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DOUBLE AGENTS

 

Between Artists/Curators/Collectors
Rethinking Roles and Practices in the Arts

 

@ Salon Villa Erxleben
Gallery KLEINERVONWIESE
Douglasstrasse 28, 14193 Berlin

 

 

We are happy to invite you to the launch of “DOUBLE AGENTS” – our new series of Salon Discussions co-hosted by:
Gallery KLEINERVONWIESE, FREEHOME, and MOMENTUM.


 

Speakers:

Roman Korzhov & Nelya Korzhova
artists, curators, directors of the Shiryaevo Biennale
Roman Korzhov is also director of National Center of Contemporary Art (NCCA) Samara

Constanze Kleiner
founder of Gallery KLEINERVONWIESE, co-curator ‘bonum et malum’

Via Lewandowsky
artist ‘bonum et malum’, professor

Rachel Rits-Volloch
founder of MOMENTUM, co-curator ‘bonum et malum’

Inga Rück
art historian, co-founder of Art Affairs, real estate dealer

Maik Schierloh
artist ‘bonum et malum’, curator, co-founder of Autocenter and Bar Babette

Zakharov Vadim
artist ‘bonum et malum’, curator, founder of FREEHOME

 

Double Agents brings together accomplished players on the international art stage to address a diversity of professional strategies and mechanisms for success in today’s competitive art word. The traditional dynamic between artist and gallery is changing as rapidly as new communications platforms, societal norms, and economic incentives arise. We all have to wear multiple hats in order to keep up with the explosion of knowledge and opportunity across multiple fields – to play more than one role in the perpetually shifting dynamics of today’s art world. Be it artist, curator, collector, art dealer, publisher, professor, institutional, corporate, non-profit, governmental, or private interest – the lines between roles need to blur to enable diverse and experimental approaches to artistic production and consumption. Double Agents is an ongoing series of discussions each bringing together exceptional people who work across many fields at once in order to tell their stories and share ideas.

The first Double Agents discussion takes place in the context of “bonum et malum”, the inaugural exhibition of Gallery KLEINERVONWIESE at the Villa Erxleben. MORE INFO >>


 

Nelya Korzhova – The Shiryaevo Biennale


 

Constanze Kleiner – Die Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin

Via Lewandowsky – Der Sozialismus Siegt


Rachel Rits-Volloch – Making MOMENTUM

Inga Rück – Art Affairs


Maik Schierloh – Autocenter & Bar Babette

Vadim Zacharov – Artist Us Institution 1978 — 2019



 

Speakers’ Bios

 

Rachel Rits-Volloch - Portrait

CONSTANZE KLEINER

Constanze Kleiner has more than 20 years of experience in the field of art and culture. After majoring in Slavic  Studies and German Language and Literature, she devoted herself to initiating cultural  projects. Kleiner started her career as a founder and managing partner of the White Cube Berlin GmbH, together with her partner, the artist Coco Kühn. In partnership with the artist Thomas Scheibitz, and the curator Heike Föll, she realized the exhibition project 36x27x10 in Berlin’s former “Palace of the Republic”. The success of this exhibition  led to the conception and realization of the Temporary Kunsthalle, a privately funded,  ephemeral exhibition hall for contemporary art. Constanze Kleiner  headed the Temporary Kunsthalle as managing partner and  was responsible for the concept and implementation from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, she was offered to become a partner of White Cube Productions Ltd, a company that was mainly focused on contemporary art production.

Since then, Constanze Kleiner was supporting several international exhibition projects as curator and adviser. In 2012, she curated Gregor Schneider’s STERBERAUM in partnership with the National Museum in Szczecin. In the same year, she was invited to become a partner of the Polish company  Baltic Contemporary SPZOO, which won the competition, announced by the city of Szczecin, to determine the operating partner for the new municipal exhibition-venue for contemporary art. From November 2012 until October 2013 she was building up this new institution – TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art – in the role of Artistic Director, responsible for the exhibition and educational programming. During this time, Kleiner realized five international exhibitions at TRAFO, with partners such as the Musarara School of Art and the MusararaMix Festival; in Jerusalem, Israel, the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, and MOMENTUM, as well as solo exhibitions by renowned artists such as Christian Jankowski and Ryszard Wasko.

Since 2014, she has been Chairperson of the TRAFO art foundation, and founder of Schlachthaus Fresh&Fine Art Gallery. In 2019, Constanze Kleiner established Gallery KLEINERVONWIESE, opening in its new location at the Villa Erxleben in September 2019 with the inaugural exhibition, bonum et malum

Rachel Rits-Volloch - Portrait

ROMAN KORZHOV

Artist and curator Roman Korzhov (born in 1964) was from 1997 to 2014 the organizer (together with Nelya Korzhova) and the chairman of the Samara Regional Public Charitable foundation “Center for Contemporary Art”. This was the first profile institution in Samara, actively engaged in the search for new forms of communication of contemporary art in the social environment and the development of international dialogue. From 1999 to the present, he is the founder (together with Nelya Korzhova) and the commissioner of the international Shiryaevo Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Roman Korzhov has initiated many projects and programs: “Open Spaces”, “Independent Artistic Scholarship” (within the program of sister cities Samara and Stuttgart), “The Art of Communication” (Institute for International Relations of Germany, IfA, Stuttgart, Germany), “Ecology of Perception”, “Visionology”, “Street as a Museum — a Museum as a Street”, “Volga. Zero”, amongst others.

Korzhov was the Nominee of the National Innovation Prize in 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2017. He has worked at the Volga branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) since 2007. And since 2015 he has served as Director of the Central Volga branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art / ROSIZO. Roman Korzhov lives and works in Samara.


NELYA KORZHOVA

Artist and curator Nelya Korzhova (born in 1963) works in the media of painting, photography, objects, installations, with her practice based on the principle of distant contemplation. Her curatorial projects, emerging from a focus on social sculpture, eschew the concept of art as
a ready-to-consume object. Rather, she identifies with the concept of “no man’s land”, where the viewer is invited to become part of the event in order to see what it’s for.
From 1997 to 2014, Nelya Korzhova was the organizer (together with Roman Korzhov) and art director of the Samara Regional Public Charitable Foundation “Center for Contemporary Art”. Together with Roman Korzhov, in 1999 she founded the international Shiryaevo Biennale of Contemporary Art, initiating the concept of the “Nomadic Show” — a processional exhibition engaging the public with art while moving through space. From 1999 to the present, Nelya Korzhova is the curator of the main project and artistic director of the Shiryaevo Biennale.

Korzhova has curated many projects and programs, including: “Cover
of Daily Routine”, “Fascism Now”, “Nine Months of Feelings”, “Another Freedom”, “Visiology”, “Wonders of Idleness”, “Street as a Museum — Museum as
a Street”, “Volga. Zero”, amongst others. She is the author of articles on contemporary art, a compiler of catalogues, and a lecturer.

Nelya Korzhova was the nominee of the State Innovation Prize in 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2017. She worked at the Volga and Central Volga branches of the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) / ROSIZO from 2007 to 2017. Nelya Korzhova lives and works in Samara.

VIA LEWANDOWSKY

Via Lewandowsky studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden from 1982 until 1987. Starting in 1985, he organised subversive performances together with the avant-guarde group, Autoperforationsartisten, that undermined the Communist art authorities of Eastern Germany (GDR). In 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall, he left the GDR and subsequently moved to West Berlin. Since then, he has traveled extensively and has lived for extended periods in New York, Rome, Peking, and Canada. He now resides in Berlin.

Via Lewandowsky works in diverse artistic media, predominantly sculptural-installation works and exhibition scenographies with architectonic influences. By the 1990s his work had already begun to incorporate elements of Sound Art; this has since become an important and integral part of much of his performance work. Lewandowsky’s interest in a nation’s construction of identity exposes a political dimension in his work, especially notable in his installations in public spaces and in his performances.

Dominant recurring themes in Lewandowsky’s body of work include: misunderstanding as a failure of communication and the deformation and deconstruction of meaning. Lewandowsky’s practice often represents the process behind his ideas. The artist is neither looking for something conclusive, a definitive ending, nor complete destruction, but rather for the constructive moment within a process of destruction. This identification of the in-between moment is highlighted by the work’s inherently satirical content, which does not try to elicit pathos from its audience. His working method and the effectiveness of its artistic results are often characterized by opposites. Elements that are controlled, staged and constantly emerging also have spontaneous, unexpected, and thus lively qualities. Humoristic, seemingly lighthearted works viewed a second time contain gruesome, brutal moments that can turn the comedic into the disturbing. His preference for tragicomedy, absurdity and paradox as well as the Sisyphean drama of continuous repetition and futility of action link Via Lewandowsky’s art with Dadaism, Surrealism and Fluxus. The ironic breaks with everyday life, the intrusion of the strange into the familiar, often domestic realm take place in his work by using the detritus of the German bourgeoisie: cuckoo clocks, DIY garden sheds, parakeets or bureaucracy.


RACHEL RITS-VOLLOCH

Rachel Rits-Volloch is the Founding Director of MOMENTUM, the Global Platform For Time-Based Art. Launched in 2010 in Australia as a parallel event to the 17th Biennale of Sydney, MOMENTUM moved to Berlin in 2011. She is currently also the Chief Curator of photoBERLIN, an annual professional workshow launching in Berlin in 2020. In 2016-2017, she was Visiting Professor in art theory and curatorial studies at the Bauhaus University, Weimar, lecturing in the MFA program in Public Art and the PhD program in Artistic Research. She is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Literature, and holds an M.Phil and PhD from the University of Cambridge in Film Studies. Born in USSR, she grew up in the US, and worked in UK, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Istanbul, Sydney, and now Berlin.

MOMENTUM’s mission is to continuously reassess the growing diversity and relevance of time-based practices, with an aim to support artists and artistic innovation in Berlin and worldwide. MOMENTUM’s program is composed of local and international Exhibitions, Artist and Curator Residencies, Video Art in Public Space Initiatives, a Performance Program and Archive, an Education Program and Archive, and a growing Collection. Since MOMENTUM’s inception in May 2010, Rachel Rits-Volloch has curated or produced over 100 Exhibitions and Events worldwide, showing the work of over 600 artists, as well as over 60 Education Events, in addition to an ongoing program of Artistic Research Residencies which has so far hosted 45 international artists, alongside a diversity of related programming.

INGA RÜCK

Inga Rück has a Masters in Art History, Psychology, and Sociology. After working as Sales Manager of Michael Fuchs Galerie and Director of the Schinkel Pavilion, amongst other things, she is now the co-founder of the art consultancy Art Affairs.

Art Affairs works predominantly with corporate clients. Corporate art contributes to an innovative and cosmopolitan organizational culture and shapes a modern working environment. Contemporary art can be put into play to emphasizes the objectives of a company. Art as a medium of corporate culture draws attention to a creative working environment but also conveys openness, higher risk tolerance, and corporate cultural responsibility. Art Affairs merges business and art into a sustainable unit, developing customised art concepts for economic and financial groups and the tourism industry. Artworks by German and international artists are carefully selected by a team of architects, artists, and curators to develop well-conceived and aesthetically coordinated art concepts to reflect the architectural premises and professional focus of companies. Visual Arts in company context supports creative work processes and encourages communication and discussion. The effect of contemporary art is an essential factor of external representation and can symbolize cosmopolitanism or regional solidarity. 


MAIK SHIERLOH

Maik Schierloh is an artist/curator, born in 1968 in Wilhemshaven, Germany. After his apprenticeship as Organ Builder, he studied Art at the University of Applied Science Ottersberg, Germany, in 1993 – 1996. Until 1996 we was a member of the ARTiV Artist Group. In 1997 Schierloh moved to Berlin and began planning, organising and executing cultural and art projects and exhibitions. His early initiatives include Club Project Lovelite, a venue for concerts, exhibitions, theatre, whch he ran in 1998 – 2008. From 2001 – 2018, he was also the co-founder of Autocenter, in collaboration with Joep van Liefland, one of Berlin’s most iconic project spaces. [www.autocenter-art.de/exhibitions/program – www.autocenter-rediscovery.de] In 2009 – 2016, Schierloh initiated the education initiative, Autocenter Summer Academy [www.autocenter-summeracademy.de], engaging experts from the Berlin art scene to lecture on their practice. Since 2003, Maik Schierloh also runs the bar and art space Kosmetiksalon Babette [www.barbabette.com]. In 2017, he began an ongoing initiative to restore a historic building in the countryside near Berlin for arts usage [www.gutshaus-philadelphia.com].

VADIM ZAKHAROV

Vadim Zakharov was born in the USSR in 1959. He is an artist, editor, archivist of the Moscow Conceptual art scene, collector. Since 1979 he has participated in exhibitions of unofficial art and collaborated with such artists as: V. Skersis, S. Anufriev, I. Chuikov, A. Monastyrski, Y. Leiderman. In 1982–1983 he participated in the AptArt Gallery, Moscow. Since 1992 till 2001 he has published the “Pastor” magazine and founded the Pastor Zond Edition. In 2006 he edited book “Moscow Conceptualism”. His retrospective was held at the Tretyakov Gallery in 2006. He represented Russia at the Venice Biennale in 2013 with the project “DANAE”. Since 2016 he organized exhibition space “FREEHOME-Artist to Artist” in Berlin. He lives and works in Berlin.

FREEHOME – The Artist to Artist project is the brainchild of an artist who uses his modest resources – his own apartment, his personal and professional relationships, and his own money – to start an open exchange of opinions among artists, critics, gallery owners, curators, art collectors, and people of other professions. The idea is to boost this communication through additional means, such as working out a model of “activity”, offering ways of “functioning in culture”, and using the artist’s creative energy to find a way out of the routine patterns of contemporary art.


 
 

This event also serves as a preview for the forthcoming exhibition at MOMENTUM,
curated by Roman Korzhov & Nelya Korzhova,
directors of the Shiryaevo Biennale

 

A program of videos from the Shiryaevo Biennale archive is on show at Salon Villa Erxleben
19 October – 2 November 2019

 

Shiryaevo Biennale: Central Russian Zen
Opens at MOMENTUM on 27 October 2019 at 4:00 – 8:00pm

@ MOMENTUM Kunstquartier
Bethanien Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin

Realised with thanks to:

 

 
 

About SHIRYAEVO BIENNALE >>

 

 

Founded in 1999 by artist/curators Roman Korzhov & Nelya Korzhova, the Shiryaevo Biennale is the oldest active international biennale of contemporary art in Russia, and is also the largest cultural event in the Central Volga region. The main project is held in the ancient Russian village of Shiryaevo, while the parallel program takes place in sites across Samara, on the opposite bank of the Volga river. One of the most important components of the biennale’s structure is the International Creative Laboratory, which conducts a kind of contemporary art experiment within a traditional Russian village. Over the course of two weeks, the artists live directly in the locals’ homes, immersed in the local culture, creating works responding directly to the local environment. The results of these encounters is itself a creative act, offered to the wider public over the course of one day, in the form of a collective, performative procession: the “Nomadic Show.”

From its original founding up through 2013, the Shiryaevo Biennale was organized by the Samara Regional Public Charity Fund. Since 2007, the Volga Regional Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) has served as co-organizer. Starting in 2016, the biennale is organized by the Volga Regional Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) and ROSIZO, with support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture of the Samara Region. From 1999 through 2018, Roman Korzhov has served as the commissioner of the biennale, while Nelya Korzhova has served as the curator of the main project. Over 180 international artists have participated in the Shiryaevo Biennale since its inception.



 

 

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