Via Lewandowsky
Homezone
05 Mar - 10 Apr 2005
The exhibition is being held as part of the "Heimat Modernism" project, a joint initiative by a number of Leipzig institutions and groups, funded by the kulturstiftung des bundes. Its organiser, Experimentale e.V., was set up by the Leipzig Forum for Contemporary Music, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Office for Urban Projects, General Panel and raum4.
On 04.03.05, at 8 pm, the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig is opening a one-man exhibition by Via Lewandowsky. This is being shown as part of the “Heimat Modernism” festival, Leipzig. Empty, destroyed or deformed showcases, a knotted, “twitching” baseball bat, a wall which transpierces a wardrobe, a Siemens wall clock with a rotating dial over a cut-up desk, a buzzing house-fly, a neon slogan “Der Sozialismus siegt” (Socialism is victorious), all these are objects which on different levels might stand for victory and progress, but also for excruciating endlessness and broken-off normality. Lewandowsky in his exhibition addresses social and subjective loss, parodies former greatness and speaks of the pleasure in its downfall. With the example of the concepts of utopia and home he stretches an arc from the demand for radical change to a simultaneous yearning for the familiar. While home means a continuum, a recognition, a place which moves slowly, utopia stands for radical change, the new, the better, but also the unknown, for a possibility of realisation, even if it never becomes reality.
But Lewandowsky also questions to what extent home can be conceived as utopia. We inevitably think of Ernst Bloch's conception of home as something that "something which shines into the childhood of all and in which no one has yet been”. To the same extent Lewandowsky is interested in the moment at which the great plan becomes isolated and a parody of itself, as expressed among others in the exhibition in the neon slogan “Der Sozialismus siegt”. Such a slogan was once prominent on a high-rise building in Dresden and positioned to be widely visible. Removed from its position, set up in the display window of the GfZK's new building, the sentence on the one hand parodies the utopian promises of Socialism; on the other it stands for loss: of a society's promise, belief or hope. The exhibition can be seen very much as metaphorical; it also stands for the breakdown of Modernism. This presents no grounds for sadness, however. In Lewandowsky's words: “Similarly to a stranded whale we can now make out the full extent of greatness become functionless. The breakdown is already something funny; the sight of it can be enjoyed with pleasure.”
The exhibition's spatial concept reflects Lewandowsky's issue: “Just like after a house move, an event, a temporary use, an alteration, the gallery appears deserted. The objects left behind stretch like a trail – connected by visual axes – from space to space. Their presence seems unreal, inappropriate. They are situations which in different ways touch on the concepts of home and utopia.”
Via Lewandowsky was born in 1963 in Dresden, where from 1982 to 1987 he studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste. Shortly before the collapse of Communism he moved to West Berlin and in 1992 he took part in the “documenta IX”. He was and is represented in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, among them “Deutschlandbilder” (1997), “After the wall” (2000) and “Das XX. Jahrhundert. Ein Jahrhundert Kunst in Deutschland” (2000). In 1995 Lewandowsky was the first winner of the Leipzig newspaper LVZ Art Prize.
Curated by Barbara Steiner und Heidi Stecker
On 04.03.05, at 8 pm, the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig is opening a one-man exhibition by Via Lewandowsky. This is being shown as part of the “Heimat Modernism” festival, Leipzig. Empty, destroyed or deformed showcases, a knotted, “twitching” baseball bat, a wall which transpierces a wardrobe, a Siemens wall clock with a rotating dial over a cut-up desk, a buzzing house-fly, a neon slogan “Der Sozialismus siegt” (Socialism is victorious), all these are objects which on different levels might stand for victory and progress, but also for excruciating endlessness and broken-off normality. Lewandowsky in his exhibition addresses social and subjective loss, parodies former greatness and speaks of the pleasure in its downfall. With the example of the concepts of utopia and home he stretches an arc from the demand for radical change to a simultaneous yearning for the familiar. While home means a continuum, a recognition, a place which moves slowly, utopia stands for radical change, the new, the better, but also the unknown, for a possibility of realisation, even if it never becomes reality.
But Lewandowsky also questions to what extent home can be conceived as utopia. We inevitably think of Ernst Bloch's conception of home as something that "something which shines into the childhood of all and in which no one has yet been”. To the same extent Lewandowsky is interested in the moment at which the great plan becomes isolated and a parody of itself, as expressed among others in the exhibition in the neon slogan “Der Sozialismus siegt”. Such a slogan was once prominent on a high-rise building in Dresden and positioned to be widely visible. Removed from its position, set up in the display window of the GfZK's new building, the sentence on the one hand parodies the utopian promises of Socialism; on the other it stands for loss: of a society's promise, belief or hope. The exhibition can be seen very much as metaphorical; it also stands for the breakdown of Modernism. This presents no grounds for sadness, however. In Lewandowsky's words: “Similarly to a stranded whale we can now make out the full extent of greatness become functionless. The breakdown is already something funny; the sight of it can be enjoyed with pleasure.”
The exhibition's spatial concept reflects Lewandowsky's issue: “Just like after a house move, an event, a temporary use, an alteration, the gallery appears deserted. The objects left behind stretch like a trail – connected by visual axes – from space to space. Their presence seems unreal, inappropriate. They are situations which in different ways touch on the concepts of home and utopia.”
Via Lewandowsky was born in 1963 in Dresden, where from 1982 to 1987 he studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste. Shortly before the collapse of Communism he moved to West Berlin and in 1992 he took part in the “documenta IX”. He was and is represented in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, among them “Deutschlandbilder” (1997), “After the wall” (2000) and “Das XX. Jahrhundert. Ein Jahrhundert Kunst in Deutschland” (2000). In 1995 Lewandowsky was the first winner of the Leipzig newspaper LVZ Art Prize.
Curated by Barbara Steiner und Heidi Stecker