Because art can catalyse the intrinsic meanings of life — and amplify our cognitive and emotional experience as humans. For that, Vera Kox’s sculptures, made of contrasting, layered materials, point to the metamorphic nature of materials across different moments in time which illustrate the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.
And that’s exactly what Art Biesenthal does every year with its summer program, it unveils the artwork of emerging and established artists, and brings the community together — artists and non-artists. More than making art accessible, it foments a space of congregation, and that space is what matters, because it makes art an experience one can live through rather than looking at it with awe, like jumping on the boat rather than bidding adieu from the shore.
That being said, it makes sense that the program coming up next — vernissage on August 12th — is named Let life be beautiful like summer flowers as it invites visitors to dive into a moment of awareness and joy — awareness towards their surroundings and joy for being present. Partly, what makes Art Biesenthal such a sensual experience is its location, as there’s no better place to feel grounded than at the Wehrmühle, a community-driven contemporary art and culture space in Brandenburg, some kilometres away from the restless Berlin.
With the work of artists such as Vera Kox, Yu Linhan and Michal Martychowiec, among others, the exhibition — curated by Dan Chen — sets the ground for artists to explore their self-symbiotic and self-confrontational relationships by means of using different formats. Ultimately, the curation is a gateway into the artists’ personal world, which correlates to the museum’s overarching topic of this year’s program, Oneself in the Contemporary, curated by Tjioe Meyer Hecken, whose curatorial work for the Wehrmühle dates back to 2018.
Let life be beautiful like summer flowers, along with the 2023 program, explores the complex nature of identity in today’s world: how do we define the Self in contrast to the Other, which is external to the Self, and how recognising the ‘I’ makes up for the existence of the subject and its relations to social categories, objects and subjects. In other words, the upcoming exhibition celebrates the joy of life as much as it questions the frontier between the material and the immaterial; the Self and the Other; the abstract and the representational. “We touch, taste, observe, listen to the world around us, and try to visualise the abstract self by absorbing it and reshaping it as we see it. We create reflections,” says Meyer.
Every year, Art Biesenthal explores different thematics that relate to our contemporary self. Last year, the interrelation between art and science, as contrasting yet complimentary natures, was contemplated through the digital narratives of Jakob Kudsk and Fragmentin, among others. Art Biesenthal combines open-air art with a summer program in an attempt to decelerate the consumerist pace of enjoying art in cities. In addition to its impressive architecture, the space counts with a large garden and even exclusive food programs that invite exciting chefs and opts for the use of seasonal produce.
Vernissage: August 12, with afterparty hosted by 1-06
Exhibition: running through September 24, 2023.
*Header: ‘…into deliquescence’ (2021) by Vera Kox. Ph. Andreas Baudisch
