Ulla von Brandenburg
09 Feb - 16 Mar 2013
ULLA VON BRANDENBURG
Eigenschatten – Ombra Propria
9 February - 16 March 2013
Monitor is delighted to announce the Italian solo debut of German artist Ulla von Brandenburg, with her magnificent video Shadowplay presented at Frieze Projects 2012 in New York and a new inspiring installation conceived specially for the gallery, the result of six months of research conducted in Rome by the artist. The project is a collaboration between Art: Concept – who represents Ulla von Brandenburg in Paris – and Monitor as an artist exchange between the 2 galleries.
Von Brandenburg’s artistic lexicon is an artful and effortless foray into a variety of media, from film to drawing, installation and performance. Her films and videos are a thorough exploration of the mechanisms that power the language of theatre, with particular attention to the performative and psychological building blocks that make up each individual character. Considerable importance is attached to the formal aspect of von Brandenburg’s work, and is in fact one of the distinguishing traits of her concepts.
In Shadowplay Ulla von Brandenburg has borrowed elements both from the Commedia dell’Arte tradition and from the Ombres chinoises shadow puppetry that was popular in 19th century France. The result is a densely powerful, yet impalpable atmosphere in which the delicate movements of the actors, measured and sinuous, immerse the viewer within a suspended and timeless dimension.
A woman and two men, dressed in their costumes for the performance, are together in a theatre dressing room. They put on their makeup and begin a duel, singing heart-wrenching words to the music of what sounds like an ancient German ballad that has been composed specially by von Brandenburg together with Laurent Montaron and which helps underline the unreal, almost fairy tale quality of the story.
It is customary for von Brandenburg to present her films by contextualising them within a kind of “new set”, conceived and designed specifically for the exhibition space in question with fabrics, heavy drapes and even flats.
In her large-scale installation Eigenschatten I – VI, Ulla von Brandenburg has experimented for the first time with a technique for photography printing using chlorine, reproducing onto large canvases the outlines of objects found in Rome’s flea markets such as a chair, an old shepherd costume or a roll of paper. These ‘shadows’, or shadowplay that the artist has created in her studio, will be reproduced in their entirety at Monitor, where the expedient of pretence will be finally revealed to the public in all its simple complexity, whilst retaining its element of magic and surprise.
Thanks to Académie de France in Rome
Ulla von Brandenburg (1974, lives and works in Paris)
Solo Shows (Selected): Mirrorsong,Pilar Corrias Gallery, London; Le Chevalier inexistant, Rosascape, Paris (2012); Das Versteck des W.L, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg (2011); Neue Alte Welt, Art:Concept, Paris; Chorspiel,Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö, Suède (2010,); Wagon Wheel, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London; Name or Number, Le Plateau FRAC Ile de France, Paris (2009); Ulla von Brandenburg – whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, Dublin; Art Unlimited, Art 39 Basel, Suisse; Passengers: 1.8: Ulla Von Brandenburg,CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; La Maison, Docking Station project Space in Stedelijk Museum (2008); Karo Sieben, Art:Concept, Paris; Brief Oder Neuigkeiten, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg (2007); Cinq milliards d’années,Module 1, Palais de Tokyo, (2006).
Eigenschatten – Ombra Propria
9 February - 16 March 2013
Monitor is delighted to announce the Italian solo debut of German artist Ulla von Brandenburg, with her magnificent video Shadowplay presented at Frieze Projects 2012 in New York and a new inspiring installation conceived specially for the gallery, the result of six months of research conducted in Rome by the artist. The project is a collaboration between Art: Concept – who represents Ulla von Brandenburg in Paris – and Monitor as an artist exchange between the 2 galleries.
Von Brandenburg’s artistic lexicon is an artful and effortless foray into a variety of media, from film to drawing, installation and performance. Her films and videos are a thorough exploration of the mechanisms that power the language of theatre, with particular attention to the performative and psychological building blocks that make up each individual character. Considerable importance is attached to the formal aspect of von Brandenburg’s work, and is in fact one of the distinguishing traits of her concepts.
In Shadowplay Ulla von Brandenburg has borrowed elements both from the Commedia dell’Arte tradition and from the Ombres chinoises shadow puppetry that was popular in 19th century France. The result is a densely powerful, yet impalpable atmosphere in which the delicate movements of the actors, measured and sinuous, immerse the viewer within a suspended and timeless dimension.
A woman and two men, dressed in their costumes for the performance, are together in a theatre dressing room. They put on their makeup and begin a duel, singing heart-wrenching words to the music of what sounds like an ancient German ballad that has been composed specially by von Brandenburg together with Laurent Montaron and which helps underline the unreal, almost fairy tale quality of the story.
It is customary for von Brandenburg to present her films by contextualising them within a kind of “new set”, conceived and designed specifically for the exhibition space in question with fabrics, heavy drapes and even flats.
In her large-scale installation Eigenschatten I – VI, Ulla von Brandenburg has experimented for the first time with a technique for photography printing using chlorine, reproducing onto large canvases the outlines of objects found in Rome’s flea markets such as a chair, an old shepherd costume or a roll of paper. These ‘shadows’, or shadowplay that the artist has created in her studio, will be reproduced in their entirety at Monitor, where the expedient of pretence will be finally revealed to the public in all its simple complexity, whilst retaining its element of magic and surprise.
Thanks to Académie de France in Rome
Ulla von Brandenburg (1974, lives and works in Paris)
Solo Shows (Selected): Mirrorsong,Pilar Corrias Gallery, London; Le Chevalier inexistant, Rosascape, Paris (2012); Das Versteck des W.L, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg (2011); Neue Alte Welt, Art:Concept, Paris; Chorspiel,Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö, Suède (2010,); Wagon Wheel, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London; Name or Number, Le Plateau FRAC Ile de France, Paris (2009); Ulla von Brandenburg – whose beginning is not, nor end cannot be, Dublin; Art Unlimited, Art 39 Basel, Suisse; Passengers: 1.8: Ulla Von Brandenburg,CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; La Maison, Docking Station project Space in Stedelijk Museum (2008); Karo Sieben, Art:Concept, Paris; Brief Oder Neuigkeiten, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg (2007); Cinq milliards d’années,Module 1, Palais de Tokyo, (2006).