OTOOT21COTFOCASIGP

From the exhibition On The Origins Of The 21st Century Or The Fall Of Communism As Seen In Gay Pornography currently at Kunstverein, Hamburg ...

Bärbel Bohley's Ohne Titel:

Peter Friedl's Ohne Titel (Kill And Go):

Bjarne Melgaard's Ape With Coat / Ejakulierender Affe:

Paul McCarthy's Brancusi Tree (Silver) (Butt Plug):

William E. Jones's video The Fall Of Communism As Seen In Gay Pornography:

Bohl's Cornet

Henning Bohl from his solo exhibition Cornet of Horse at Kunstverein Hamburg, 2011:

Sampling Bohl

Henning Bohl at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 2015:

Bohl at Berlinische Galerie, Berlin 2013:

Bohl at Kunstverein Hamburg, 2011:

Longing for spring ... in the middle of a Hamburg summer

I arrived at Hamburg yesterday only to be greeted by thunderstorm and endless rain.  Ironically, the title of the show I went to at Kunstverein Hamburg is called Im Frühling, Darling.*  Spring seems really out of place in the midst of all this summer weather.  Is it the nostalgic memory of days past that the show is calling for?  Or is it the longing for the return of a lost dream that we can all relate to?

Still image from Annika Kahrs's film Playing To The Birds, where a pianist plays, in front of birds, Franz Liszt's St. Francis of Assissi Preaching To The Birds:

Stills from Cordula Ditz's double video projection A Bankrupt Heart, where images of ruins of present-day Detroit are juxtaposed with that of the long deserted gold-mining town of Rhyolite, Nevada:

Inge Krause's minimalist rendition of the timeless infinite sky:

Axel Loytved's regenerated found objects/trash lending new lease of life to doomed destiny:

Postcards are expressions of longing.  As the exhibition progresses, postcards are continuously received from artists far and near.  Though lived individually, longings are communicated and experienced collectively.

* Im Frühling, Darling in German = In Spring, Darling in English

Hafen Hamburg

I can't believe my European trip this summer is finishing soon.  I'll be leaving Hamburg tonight and flying to London England, where I'll stay for a few more days before heading back to Toronto.  My last day in Hamburg is rather relaxed.  The day started with a ferry cruise in Hafen Hamburg.  My sights are mainly on architecture around the harbour.

At Altona:

BRT Architekten's 2006 Bürohaus Dockland, Hamburg:

Genkel Architekten's 2009 Neubau Hauptverwaltung Unilever in HafenCity, Hamburg:

Herzog & de Meuron's 2012 (to be completed) Elbphilharmonie in HafenCity, Hamburg:

At Speicherstadt:

In addition to all the architecture, I also saw some art in the harbour.  Kunstverein Hamburg has Bulgarian artist Plamen Dejanoff's installation The Bronze House erected right by the Unilever building.  It is the facade of an architectural design composed entirely of caste bronze modules.  Five other similar structures are currently being constructed in the Bulgarian city Veliko Tarnovo.

Dejanoff at Kunstverein Hamburg (offsite in HafenCity), 2011:

Cornet of Horse

My journey of contemporary German art exploration continued today in Hamburg.  I visited Deichtorhallen Internationale Kunst, Kunstverein Hamburg and Kunsthaus Hamburg and attended some nice exhibitions, especially at the last two venues.  Henning Bohl's solo exhibition Cornet of Horse at the Kunstverein is what I like most.  Bohl explored different possibilities for generating picture motifs and how art could be presented and staged.  His architectural sensibility is what makes his works interesting.

Bohl at Kunstverein Hamburg, 2011:

In addition to his spatial installations, Bohl turned his canvasses into amplifiers for Sergei Tcherepnin's music by picking up the vibrations of the sound.  The result is some glitchy experimental electronic sound I have always loved.

Black's aesthetics of fragility

I first saw Karla Black's works two years ago at Hamburg's Kunstverein.  Her installations often employ such ephemeral material as chalk, toothpaste, lipstick, hairspray and other cosmetics products on cellophane and sugar paper.  The tension between the resultant fragile pieces and the robust architectural backdrop creates a strange sense of excitement.

Black at Kunstverein, Hamburg 2009:

Black at Saatchi Gallery, London 2010: