WHO CARES? – Social Responsibility in Contemporary Art | 10.07 – 30.08.2015
Participating artist:
Victor Alaluf
Dirk Biotto
Johannes Buss
Oh-Seok Kwon
Igor Vucic
Tim Wolff
On July 10, 2015, in the center of Berlin, Isabel Bernheimer will open her first Berlin exhibition “Who
Cares? Social Responsibility in Contemporary Art“ in the Residenz Monbijou next to Bodemuseum. The
artists under contract by Bernheimer Contemporary will exhibit their works in eleven spacious rooms
and investigate how art should or could assume responsibility in our society. Isabel Bernheimer, together
with the artists, invites the visitors to look, engage and reconsider.
Concept artist Jan Kuck criticizes with his installation PACKET-SOUP, a pool filled with thousands and
thousands of plastic bags, the wasteful and irresponsible handling of resources nowadays. With BLACK
GOLD the artist also portrays this problem, although with a slight ironic take. For this he uses golden
aluminum coffee capsules and pours them with special resin in the form of a gold ingot.
In the „Social Interaction“ themed room, the kitchen concept „ChopChop“ and the „SOS Trolley“ of
designer Dirk Biotto will be presented. Taking the Universal Design philosophy as its point of departure,
the kitchen concept „ChopChop“ embraces a holistic approach towards form language and functionality.
It is thus not just for preparing a meal but also meets many other demands of today. The exhibition
serves as a kick-off for the realization of the concept.
Painter Milana Schoeller has degrees in Business and Design Management and in Sustainable Development.
Informed by her background Shoeller combines her passion of art with the ideas that have
impressed themselves on her during her studies. Taking courses at Atelier Stockholm and joining Artist
Lab under mentorship of artist Peter Sköld, Schoeller began to transform her ideas and emotions onto
canvas.
Johannes Buss is on show in the foyer with “Big Bubbles Big Troubles.” The installation features UNcolored
garbage bags filled with air and sprayed-on UN logos thereby becoming a critical commentary
on the feeble efforts and achievements by the UN and the international community.
Victor Alaluf and Igor Vucic present their artworks in a room entitled „Borders.” Alaluf makes fine art
using materials he discovers – in this case barbed wire from the Israeli-Palestinian border. Vuvic’s work
“Ring” consists of shrapnel he collected in Sarajevo during the civil war.
Oh-Seok Kwon is on show in the room „Pollution and Recycling“ with, among other works, Untitled,
a collection of cigarettes smoked by the artist over a full decade. These are preserved in transparent
plastic bags with hand-written notes.
In the room „Mental Pollution“ artist Tim Wolff shows his 3 + 2 channel video installation „Madness to
Society“, in which short film sequences of TV-Commercials are re-arranged and combined into unexpected
social-motion sequences. Two more videos are presented in a different room entitled “Istanbul
and London.” Wolff is currently also participating at the “Walk the Line” exhibition at the Kunstmuseum
Wolfsburg.
No matter how different the approaches of individual artists are – all the artworks are connected by the
common idea of social responsibility.
In this exhibition, Bernheimer Contemporary also continues the tradition of a juxtaposing old masters
and contemporary art, first on show at the Vanitas Exhibition in Munich, which was curated by Isabel
Bernheimer. In the so-called Old Master Contemporary Edition, renowned old masters are edited and
reinterpreted by contemporary artists.
At Bernheimer Contemporary a varied program, featuring panel discussions or the One-Hour-Gallery
organized by Holger Doelle, accompanies the exhibition creating space for new approaches and ideas,
thereby making the exhibition a holistic concept for everyone concerned with social responsibility in
today’s world.