KÖNIG GALERIE EXHIBITIONS

On my rounds for Berlin I went to the opening of two exhibitions at König Galerie. The exhibits were not particularly interesting, but the Gallery is really beautiful.
 On the first floor it's display the Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma" exhibition. The show consists of an installation of paintings on canvas and paper staged in main room of the gallery. The term trilemma describes a situation of conflict where you have to choose between three equally unfavourable or unacceptable options. Norbert Bisky uses this motif of the threefold dead-end as a conceptual starting point for his predominantly large scaleworks that render chaos, violence and destruction in bold intense colours and soft pastel tones against a blue backdrop. The work that gives the exhibition its title shows a man with his back turned to the viewer in front of a frame-filling three-colour trilemma diagram that in turn is superimposed with a geographical map. Details of burning rubble,palm fronds and an interwoven mass of people are visible within the depicted borders. Put in relation to one another, these different elements portray a situation of territorial conflict as experienced by Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv is one of the cities that Bisky visits regularly),and other cities today. The conceptual starting points of violence, instability and arbitrariness so present in Bisky’s work come to the fore here and produce images that in diverse and complex ways present a chronicle of our time.
 In the St. Agnes tower is's shows the an installation by Monica Bonvicini: Bonded Eternmale. Bonded Eternmale is a work developed by Monica Bonvicini 15 years ago, during her research on building material (Eternit, from where the title comes), gender and its consequently living design. The installation was inspired beside other lectures also on Emily Post book “The personality of a House” which core is a distinguished set of displays and norm for women and men’s domestic spaces, and to the male dwelling dream, well represented in the Bachelor’ s Pads published in the magazine Playboy from the beginning on.This installation is the sequel to “Eternmale” from 2001: A calendar the artist conceived based on the idea of the Pirelli calendar of the 80ies. The publication is a collection of MB drawings and collages around the stereotypical Bachelor’ s Pads, lifestyle and ironic etiquette. The idea of a domesticated male is at the base of the calendar.

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Norbert Bisky's "Trilemma"

Monica Bonvicini: Bonded Eternmale

Monica Bonvicini: Bonded Eternmale