Maik & Dirk Löbbert
12 Sep - 03 Nov 2007
MAIK & DIRK LÖBBERT
Art and reality – these are the two central poles in the work of Maik and Dirk Löbbert. Their aim: to break down the separation between the two areas so that they fluently merge to form one entity. Their works often consist of only minimal changes, hardly perceptible interventions which always adapt to their surroundings like a chameleon and therefore mostly first become visible on second glance. These site-specific interventions are the result of intensive examination of the circumstances of the respective situation. The two brothers carefully analyse what is on site in order to filter out the distinctive feature of the respective place, its characteristic and specific peculiarities. For their "subversive interventions" the artists then primarily use materials and elements which are already on site and which constitute its character. In this way they manage to create an inseparable unity between the artwork and its surroundings, in which the difference between what is given and what is designed is dissolved and the polarity of art and reality is led to a symbiosis: the context becomes the content of the work and the work becomes a component of the context.
For their third solo exhibition at Galerie Mezzanin Maik and Dirk Löbbert have developed a multi-part work which is especially conceived for the gallery spaces and reflects the exhibition situation on various levels. Single, originally autonomous elements – a cupboard, a carpet, a chain and others – are placed in the rooms in such a way that they fit into the situation in a site-specific manner and direct attention to the architectonic design: the floor, the wall, the mezzanine, the passage and the ceiling. The function of the space as an exhibition location for art is also taken as a theme: because the elements introduced by Maik and Dirk Löbbert are minimally changed, a tense interplay arises between two-dimensionality and volume, sculpture and painting, the seen and the unseen. The two brothers reflect and simultaneously subvert the fact that the gallery is also an art business location: during this exhibition visitors can take with them a free multiple with the title "Virus Marketing" which is produced in an edition of 1,000.
At this exhibition Maik and Dirk Löbbert show their distinctive artistic vocabulary that has characterised their work together since 1985, but here they answer questions particular to art more intensively. The separation does not only blur between context and artwork, what is given and what is designed, but also between autonomous and site-specific art, painting and sculpture, surface and space, reality and fiction, "art as commodity" and "art as gift". However, their intention is always the same: to question what is familiar and irritate the viewer to break through conventional definitions and common patterns of thought.
Anne Schloen
translation Steve Gander
Art and reality – these are the two central poles in the work of Maik and Dirk Löbbert. Their aim: to break down the separation between the two areas so that they fluently merge to form one entity. Their works often consist of only minimal changes, hardly perceptible interventions which always adapt to their surroundings like a chameleon and therefore mostly first become visible on second glance. These site-specific interventions are the result of intensive examination of the circumstances of the respective situation. The two brothers carefully analyse what is on site in order to filter out the distinctive feature of the respective place, its characteristic and specific peculiarities. For their "subversive interventions" the artists then primarily use materials and elements which are already on site and which constitute its character. In this way they manage to create an inseparable unity between the artwork and its surroundings, in which the difference between what is given and what is designed is dissolved and the polarity of art and reality is led to a symbiosis: the context becomes the content of the work and the work becomes a component of the context.
For their third solo exhibition at Galerie Mezzanin Maik and Dirk Löbbert have developed a multi-part work which is especially conceived for the gallery spaces and reflects the exhibition situation on various levels. Single, originally autonomous elements – a cupboard, a carpet, a chain and others – are placed in the rooms in such a way that they fit into the situation in a site-specific manner and direct attention to the architectonic design: the floor, the wall, the mezzanine, the passage and the ceiling. The function of the space as an exhibition location for art is also taken as a theme: because the elements introduced by Maik and Dirk Löbbert are minimally changed, a tense interplay arises between two-dimensionality and volume, sculpture and painting, the seen and the unseen. The two brothers reflect and simultaneously subvert the fact that the gallery is also an art business location: during this exhibition visitors can take with them a free multiple with the title "Virus Marketing" which is produced in an edition of 1,000.
At this exhibition Maik and Dirk Löbbert show their distinctive artistic vocabulary that has characterised their work together since 1985, but here they answer questions particular to art more intensively. The separation does not only blur between context and artwork, what is given and what is designed, but also between autonomous and site-specific art, painting and sculpture, surface and space, reality and fiction, "art as commodity" and "art as gift". However, their intention is always the same: to question what is familiar and irritate the viewer to break through conventional definitions and common patterns of thought.
Anne Schloen
translation Steve Gander