Christian Jankowski
15 Mar - 26 Apr 2008
Christian Jankowski
Welcome Home
Klosterfelde Gallery is looking forward to a new exhibition with Christian Jankowski. In Welcome Home the artist not only invites the public into his Berlin kitchen and in front of his fireplace but also onto his rooftop in his adopted hometown of New York.
On entering the gallery one first approaches the kitchen installation, Kochstudio (2004/08). Monitors are showing Christian Jankowski in conversation with TV chef and talkmaster Alfred Biolek. Four points of view of a cookery and talkshow event are displayed on these in real time - as long shot, medium shot, close-up and one displaying timecode. The performance took place in 2004 in the artist’s kitchen, which had been transported to the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and transformed into a temporary TV studio.
The displacement and overlap of meanings extends to the fact that Jankowski reverses the roles, inviting TV chef Biolek into his kitchen. Biolek and Jankowski are cooking bean soup philosophizing about the interrelation of high art, television and bathos, watching excerpts of three of Jankowski’s video works at the same time. The end result is a mixture of artist lecture, cookery show and raw TV format where the boundaries between television genre and artwork are fluid.
"Fireplace" is a sculpture, film and sound piece. The monitor placed on the floor shows an open fire, which was filmed while Jankowski was singing in front of his fireplace.
The video Rooftop Routine (2008) was devised during the Performa 2007 in New York, where the artist invited the public onto the roof of his house in order to attend a hula-hoop performance taking place on surrounding rooftops in the vicinity.
A Chinese neighbour that he had noticed one morning hula-hooping on the rooftop opposite his house inspired this idea. He was fascinated by the ruminant quality of this action in the midst of the intricate street canyons of Chinatown. Thus Jankowski found further hula-hoop dancers, acquired access to rooftops in his neighbourhood and won Mrs. Chua over to lead the dance – on a windy Sunday morning in November he opened his roof to an audience that could behold the many dozen hula-hoopers following Mrs. Chua’s movements on the nearby rooftops. She appears in the video as the friendly trainer exercising different moves to the music of her Walkman. The spinning colourful figures on the New York rooftops are akin to a dance ensemble led by a wonderful choreography of chance and of seeing and being seen.
For further information or images, please contact Esther Quiroga: esther.quiroga@klosterfelde.de
From April 3rd onwards there will be a presentation of the new edition by
Christian Jankowski made for Helga Maria Klosterfelde Editions at the Linienstrasse space, more info at helgamariaklosterfelde.de
For further information, please contact the gallery.
opening: April 3rd 2008, 6 - 9pm
duration of the exhibition: March 15th — April 26th 2008
opening hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 11 – 6 pm and by appointment
Welcome Home
Klosterfelde Gallery is looking forward to a new exhibition with Christian Jankowski. In Welcome Home the artist not only invites the public into his Berlin kitchen and in front of his fireplace but also onto his rooftop in his adopted hometown of New York.
On entering the gallery one first approaches the kitchen installation, Kochstudio (2004/08). Monitors are showing Christian Jankowski in conversation with TV chef and talkmaster Alfred Biolek. Four points of view of a cookery and talkshow event are displayed on these in real time - as long shot, medium shot, close-up and one displaying timecode. The performance took place in 2004 in the artist’s kitchen, which had been transported to the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and transformed into a temporary TV studio.
The displacement and overlap of meanings extends to the fact that Jankowski reverses the roles, inviting TV chef Biolek into his kitchen. Biolek and Jankowski are cooking bean soup philosophizing about the interrelation of high art, television and bathos, watching excerpts of three of Jankowski’s video works at the same time. The end result is a mixture of artist lecture, cookery show and raw TV format where the boundaries between television genre and artwork are fluid.
"Fireplace" is a sculpture, film and sound piece. The monitor placed on the floor shows an open fire, which was filmed while Jankowski was singing in front of his fireplace.
The video Rooftop Routine (2008) was devised during the Performa 2007 in New York, where the artist invited the public onto the roof of his house in order to attend a hula-hoop performance taking place on surrounding rooftops in the vicinity.
A Chinese neighbour that he had noticed one morning hula-hooping on the rooftop opposite his house inspired this idea. He was fascinated by the ruminant quality of this action in the midst of the intricate street canyons of Chinatown. Thus Jankowski found further hula-hoop dancers, acquired access to rooftops in his neighbourhood and won Mrs. Chua over to lead the dance – on a windy Sunday morning in November he opened his roof to an audience that could behold the many dozen hula-hoopers following Mrs. Chua’s movements on the nearby rooftops. She appears in the video as the friendly trainer exercising different moves to the music of her Walkman. The spinning colourful figures on the New York rooftops are akin to a dance ensemble led by a wonderful choreography of chance and of seeing and being seen.
For further information or images, please contact Esther Quiroga: esther.quiroga@klosterfelde.de
From April 3rd onwards there will be a presentation of the new edition by
Christian Jankowski made for Helga Maria Klosterfelde Editions at the Linienstrasse space, more info at helgamariaklosterfelde.de
For further information, please contact the gallery.
opening: April 3rd 2008, 6 - 9pm
duration of the exhibition: March 15th — April 26th 2008
opening hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 11 – 6 pm and by appointment