Artist: Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann
Exhibition title: In the unlikely event of fire
Venue: Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen, Germany
Date: September 20, 2020 – January 10, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunstverein Reutlingen
Is this the Age of Fire? This question is the starting point of Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann’s solo exhibition. He created new productions for the exhibition at the Kunstverein Reutlingen. With these he humorously traces the evolutionary, socio-political and aesthetic dimensions of burning things.
In this exhibition, the knowledge of the invincible interrelation between destruction and creation, between control and loss of power meets the creative means of a sculptor. Filigree motifs of documentary photographs depicting a fire damage burnt into photographic paper by laser bear witness to a private fate. In contrast, a room-filling installation consisting of a multitude of colored and flickering sky lanterns refers to the ambivalence between desire and prohibition. Moreover, it painfully reminds us of all the cancelled barbecues this summer. Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann, who lives and works in Hamburg, skillfully combines anthropology with event culture. He juxtaposes ready-mades known from art history in opposition to works that seem deliberately dilettante. In addition, the exhibition will be supplemented by loans from the Reutlingen Fire Brigade Museum, which will be re-contextualized alongside the contemporary works.
