Karl Holmqvist
26 Jun - 01 Aug 2009
KARL HOLMQVIST
"I’ll Make the World Explode"
26. Juni - 01. August 2009
Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch is proud to host I'LL MAKE THE WORLD EXPLODE, the second Berlin one-person exhibition by artist Karl Holmqvist. This extensive survey of the artist's most recent works brings together a new video work, paintings and collages and a site-specific poster installation in the garden, at the center of which the artist will also do a live reading of his poetry on the night of the exhibition opening.
I'LL MAKE THE WORLD EXPLODE is quoted from the 2008 Grace Jones' song Corporate Cannibal, reflecting the kind of hubris involved in globalized ambition whether it involves a corporation, a brand or musical recording artist's tours. I'LL MAKE THE WORLD EXPLODE is also the title of a new half-hour video and poem, that explores human interrelations anywhere from Dancehall recording artists inciting homophobia, to the '-Why can't we all just get along?' quote from victim of police harrasment, Rodney King.
The distinctive figure of singer Grace Jones' has a towering presence also, in the form of her gay iconic status from the seventies' all the way to her recent comeback, and not least through her cross dressing persona shattering prejudice (fish, fowl or somewhere in-between?), enabling her audience to always rethink their priorities, not least in her native country of Jamaica and through to the whole world.
Fragments of the new poem appeared already in 2008, in the artist's book and edition ONELOVEWORLD, also included in the new exhibition in the form of a posted wallpaper on billboard sized wooden supports placed in the garden at Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch in a site-specific installation. Together with sets of new paintings and collages, it turns the entire gallery into one big Gesamtkunstwerk.
To animate this unique overview of all different formats of Karl Holmqvist's artistic activity, the artist will also be giving a live reading of his poetry from a small platform in the garden on the night of the opening. The poetry readings of Karl Holmqvist may transform into a rhythmic and repetitive, almost trance-like experience. Mixed with the nighttime sounds of the city of Berlin, it is intended also as a form of invocation or opening ceremony, immersing the exhibition's presence into its new surroundings, and through to those able to be there to take it in in its 'live' format;
'Pleased to meat you, pleased to have you on my plate...'
Recent Solo Exhibitions from Karl Holmqvist includes; BOOMTOWN at The Living art Museum, Reykjavik, I'M WITH YOU IN ROCKLAND at Argos Arts, Bruxelles and Entrevista con el Vampiro at Gaga Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, this year he will participate in The Malady Of Writing at MACBA, Barcelona and in Momentum, The Nordic Biennal Of Contemporary Art in Moss, Norway.
"I’ll Make the World Explode"
26. Juni - 01. August 2009
Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch is proud to host I'LL MAKE THE WORLD EXPLODE, the second Berlin one-person exhibition by artist Karl Holmqvist. This extensive survey of the artist's most recent works brings together a new video work, paintings and collages and a site-specific poster installation in the garden, at the center of which the artist will also do a live reading of his poetry on the night of the exhibition opening.
I'LL MAKE THE WORLD EXPLODE is quoted from the 2008 Grace Jones' song Corporate Cannibal, reflecting the kind of hubris involved in globalized ambition whether it involves a corporation, a brand or musical recording artist's tours. I'LL MAKE THE WORLD EXPLODE is also the title of a new half-hour video and poem, that explores human interrelations anywhere from Dancehall recording artists inciting homophobia, to the '-Why can't we all just get along?' quote from victim of police harrasment, Rodney King.
The distinctive figure of singer Grace Jones' has a towering presence also, in the form of her gay iconic status from the seventies' all the way to her recent comeback, and not least through her cross dressing persona shattering prejudice (fish, fowl or somewhere in-between?), enabling her audience to always rethink their priorities, not least in her native country of Jamaica and through to the whole world.
Fragments of the new poem appeared already in 2008, in the artist's book and edition ONELOVEWORLD, also included in the new exhibition in the form of a posted wallpaper on billboard sized wooden supports placed in the garden at Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch in a site-specific installation. Together with sets of new paintings and collages, it turns the entire gallery into one big Gesamtkunstwerk.
To animate this unique overview of all different formats of Karl Holmqvist's artistic activity, the artist will also be giving a live reading of his poetry from a small platform in the garden on the night of the opening. The poetry readings of Karl Holmqvist may transform into a rhythmic and repetitive, almost trance-like experience. Mixed with the nighttime sounds of the city of Berlin, it is intended also as a form of invocation or opening ceremony, immersing the exhibition's presence into its new surroundings, and through to those able to be there to take it in in its 'live' format;
'Pleased to meat you, pleased to have you on my plate...'
Recent Solo Exhibitions from Karl Holmqvist includes; BOOMTOWN at The Living art Museum, Reykjavik, I'M WITH YOU IN ROCKLAND at Argos Arts, Bruxelles and Entrevista con el Vampiro at Gaga Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, this year he will participate in The Malady Of Writing at MACBA, Barcelona and in Momentum, The Nordic Biennal Of Contemporary Art in Moss, Norway.