Discover GlogauAIR’s Virtual Open Studios Online

photo: MiCKi CHOMiCKi. 

This week I went to an art exhibition like no other at GlogauAIR. It was a physical exhibition that won’t open to the public, at least not physically. GlogauAIR is a non-profit art space and residency located in Kreuzberg that offers 13 studios to international artists to live and create for three months at a time. During the coronavirus pandemic, artist residency and exhibition looks very different. Although each of the artists began by creating analog artwork, the exhibition this year is virtual, so all of the pieces had to be translated online. Some chose to simply photograph their work while others completely changed their media to reflect the virtual format. One of the residents is even a “virtual resident” creating art from far away and joining the community of artists through a screen.

I had the pleasure and privilege to be invited to visit the space during their Open Studios Exhibition. I spoke with each of the artists about their artwork and their time in Berlin during the pandemic. Here’s what each of them had to say:

 

Patrick Blenkarn and Monstserrat Videla Samper

 

Patrick Blenkarn and Montserrat Videla Samper, both based in Canada, come from a theatre background and executed a performance without a stage during their time at GlogauAIR. The pair were inspired by the lively culture of theatre in Berlin and the prevalence of posters advertising these events. To test the event horizon, they plastered the streets with posters for a performance that would never happen. The posters were for a show called Wie ein Hund, der sein Erbrochenen zurückkehrt, (roughly translated: like a dog that eats its own vomit) and featured a QR code that would take passersby to an intriguing Eventbrite page (I won’t say more here but check it out).

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

Right now, we’re operating in two plains. This is physical for us (gesturing to the physical display they’ve made in the space) and now we face the question of how to translate this document into a virtual document. We were thinking of it as three aspects. A- the poster on the street, then AB- the physical gallery, then AC- the virtual. We’re now thinking about how to display the AC. We think we’ll be working with something called Gather.town, which is an online interface where users can explore a project space and we can visit the locations where these posters were put up. I guess to answer your question, we don’t think we’re just going to take this and put it online (gesturing again to the physical display). Or the text from the Eventbrite will develop into something virtual.

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

We have wanted to see a theatre performance in Berlin for many years. And even though we only got to see a month’s worth of it, it was still a lot of new work, new artists, new stages. We saw about eight productions. Being in a space where that kind of performance artwork was respected and upheld, where younger people were participating was really inspiring. The theatre community here isn’t a desert—people go. Being in a place where posters existed for plays was a cultural difference; in Canada, we’ve lost a sense of the importance of analog. I think that was one of the first things we noticed when we landed here and so in some ways we responded to that.

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Listening, humor, DIY.

 

 

MiCKi CHOMiCKi

 

MiCKi CHOMiCKi is the only Hairtist I’ve ever met, let alone heard of: she creates art with hair. In her piece Hey Babe, your Hair’s Alright, MiCKi created nine “Bowigs” fashioned after David Bowie’s legendary mullet and used the Bowigs and Bowie’s legacy to discover Berlin. She photographed people around Berlin with the Bowigs and compiled them into a leather-bound album to be sold to a collector. The album does not have any context (it doesn’t even mention David Bowie) and is meant to be questioned in its afterlife. MiCKi hopes someone stumbles upon it in 50-60 years and thinks, “Why the hell do all these people have the same ridiculous orange mullet?” In her own words, “Hey Babe is about a loss of memory, it is a secret homage.” The photo album has also been translated into a video for the virtual exhibition.

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

I had to make a video; it was not supposed to be a video. It was supposed to be an experience, turning these pages because Berlin is so analogic, it’s not a digital city. And I really wanted to make an object that resembles the city.

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

Berlin itself, and the memory this city holds. I was raised by people who lived through the war. And I can never forget that. It was very important for me to experience the memory of the city.

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Concentrated, inspired, happy.

 

 

Rita Palma

 

Rita Palma is a Portuguese artist focusing on perceptions of identity and the fragile state of these illusions. Her paintings divorce subjects from contextual clues “in an attempt to express the uncomfortable moment of confrontation with the emptiness of the self.” Her series ANIMALS exemplifies change becoming ordinary in our modern society through portraits of people displaced from their personal contexts. She also has also transformed her room in GlogauAir into another installation called “Mutter” featuring a vagina on the ceiling, the room glowing with comfortable red hues. I felt like I was back in the womb.

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

For ANIMALS it really worked well because I took the paintings and displaced them in the forest, but nobody wants to go there. Under normal circumstances, I would have taken pictures and brought them to the gallery, but now I don’t even have to bring them to the gallery. You can just go to the online space and see them in the forest, I don’t have to curate the exhibition space. The paintings themselves are not the object, the installation (in the forest) is the object.

 What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

Displacement in general, this place is full of displaced people. Everyone is not from here. And we come to Berlin for one reason and Berlin is in lockdown—so we’re doubly displaced.

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Very special times.

 

 

Laure Winants

 

Laure Wintants grapples with environmental disasters through her artwork; a volcanic eruption, the burning Amazon or microplastics in the ocean are all subjects of hers. She works with photo etching, new media, and photography to document the fluctuating forces of nature. Despite featuring the environment, much of her work is not immediately discernible as natural; her current project features zoomed-in thermal images of lava pouring off of Mt. Stromboli and at first glance, the neon colors look anything but organic. Her next residency will be on a boat examining microplastics and creating art alongside scientific experts.

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

We need to think double, one virtual, and one physical. It’s a different way of showing our art. And it’s interesting to think of it differently because the people viewing it won’t be here. So we need to think about what can we add to the virtual that won’t be here.

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

A lot of things are new. New materials, new studio. And also here it’s nice to have all these interactions with the artists, it’s very interesting.

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Sharing, connection, friendship.

 

 

Silvestre Preciado

 

Silvestre Preciado built a stage in her room at GlogauAIR to capture the layered experience of online objects. Her installation A Stomached Elephant unpacks the mysticism attached to analog objects that find homes on the internet. Through her work on “algorithmic echo chambers,” she explores how the internet grants users exactly what they’re searching for; you hear yourself through the algorithm. This manifested in a staged installation of various paintings and sculptures ranging from a hand post masturbation to depictions of pandemic aesthetics.

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

Considering it all came from the internet I’ve been thinking about how the analog will translate back into something digital. I’ve enjoyed the idea of taking in corners and little pieces, kind of snapshots of something collectively larger. It’s difficult to consume everything all at once on the internet. You have to concentrate on different objects, that’s why we have tabs. We obsessively collect snippets of things so that’s kind of what I want to do here. And the way I want to document it is through those snippets, sort of returning it back to the digital source.

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

The party scene has inspired me in Berlin. But now during my residency, it’s been the silence, kind of that huge vacuum that came afterward. You don’t have that fear of missing out and can just hyper-focus on something because everything is so quiet. And I’ve enjoyed so much of what I never would have considered in Berlin because of the distraction that is offered through nightlife. 

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Contemplative, looking forwards and looking backward.

 

Sergio Femar

 

Sergio Femar is a Spanish painter who works exclusively with materials sourced from the streets. His work does not focus on a singular topic but on the universality of painting and the possibilities of color, space, and forcefulness of matter. Sergio uses secondhand materials to build art at the moment; he never has a preconceived notion of what he wants from a piece but allows the art to spontaneously unfold.

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

The virtual part has not affected my work. My work continues in the same way. In the virtual exhibition, I will just have images of my art.

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR? 

My inspirations are the current times, city, society, and environment. I think Berlin changed my mind and process a little bit. But I don’t have a specific influence. Daily life drives my work.

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

 Exploring, discovering, new.

 

 

Tea Eklund-Berglöw

 

Tea Eklund-Berglöw works with expressionistic painting and object arrangement to create art she feels personally drawn to. During her time at GlogauAIR, she focused on sculpture through object arrangement of similar things she felt an immediate connection towards. She takes a special interest in the ways we project feelings onto objects and aims to have the objects project feelings onto us through her art. When creating sculpture, she feels like she is “painting with materials.”

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

It’s always really tricky but it doesn’t feel so new to me because it’s been like this for a while now. It’s a lot of adapting to the virtual art scene. I just have to think about good documentation, I guess.

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

I think it’s been the same as always really: just having your own flow and continuing that. But now it’s been a lot of getting to know the area, city, and streets and trying to collect materials for this show. 

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Colorful, cold, warm.

 

 

Hyunwook Park

 

Hyunwook Park is a traditionally trained Korean painter who paints ordinary, unique moments and the disappearing of everyday life. His room at GlogauAIR is situated on the third floor with an excellent view into the neighbor’s windows. That view inspired his instillation during his residency. His paintings of windows show intimate moments of home and traces of “people over the rainbow.” His previous work has been mostly black and white and only at GlogauAIR has he begun experimenting with color.

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

Honestly, it doesn’t change it. All artists are the same: we do what we do. I’m searching for some special media that I can do online, but I haven’t found it yet. 

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

I’m really new in Europe, except in the UK, so I’ve met lots of different artists with different styles during my residency. I watch people through the windows, and I can’t tell what it is but I can see some differences between South Korea and the UK and Germany. It’s interesting.

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Long but short.

 

 

Miguel Angel Montoya

 

Miguel Angel Montoya is a Columbian artist currently based in Amsterdam and GlogauAIR’s first virtual resident. His project while at GlogauAIR focuses on an image he found of a Colombian woman wearing a dress, but the origins of the dress remain a mystery. It was not an Indigenous style or from Spanish colonizers. This dress fascinated Miguel and drove him to create a version of the garment himself to explore the uncertainty it holds. He intends to have someone wear the dress for the installation to give the ambiguous garment new life. As the first virtual resident, he’s spent a lot of time video calling coordinators and other residents at GlogauAIR. The non-profit intends to continue offering this option to artists who cannot make it to Berlin.

How has your art been influenced by the partially virtual nature of this exhibition?

I think it’s more intimate somehow. I don’t have the interaction with the artists in the residency. I can talk to them but because of the situation with this pandemic even though we see each other on the screen they’re wearing face masks. It’s another layer of distance but we find ways to become close. But I’ve used other tools like Telegram to share sketches. It’s different, it’s a different experience.

What’s something that’s inspired you during your time as a resident at GlogauAIR?

My obsession with this subject. Not knowing where this dress came from and wanted to deal with the uncertainty, really wanting to know but not knowing.

How would you describe your time as a resident at GlogauAIR in three words?

Different, interesting, extraordinary.

 

 

You can now view the GlogauAIR virtual exhibition online here until January 3rd, 2021.

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