![\"Reversed](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Martin-Soto-Climent_Reversed-Blind_2010_courtesy-Karma-International_Zurich-and-the-artist.jpg\" "\\"Martin")
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\u00a0Abandoned items seized the space of AUTOCENTER, an independent exhibition space in Berlin \u2013 Friedrichshain. Broken blinds, fragments of plastic bags,\u00a0aluminium\u00a0panels taken from air- condition units, radiators or rolled doormats occupy the room and squat it in their own way \u2013 which makes a slovenly and derelict impression. However, these are precisely\u00a0organised\u00a0artifacts made by artists who were selected by SALTS \u2013 a contemporary art salon located in Birsfelden \/ Basel in Switzerland. The project came to Berlin as a part of mutual exchange (last summer SALT showed artists from AUTOCENTER) and creates bridge not only between two cities or two art-spaces but, above all, forms a discourse on the recent works by international artists.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cStepping stone\u201d plays with the inherent and essential nature of the things that surround us but do not pay attention to in everyday life. Things which are somewhere hidden or they are too obvious to catch our sight. The artists taking part in the show (Frank Altmann, Awst & Walther, Nina Beier, Eva Berendes, Stefan Burger, Martin Soto Climent, Adam Thompson) not only bring them to light but, moreover, questioning and \u201crecycling\u201d their widespread applications. The exhibition space looks as if the artists appropriated objects contained therein. Through rejecting the concept of mass production, they find the absurd in what is regarded as handicraft and manufactured.\u00a0 They create the environment where what seemed to be familiar becoming unknown.\u00a0 In the middle of the room suspends the work by Martin Soto Climent\u2019s\u00a0 (\u201cGraffiti Blind\u201d, 2010) \u2013 abstract sculpture made of blinds painted with spray paint, inspired by abandoned houses in the artist\u2019s home town of Mexico City. The sharp shape of the metallic blind became more subtle and dynamic, twirling around its axis, lost its intended function.<\/p>\n
The words \u201cdomestic\u201d and \u201cindustrial\u201d take new meanings.\u00a0 What was considered to be not personal becomes personal by marking it with artistic individuality. In the same time referring to global society and economy, consumption and wear and tear it becomes political without showing politics.<\/p>\n
In Nina Beier\u2019s \u201cThe Demonstrators (Broken Rope)\u201d posters of ripped ropes are draped over the radiators as towels that need drying. In fact they are stuck to it. Those stock images taken from publicity accessible database refer to absurd of visual culture, where everything is reduced to virtual representation.\u00a0 Similar response can also be found in circle paintings created with fingerprints (Awst & Walther, \u201cBiometric Paintings\u201d, 2012), which one of its meaning may relate to socio \u2013 political aspect of the pervasive dominance of technology in controlling our identities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Exhibited works through its form also take on a discussion about the role of abstraction in contemporary art and its representation today, putting questions whether it can be a dynamic platform for the public realm.\u00a0One of the most significant examples is Frank Altmann\u2019s \u201cAbstract 11\u201d(2011). His slides made of pieces cut out of plastic bags look like\u00a0geometric paintings from the beginning of 20th<\/sup> century. There is something sad inside them, some kind of nostalgia. On one hand they are homage to the masters of modern art, on the other\u00a0 – Altmann plays with the meanings of the original and reproduction and its sense in the contemporary consumer world. \u00a0<\/p>\n The presentation deals with the tradition of modernist discourse, initiated by Dada movement \u2013 what is art and what is not (but it\u2019s no longer interested in designated objects as art by placing them into the gallery) and where are the boundaries – if there are any – between subject and its significance, material and idea, private and public.\u00a0<\/p>\n Text by Weronika Trojanska<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0Abandoned items seized the space of AUTOCENTER, an independent exhibition space in Berlin \u2013 Friedrichshain. Broken blinds, fragments of plastic bags,\u00a0aluminium\u00a0panels taken from air- condition units, radiators or rolled doormats occupy the room and squat it in their own way \u2013 which makes a slovenly and derelict impression. However, these are precisely\u00a0organised\u00a0artifacts made by…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[259,260,261,262],"class_list":["post-3528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-autocenter","tag-martin-soto-climent","tag-nina-beier","tag-weronika-trojanska"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n