Jenny Brockmann
Uncertain Knowledge
Opening : 10.03.2017, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Introduction : Helene Bosecker
Exhibition : 10.03.2017 – 21.04.2017
In the solo exhibition, “Uncertain Knowledge”, the artist Jenny Brockmann deals with the handling and the effects of uncertain knowledge in interaction with humans. Whether it is the weather forecast, the forecast of a volcanic eruption or the probabilities of the next earthquake – with the need to maximize our safety, information about these events are transformed into future facts and thus produce the so-called uncertain knowledge.
Using the media kinetics, sculpture, drawing and photography, Brockmann’s works across a variety of genres and questions the connection of scientific data collection and its shifting transfer by attempting to apply it to everyday life. Delicate dotted landscapes, kinetic light installations, massive and fluid magnetic connections and haptic photographs have an aesthetic appeal that follows Brockmann’s artistic intent. Poetically and precisley, this exhibition, through the presentation of works from 2017, provides a concise insight into Brockmann’s work from the last years.
Program “Talking about Uncertain Knowledge” Saturday 25th of March 2017
1 p.m. – 1.30 p.m. : Introduction – Helene Bosecker
1.30 p.m. – 2.30 p.m. : Lecture – Svenja Schüffler & Anne Schreiber
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. : Collective Dialogue (in English) – Madelen Lindgren & Jan Stewen
4.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m. : Artist Talk with Jenny Brockmann
We are pleased to inform you about the upcomming public lectures for the Jenny Brockmann exhibition ‘Irreversible Moment’ at Schering Stiftung.
Information released by Schering Stiftung :
July 2, 2016, 4–7 p.m.: “Chance and the ‘Irreversible Moment’”
Lecture by Horst Bredekamp / Working meeting of the WILLMS NEUHAUS FOUNDATION – Chance and Creation
(in German)
Prof. Dr. Horst Bredekamp, art historian and representative of the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, will examine the interfaces and meanings of chance and the ‘Irreversible Moment’. The event takes place at the invitation of the WILLMS NEUHAUS FOUNDATION – Chance and Creation, which has devoted its work to the interdisciplinary study of chance since 2013.
Please register (by June 27, 2016) at: anmeldung@scheringstiftung.de. (FULLY BOOKED)
July 5, 2016, 7–9 p.m.: “Interpretations of the ‘Irreversible Moment’”
Public lecture evening
Moderator: Christina Landbrecht, Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Contributors: Kevin Bethke (Department of Chemistry, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Franka Herwig (accordionist), Andreas Menzel (Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), and Jeremy Wade (dancer, choreographer)
In the form of lectures, music performances and lecture performances the four participating research partners will provide insights into their individual approaches, and research findings about the ‘Irreversible Moment’.
Please register (by June 30, 2016) at: anmeldung@scheringstiftung.de.
July 9, 2016, 2–5 p.m.
July 15, 2016, 4–7 p.m.
“Field Research ‘Irreversible Moment’”
Interdisciplinary workshop, workshop leader: Viktor Bedö (in German)
The workshop is investigating the everyday manifestations of ‘Irreversible Moments’. Based on the theme of the exhibition, workshop participants will develop a working definition of the ‘Irreversible Moment’ and become field researchers, capturing such moments as they experience them in their everyday lives. The workshop will consist of two sessions in the exhibition space and the individual collecting work as field researchers in the interim period. The results of this workshop will flow into the artist’s future research and will thus become part of the body of research on the ʿIrreversible Moment’.
Exhibition visitors can participate in the research process as silent observers.
5 people can actively participate in the workshop (both dates required), please register (by June 27, 2016) at: anmeldung@scheringstiftung.de.
HORIZON
Text by Christoph Tannert
The enquiring intellectual enthusiasm with which J.B. develops her works, as both an autonomous object and an example (in the sense of a discursive structure), is unusual in the context of contemporary art. Since the sense of artistic purpose in the work of Joseph Beuys faded away, there has been less and less to “learn” in exhibitions by young artists. People with artistic and political interests hardly interact any more, although they regularly promise each other that they will try to find common themes. In this sense, J.B. is an artist who builds bridges and expands philosophical discourses. The historically new aspect of the debates she sets in motion lies in the sphere where the autonomous, art-related aspects of the artwork intersect with questions of audience participation in the aesthetic process of the work’s reception, i.e. in this case its creation or completion.
J.B. dispenses with all cheap showmanship, and thus seems closer to German than American tradition, and she sets particular store by making each artwork a means of communication, in order to manufacture social relations. I would say that J.B. interprets and produces art with a sense of reality, and a belief in its sense of possibilities. She is a sculptor in both the classical and the Beuysian sense. This means that her art is ultimately human action, even when it coalesces into things. And it has retroactive effects on people’s actions. J.B. uses experiential spaces, explanatory models and experimental arrangements to show how this interplay works. For over ten years she has been experimenting with habitual, ethical and existential territories of body and space, going as far as the performative exploration of urban space (1). She contemplates the essence of space, reflects on being and emptiness, interfaces and nothingness.
She has often animated her sculptures mechanically, within the conceptual framework of organicistic fantasies, to give them a pseudo-organic character; at other times she has transposed human and organic elements onto spatial contexts, to proclaim the oneness of the universe. In this way, art is able to feel its way towards realities to which enlightened common sense, by its very nature, remains blind.
(1) In the projects “Chronicle of a place” (2014, Tel Aviv), “East River Expedition” (2013, New York) and “Istanbul” (2013). These are conceived as snapshots of the self, are the experience and the reflection of a subjective experiential space, and disrupt the tourist’s gaze.
Christoph Tannert (born in 1955 in Leipzig) is an author and curator based in Berlin. He is the director and project coordinator of Künstlerhaus Bethanien.
I am working on a series called ‘Parallel Line Up’ (drawing, photography, film, performance, sculpture) since 2012. I started selecting stones like Lambporphyr or Hohwaldgranite in local quarries and working on sculptures that were dynamically linked to the temperature of their surroundings.In 2014 I exhibited a stone sculpture (Stone, H0,6m x 3m x 3m, 2014) at the German Consulate in New York, whose stones come from a quarry near Dresden, and were lifted and lowered by an air cushion, in accordance to the temperature in Berlin. Other sculptures like ‘M 00012-02-05’ (H60cm xT25cmxB40cm, Lambporphyr (granite), steel, cable, motor, 2014, see picture) move according to Central European time intervals or open up at dawn and close at dusk. These works deal with the idea of location and dislocation of objects and material and how data is used and interpreted in our present time [1]. I collected myself data (weather data, material, drawings, notes) and documented the places where data come from: meteorological stations, geological observation centers, volcanic observatories. I am working currently with rocks of volcanic provenience, connecting them with the seismic data from their origin place.
‘Chronicle of a Place’, 2013-2015 is a performance and installations project in public spaces in New York, Istanbul and Tel Aviv. In the framework of this researchbased, time and sitespecific project I embarked on paths which are related to the history of German emigrants in these cities [1]. In New York I went on the tidal East River with a small motorized rubber boat, in Istanbul I took a straight line (passing through houses and upon the water) from the Sirkeci station to the Galata tower urban landmark and in TelAviv I spent three hours time in public space at nine stations on a spiral-shaped route.On selected spots I took measurements, worked on drawings and notes, I took photos and film sequences and collected materials and water. In my studio in Berlin I analyzed my collection, working on maps, photocollages and films, assorting and cataloguing the material samples. For each place a diary related site description emerged, constituted by the different media.On every place, where these materials will be shown, I will continue to take measurements in order to proceed to workon an evergrowing archive.
In the ‘Embodiment Series’ I transferred [1] qualities of the human body onto space. In the installation ‘Shelter’ (granite, copper pipe, motor, 2005), two sculptures in red granite, which refer to the shape of a human heart (H50cm x B50cm x D60cm) follow a rhythmical movement. The stones are attached to the ceiling by copper pipes that bring the sound into the installations’ adjoining rooms. ‘The Mole’ (paper, wax, motors, sensors, 2009) consists of three yellow structures which are activated by the visitors’ movement through the space. The ‘Hug’ (H2,5m x B2m x T1m, wood, textile, pneumatic valves, switches, 2007) is an apparatus which embraces a person who activates the switch. It corresponds to the principle of the ‘hug-machine’ that the scientist and autist Temple Grandin created in order to heal herself from the disease. The ‘Cell’ (H3m x B2,5m x T2,5m, steel, hoses, pneumatic, 2007) is an installation where the walls move like a huge chest in breathing rhythm up and down emitting a wheezing sound.
Biography
1976: born in Berlin 1996-2007: technical education; degree in Literature, Philosophy and Architecture 2002-2007: art degree in Udk Berlin; art study at Hunter Collage in NYC/ USA 2007: Masterstudent by Prof. Rebecca Horn in the Udk Berlin 2010-2011: Teaches at TU Berlin, Institute for Architecture, subject Art; lives and works in Berlin: Study visits in St. Petersburg, London, Istanbul, NYC, Basel
Prizes and Scholarships
2005-2008: FES scholarships for outstanding artists 2007: Foreign scholarships from university partnerships between Udk, Berlin and Hunter Collage, NYC 2009-2011: Atelierfunding from BBK Berlin 2010: Project funding by Karin Abt Straubinger Stiftung Gastaufenthalt in Gästeatelier des Werkraums Warteck pp, Basel/ CH 2009-2013: Atelier scholarship from BBK Berlin 2013: Scholarship for an international exchange programm
Exhibitions (selection)
2000: „Wendeköpfe“, Berlin; „Rondell und Zeitkreise“, Kulturforum, Berlin 2001: „Northern Seat“, Nordart, Rendsburg; „Helden der Arbeit“, Reinbeck-Hallen, Berlin „Die Klassikmaschine“, Kulturforum, Berlin; „Fontanelle“, Öffentlicher Raum, Berlin 2002: „Birds` Fight“, Museum Manege, St. Petersburg; „Asbest“, Berlin 2003: „Beneath the Earth“, Kulturforum, Berlin; „Boots“, Kunstherbst, Art Forum Berlin; „The derelict sensation“, St. Pancras, London 2004: „Ringstadien“ Victoriastadt, Berlin; „Klangbank“, Berlin 2005: „Rotonautica“, La Fabrik, Berlin; „Schutzraum“, 100st anniversary, Sophiensäle, Berlin 2006: „Tiger im Löwenpalais“, Stiftung Starke, Berlin 2007: „La Intimidad y el distanciamento“, Museo de Arte de El salvador,San Salvador „Coldstore“; Coldstore Gleisdreieck, Berlin 2008: „Schloss und Gut Liebenberg“, Liebenberg; „Blei sucht Fleisch“, Galerie Schaltkreis, Berlin 2010: „Art of engineering“, Transmediale, Technisches Museum, Berlin; „Testphase 1: Glück“, Kasko, Basel/ CH; galerie gerken, Berlin (Einzelausstellung); „Gedok-Neuaufnahmen“, Verborgenes Museum, Berlin 2011: „Eine Art Aufruhr“, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin; Gruppenausstellung, galerie gerken, Berlin; Architekturmuseum TU, Berlin 2012: „Außer Gleichgewicht“, galerie gerken, Berlin (Einzelausstellung); „Für Hunde in der Zentralgrube“, Projektraum M3, Berlin 2013: „Galata Field Trip“, Öffentlicher Raum, Istanbul; „East River Expedition“, Öffentlicher Raum, NYC/ USA; „Lebenssichten“, Gedok, Berlin 2014: „Air“, Deutsches Generalkonsulat, NYC/ USA; „Jenny Brockmann“, galerie gerken, Berlin; “Chronicle of a Place”, Projektraum Friedrichshain, Berlin; “Zum Zufall”, Kunsthaus Potsdam, Potsdam; “Dark Times”, Genia Schreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv; “Byob”, ISCP, New York; “Chronicle of a Place”, Artport, Tel Aviv 2015: “Parallel Line Up”, Breiddalssetur, Breiddalsvik, Iceland; “Peekskill Projekt 2015”, Peekskill, NY; “Urban Synesthesia”, Kaohsiunh Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; “The Instability of a Moment in Continuity”, Institute of Physics, HU Berlin; “Ocean Contemporary”, Gedok Gallery, Berlin 2016: “Circular Movements”, Kunsthaus Potsdam, Potsdam; “Gedok Urban”, Kommunale Galerie Wilmersdorf, Berlin; “Geheimnis”, Kunsthaus Potsdam, Potsdam; “Open Lab ‚Irreversible moment’”, Schering Stiftung, Berlin; “The Visible and the Perceptible”, Elektrownia, Radom, Poland 2017: “Zeit”, Vögele Kulturzentrum, Schweiz; “Ohne Titel”, Galerie Gerken, Berlin (Einzelausstellung)
Publications
„Helden der Arbeit“, 2000, Kulturwerk Oberschöneweide, Berlin; „international festival of experiment and performance“, 2002, St. Petersburg; „The Matrix“, 2004, TU Berlin; „La Intimidad y el distianciamento“, 2007, Museo de Arte de El Salvador; „Chateau Ivre“, Verlag Mattheus und Seitz, 2007, Berlin; „Blei sucht Fleisch“, Galerie Schaltkreis, 2008, Berlin; „Schloss und Gut Liebenberg“, GFK, 2008, Berlin; „Werkansichten von Jenny Brockmann“, galerie gerken, 2010, Berlin; „Positionen 1960 – 2010, Gedok Berlin“, Gedok, 2010, Berlin; „Außer Gleichgewicht“, 2012, galerie gerken, Berlin; „50 Jahre HaL“, HaL, 2013, Berlin; „Zum Zufall – Schriftenreihe Band1„, Willms Neuhaus Stiftung, 2014, Berlin; „Dark Times“, Genia Schreiber University Gallery, 2014, Tel Aviv; “Urban Synesthesia”, Kaohsiunh Museum of Fine Arts, 2015, Kaohsiunh, Taiwan; „Irreversibler Moment“, Schering Stiftung, 2016, Berlin; „Zum Zufall – Schriftenreihe Band3„, Willms Neuhaus Stiftung, 2016, Berlin; „The Visible And The Perceptible„, Elektrownia, 2017, Radom, Polen
Lectures, Workshops
2010-2013: “Re’up Merzbau” Workshop Institut für Architektur, TU Berlin; “Real Experience” Workshop Institut für Architektur, TU Berlin; “Mobile City Pieces” Workshop Institut für Architektur, TU Berlin; “Test phase1: happiness”, Performance in Kasko, Basel, Switzerland; “Chronicle of a Place”, Performance Serie in Tel Aviv, Istanbul, NYC; “Embodiment”, Performance Serie in Berlin; Unterschiedliche Workshops in Berlin, Basel, St. Petersburg, London 2014: ISCP Salon zusammen mit Michaela Graeve, ISCP, New York; Artist Talk im Gespräch mit Tali Ben Nun, Artport, Tel Aviv; Artist Talk “Zum Zufall”, Kunsthaus Potsdam, Potsdam; “Wall Stories”, Workshop in Zusammenarbeit mit der Fichtelgeb. Schule, Berlin; “Horizon”, Workshop in Zusammenarbeit mit der Fichtelgeb. Schule, Berlin; “Chronicle of a Place”, Workshop in collabor. with Fichtelgeb. School, Berlin; “Chronicle of a Place”, Performance Serie in Tel Aviv, Istanbul, NYC 2015: Artist Talk, Skaftfell, Seydisfjördur, Iceland; “Data flows and Landscape Observations”, Breiddalssetur, Breiddalsvik, Iceland; Artist Talk, “Urban Synesthesia“ Kaohsiunh Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; Workshop “Chronicle of a Place“, Peekskill Project, Peekskill , US 2016: Artist Talk, “Gedok Urban“, Kommunale Galerie Berlin; Artist Talk, “Geheimnis“, Kunsthaus Potsdam; Workshopreihe “Chronik eines Ortes – kulturelle Bildung für Menschen aus Flüchtlingsunterkünften“; “Der ‚Irreversible Moment‘ und der Zufall“, Schering Stiftung, Berlin; “Interpretationen des ‚Irreversible Moments‘ und der Zufall“, Schering Stiftung, Berlin; “Workshop ‚Irreversible Moments‘“, Schering Stiftung, Berlin; Artist Talk, “The Visible and the Perceptible“, Elektrownia, Radom, Polen 2017: Artist Talk, Vögele Kulturzentrum, Schweiz; Artist Talk, Galerie Gerken, Berlin
Press
Summary of the article “Kein zurück: Jenny Brockmanns künstlerische Forschungen”, taz. Die Tageszeitung, 07.07.2016
The idea of the irreversible moment, a term borrowed from physics describing processes, is applied to instant moments. Cooperating with scientist and musicians, the artist visualizes the point in time hot wax solidifies in cold water or a piece of music resonates without its variations ever repeating. Brockmanns exhibition in the Schering Stiftung, which is open until the 24th of July 2016, also confronts visitors themselves; the work “Sitz #12”, a seesaw for up to 12 persons, can only be calibrated by participants responding to each other’s weight. Jenny Brockmann is not finished with the project “Irreversibler Moment” as of yet.
