24 Jan 2013

Lukas Hoffmann & Ulrich Riedel I Eine Quersumme at Berlin Art Projects

Two-person exhibition‬‬‬ | January – March 2013
‪LUKAS HOFFMANN & ULRICH RIEDEL – A CHECKSUM‬‬‬‬
‪Opening | Friday 25 January | 6-9 p.m. | Mehringdamm 33 | 10961 Berlin‬‬‬‬


‪Please join us Friday, January 25, 6-9 p.m. for the opening of our newest exhibition in the gallery on Mehringdamm 33.‬ ‪Berlin Art Projects is kicking off the new year with 'A Checksum', a show of works by photographer Lukas Hoffmann and sculptor Ulrich Riedel.‬ ‬‬‬‬‬‬

‪The exhibition springs from the artists' desire to realize a joint exhibition project; the two friends are showing both individual works and pieces that clearly relate to each other. At the same time, the exhibition has less to do with the content and formal addition of individual works than contrasting or uncovering unique features of the respective media and the specific approach taken by each of the two artists. For both artists, the artistic process begins with constant search and observation in a world permeated by human beings.‬‬‬‬

Lukas Hoffmann's Stück Holz, Brohl ('Piece of Wood, Brohl') shows a close-up of a monolithic disc of wood aligned with a bare, concrete wall. At first a chance find, the shot makes the object the result of a concentrated, often days-long search for a certain structure/constellation, or the optimum relationship between form and light. Hoffmann documented the irretrievable and in to doing so, captures a unique moment. He creates an almost sacred-seeming depiction of a reality that eludes everyday perception and only reveals itself to the photographer's focused, searching gaze.

Ulrich Riedel's work ein Dutzend ('A Dozen'), on the other hand, shows only one of many possible moments. The twelve, laconically stacked objects made of thin ashwood are reminiscent of logs; the warm materials draw associations with a fire – and yet the polygonal logs are stylized, cored and robbed of their potential heat-generating value. What picture of reality remains when only form is left to indicate it? Riedel arranges the de-purposed logs in an intuitive way; he follows no models or patterns whatsoever. Every new installation is a new configuration – a multitude of mutually-competing variations, each one throwing its predecessor into question.

Other works in the exhibition document the autonomies of their presence as media. The peculiarities of photography – born of the implicit causality between the recorded image and its photographic representation – are juxtaposed with the sculptural object's unavoidable, material presence in space.

Lukas Hoffmann | born 1981 in Zug, Switzerland | 2003 - 2007 studied visual art at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris | 2009 - 2011 Programme de recherche La Seine (ENSBA Paris) | studio grants in Antwerp (2008/2009) and Berlin (2011) | regular solo- and group exhibitions | Hoffmann lives and works in Berlin

Ulrich Riedel | born 1979 in Berlin | studied philosophy and art history at Humboldt University in Berlin | Socrates Fellow, Sydney College of Fine Arts, Australia | studied visual arts at the University of the Arts in Berlin under Michael Schoenholtz, Tony Cragg, Florian Slotawa and David Evison | 'master class' Tony Cragg and Florian Slotawa | Riedel received various stipends and spent several semesters abroad | 2012/2011 exhibitions incl. Kunstverein Arte Noah (solo exhibition), Museum Kulturspeicher Würzburg, Motorenhalle Dresden | Riedel lives and works in Berlin