Kunstverein Göttingen

Mainly Fair Later at Kunstverein Göttingen is Lena Marie Emrich’s first institutional solo show. The title of her exhibition refers to the uncertainty of future forecasts, yet contains a careful inkling of hope, at the same time. Emrich mixes scientific research findings with a kind of poetic form language, as well as examining objects and phenomenons for their aesthetic and social relevance.

For her exhibition at Kunstverein Göttingen, Emrich shows a selection of sculptures and graphic works, as well as a sound installation, which connect her artistic work with meteorological phenomenons. Everyday shapes acting as carriers of emotions, repeatedly act as starting points for her work. For example, Emrich addresses a look into the clouds, by deconstructing the structure of airplane windows, to create multilayered plexiglass sculptures. In the series “Mainly” (2020), the artist attributes a shiny, iridescent and mirroring surface to her replica of public-toilet-style hand dryers, with the help of chameleon car paint. The objects are named after typhoons and react to the varying perspectives and light conditions. The curtains of the “Walk through series” (2020), equally await activation by the visitor’s movement through the space. The arrangement of the pearls on the material is akin to cloud structures, which Emrich bases on research results from the Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen. Emrich’s choice of motifs, as well as materials, manages to combine feelings of illusion and disillusion; of shaping and dissolving; and invites the viewer to take on new perspectives.

In the staircase of the Künstlerhaus Emrich shows the growing archive “Working Nails” (2019-) of her and Zuza Golińska (*1990, Gdańsk). The exhibition was produced in cooperation with Oliver Schlenczek and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c Eberhard Bodenschatz of the Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen; the Göttingen-based auto painter Smart Repair; the advertising-design company Werbetechnik Göke from Göttingen, as well as the musician Philipp Maier, aka Santé.

On the occasion of Emrich’s exhibition, a book will be published in Fall 2020, in cooperation with the author Marlene A. Schenk, the curator Tomke Braun and re:sonar publishers from Hannover.

Lena Marie Emrich (born 1991 in Göttingen) lives and works in Berlin. In 2017, she graduated from the Kunsthochschule Weißensee Berlin and Academy of Fine Arts Warsaw. Her works have been shown at the gallery Bubenberg, Paris (2019), the Kunsthalle Osnabrück (2019), the Kunstraum LLC, New York (2018) and the Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin (2018), among others. July 2020, sees the start of her project Flagge Zeigen with Susanne Prinz at the Lake Scharmützel in Brandenburg, funded by the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn. From 2021to 2022, Emrich has a been awarded a work scholarship at the Villa Minimo by the Kunstverein Hannover.