinecke: 3 Schablonen mit Fläche, Mai 2023, 2023. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Everyone an Island After All?, installation view, GAK 2023. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Everyone an Island After All?, installation view (Patricia Okkels), GAK 2023. Courtesy: Blaumeier-Atelier Bremen. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Patricia Okkels: Die Atomuhr, 2023. Courtesy: Blaumeier-Atelier Bremen. Foto: Franziska von den Driesch
Patricia Okkels: Verbrauchter Weihrauch, 2023. Courtesy: Blaumeier-Atelier Bremen. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Patricia Okkels: Verfolgung, 2023. Courtesy: Blaumeier-Atelier Bremen. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Patricia Okkels: Das Gummiband, 2023. Courtesy: Blaumeier-Atelier Bremen. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Everyone an Island After All?, installation view (Elif Saydam), GAK 2023. Courtesy: The artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Los Angeles. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Elif Saydam: Sleeplessness with Bob aka Death Sonata, 2019–2022. Courtesy: The artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Los Angeles. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Elif Saydam: Alles Fantasy aka Meet me Later or Never, Really, 2022; Alles Gute aka Trying’to Love thru Grief, 2022. Courtesy: The artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Los Angeles. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Elif Saydam: Alles Gute aka Trying’to Love thru Grief, 2022. Courtesy: The artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Los Angeles. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Elif Saydam: Alles Fantasy aka Meet me Later or Never, Really, 2022. Courtesy: The artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Los Angeles. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Silvia Kolbowski: These Goods are available at _____2021, 2021. Installation view, GAK 2023. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Silvia Kolbowski: These Goods are available at _____2021, 2021. Installation view, GAK 2023. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
Video documentationen of Silke Thoss: The Big Shit Show, 2003 and Bob & Roberta Smith: Die Bremen Konferenz. Die berühmtesten großen Männer der Geschichte diskutieren die Probleme von Heute, 2003. Installation view, GAK 2023. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch
