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Katharina Grosse, mein Schreibtisch, das schneefeld, 2013. Installation view from Kurt-Kurt, Berlin. \u00a9 Sebastian Schobbert, 2013<\/p>\n Katharina Grosse, mein Schreibtisch, das schneefeld, 2013. Installation view from Kurt-Kurt, Berlin. \u00a9 Sebastian Schobbert, 2013<\/p>\n
Empty shop fronts with faded advertising for long-forgotten kebab spots and late night Sp\u00e4ti’s surround the Kurt-Kurt project space in Moabit, the former birthplace of the German writer Kurt Tucholsky. This was the location for Katharina Grosse’s latest Berlin exhibition \u201cmein schreibtisch, das schneefeld<\/i>\u201d (<\/b>my desk, the snowfield)<\/b> and the third in Kurt-Kurt\u2019s \u201cTemporarily Available\u201d exhibition series.<\/p>\n
Grosse is a prolific contemporary painter, with an oeuvre that extends beyond the canvas into sculpture and installation. She paints with a signature acrylic spray, in long gestural and expressionistic strokes that cover the surreal environments she creates out of commercial and domestic materials. Carefully arranged wood, steel, fabric and even soil are often all but covered in layers of her florescent spray. A former shop front, Kurt-Kurt is uncharacteristic of the artist\u2019s higher profile installations, which usually sprawl generously across expanses of museum floors.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless \u201cmein schreibtisch, das schneefeld<\/i>\u201d<\/b> proves to be a good representation of the artist\u2019s strong spatial sensitivity and visual intelligence. Walking into the space you are struck by a dominating mass of large wooden logs stacked up on top of one another like a great pile of tinder. Taken from a massive, recently felled chestnut tree, located in the vicinity of the artist\u2019s studio, the tree continues to maintain its pride \u2013 its former age and grandeur are a strong presence in the exhibition space. The room is covered in Katharina’s iconic spray, with several transparent and opaque colours forming into drippy layers and overflowing from the logs onto the ceiling and walls. Still, the exhibition is a demonstration of the artist\u2019s ability to exercise self-restraint: A tight balance is struck between the quantity of paint, colour selection and the modest dimensions of the room. Such restraint allows this work to breathe, and the paint to trace Katharina’s traversal through the space. Framed by the window facing the street, passing residents are invited to peer into the space and gaze at the radiant mass of blue, green, yellow and purple hues. A stark and welcome departure from the drabness of the surrounding greying architecture which maintains the feeling of a no-man\u2019s land, wedged between two historical sides of a rapidly changing city.<\/p>\n
The artist was present at the opening, and her fashion sense somehow seemed like an extension of her strong visual aesthetic. As the population of Berlin diversifies, projects like Kurt-Kurt provide an important platform for the ongoing public discourse of urbanisation. The project space aims to distinguish itself from the growing Berlin art world by being responsive to the feedback generated between project participants and the general public. Such an interaction helps the local community to contribute to its urban environment and ensures a healthy balance between art and city.<\/p>\n