Gregor Podnar

Galerija Gregor Podnar is pleased to announce Vadim Fiškin’s first solo exhibition in Berlin and the artist's participation at abc –art berlin contemporary / def – »drafts establishing future« public art projects for urban space at Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin, Sept. 22 – 27.
The work of Vadim Fiškin communicates the relations between science, personal experience, desire and imagination, metaphysics and pragmatism, artificial and real. Fiškin’s main area of investigation is science, its study methods and use of technological advances within a merely poetic approach. Many of his installations, sculptures, photographs, and drawings that are dealing for instance with geography, time, light, aeronautics, and meteorological phenomena, are informed by Fiškin’s particular sense of humor.
At the Galerija Gregor Podnar several new works of Vadim Fiškin are shown for the first time. tour en l’air is a spacious installation with helium filled star-shaped balloons floating simultaneously in the air, driven by a waltz of P.I. Tchaikovsky. In front of Magic Button (table version) the visitor is invited to press a button. Soon after, a computer-generated image and voice appears and says: "There is no magic... just an electronic relay, projection, some light effects...and soap bubbles..." A special light switches on, and soap bubbles appear.
A smaller-sized newly conceived work, entitled doppelganger (ball), is also on display, relating to the idea of teleportation. They are in juxtaposition with the statical appearance of Fiškin’s pictographic light sculptures such as White Planet and Red Star, Planet of Apes, Snowman and Red Star (all 2002/2009).
At abc / def we will be showing Vadim Fiškin’s Ping-Pong Electronic from 2007, a kinetic sculpture related to the process of repetition. A white ball is moving back and forward on a slant endlessly bounced by a hairdryer, which is triggered by an electronic time relay.
Vadim Fiškin (born 1965 in Penza, USSR) lived in Moscow until 1996; he currently lives and works in Ljubljana. His work has been presented in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including at three Venice Biennials (in 1995, 2003, and 2005); the 1st Valencia Biennial; the Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; the 3rd Istanbul Biennial; the 8th Baltic Triennial of International Art, Vilnius; eva+, Limerick; Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg; the Secession, Vienna; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; FRAC Lorraine, Metz; Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana; Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana; Contemporary Art Center, Moscow; XL Gallery, Moscow; Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Palazzo dell Ragione, Milano; BAWAG Foundation, Vienna; ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; MACRO Museum for Contemporary Art, Rome; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; and the Drawing Center, New York.
This exhibition has been made possible by support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.
For further information, please write to us at: berlin@gregorpodnar.com