The Others | curated by Elmgreen & Dragset
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KÖNIG GALERIE
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12.11.2016–22.1.2017
with
Tacita Dean,
Elmgreen & Dragset,
Pepe Espaliú,
Martin Kippenberger,
Kris Martin,
Ron Mueck,
Aidan Salakhova,
Andres Serrano,
Santiago Sierra,
Young-Jun Tak,
Nasan Tur,
Mark Wallinger.
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| Santiago Sierra |
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| Santiago Sierra |
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| Santiago Sierra |
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| Santiago Sierra - Object Measuring 600x57x52cm constructed to be held horizontally to a wall (performance). |
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| Andres Serrano (centre) |
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| Young-Jun Tak |
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| Young-Jun Tak |
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| Kris Martin |
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| Mark Wallinger. Ecce Homo. |
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| Elmgreen & Dragset. Ron Mueck. |
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| Elmgreen & Dragset. Ron Mueck. |
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| Martin Kippenberger. |
Press Release (EN)
KÖNIG GALERIE is pleased to present The Others,
a group exhibition curated by Elmgreen & Dragset and inspired by
the gallery’s location at St. Agnes, formerly a Catholic church.
The Others
presents fifteen works by twelve artists who have each challenged
established ways of portraying the body within Christian iconography.
Focusing on the meaning of materiality in Christianity and contemporary
art, the show brings together a variety of figurative representations
and seeks out the potential for emancipation from moral edicts in
religion through art. Forms of bodily resistance and alternative
narratives address issues of belief, gender, race, morality and
sexuality. With the exhibition title The Others, the gaze is
turned back on the participating artists themselves as “the others,”
most of them coming from countries with a predominantly Protestant or
Catholic history. In a secularized city like Berlin, Christianity, as
well as other religions, might seem distant from everyday life. However,
Islam has been dominating the news media over the past few years. The
title proposes a reality where we are all potentially “the others.”
Art,
like religion, depends on a shared language to communicate—a language
in which certain material forms connote commonly accepted definitions
and associations. Both art and religion can provide visceral experiences
in which meaning derives from the material, in contrast to the streams
of digital information disseminated on the Internet. Several of the
artists in The Others have reworked classic Christian depictions of the
heroic, holy or suffering body in order to speak about identities and
desires that have historically been condemned or excluded by the
Church.
The Others will be
accompanied by a book in English and German, published by König Books
and to be released with a book launch at KÖNIG GALERIE on January 21,
2017. Along with photographic documentation of the exhibited works as
well as installation views and documentation of the St. Agnes building
during its former life as a church, the book will include an
introduction by the exhibition’s curators, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar
Dragset, and an essay by the art historian Michael Diers.
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| Mark Wallinger. Ecce Homo. |
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| The Others at König Gallery - Berlin. |
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| Tacita Dean. |
