Kategorie: Ausstellung

ACTIVE TERRAIN N°1
Asef–Burckhardt
SHELTER–BONE
Love in Tough Times

event image: Asef–Burckhardt SHELTER–BONE, 2022 – 2025, copyrights: Asef–Burckhardt, VG Bildkunst Bonn

Programme

Sat 11 Jan 2025, 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Vernissage – Reception with
– 5:00 pm: Welcome speeches
≈5:30 pm: Performance by Kirstin Burckhardt

Sat 15 Feb 2025, 3:00 – 7:00 pm
The Long Afternoon of Art with
– 3:00 pm: Curator’s tour of the exhibition with Stephan Klee
– 5:00 pm: Exhibition talk with Asef-Burckhardt and Elena Engelbrechter, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
The duo Asef-Burckhardt and the curator Stephan Klee will be on-site

Sun 23 Feb 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Finissage
– 3:00 pm: Guided tour of the exhibition with the curator Stephan Klee
– 4:00 pm: Closure

In order to be able to plan better, we would be delighted to receive your reservations for individual programme items at info@kunstvereingoettingen.de or klee@kunstvereingoettingen.de or by telephone at 0551-44899

THE EDITION OF THE SHOW

Asef-Burckhardt
Hand-Charcoal-Song – Edition, 2024

Edition of 12 + 5 AP
H 22 cm x W 40 cm
Archival inkjet pigment print
(Fine Art Long Duration Inkjet Print) on
EFI GRAVURE PROOF PAPER, semi-gloss
warm white, 245g/sqm, microceramic PE-coated

Courtesy of the artists
Price: 320 € / 240 € for members of KV Göttingen

With this edition, Asef-Burckhardt publishes the striking title motif of their exhibition at the Kunstverein, in which the transformation of our natural resources and the gesture of attentive ‘giving protection’ come together in an impressive way. We are very happy to be able to offer this extraordinary photograph in a small edition and thank the art duo for their great support of our work here for contemporary, young art in Göttingen.

> If you are interested, please contact us here: info@kunstvereingoettingen.de

Asef–Burckhardt
SHELTER–BONE
Love in Tough Times

The residential and community buildings of Sea Ranch in the north of San Francisco are integrated into the rugged cliffs of the Pacific. Strong, salt–soaked winds from the sea, rugged rocks in fine sand, and ancient redwood forests characterise the landscape here. The wooden buildings were largely developed and initiated by the landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and his wife, the choreographer Anna Halprin, in the 1960s in an ecologically avant-garde community of multi–professional collaborators. Since then, the estate has continued to grow and still sets international standards for the interplay between architecture and nature – in other words, ‘protection’ and ‘environment’. But what remains of the Halprins’ utopia at the time – “to live lightly on the land” and the idealism of a sensitive approach to the environment for us today?

SHELTER-BONE, the current project by the art duo and life couple Asef-Burckhardt, is based on extensive periods of research and work in this visionary settlement in Northern California and presents the works created on-site and in Berlin. Against the acute backdrop of the global environmental crisis, new anthropological questions such as ‘What must architecture connect today?’ and ‘What must love achieve today?’ are raised and artistically explored in close relation to this real topography. Consisting of combined, multimedia works, the project is currently being actively expanded and further developed in order to be shown in changing settings at international exhibition venues. The Kunstverein is very pleased to be able to show this complex of works in Göttingen under the leitmotif: ‘What does protection mean in our time?

Asef–Burckhardt’s multi–layered approach is strongly inspired by the Halprin couple, both in terms of an emotional connection in working together and the parallels to the founding couple’s lives: with Lawrence Halprin as a landscape architect and Anna Halprin as a dancer and performer specialising in ‘embodied healing’, the professional constellation between the two couples is very similar. Interestingly, Mario Asef studied architecture before studying art (where he first heard about the Sea Ranch) and Kirstin Burckhardt is both a performer and a psychologist. The artist couple Halprin had a strong commitment to their surroundings through their joint artistic and interpersonal activities. Not to isolate themselves as ‘lovers’ but to strengthen each other to work together for community building and ecology is also the inspiration for this project.

The fact that Kirstin Burckhardt and Mario Asef activate an expressive unity on the basis of their own relationship and make their network of relationships with the place and its inhabitants the genuine centre of their dual, creative expression underlines the relevance of this shared living and protective space. SHELTER-BONE can therefore also be seen as a contemporary variant of Relational Art: It is not the material, finished object that is the actual work of art, but integrative, social and bio-terrestrial exchange processes that are expressed, manifested and mixed in the presentation in a variety of ways. These include performances on site and in the exhibition space, multimedia recordings of temporary practices in sound and film, artistic research that materialises in archives and artworks, and relationship work. Together as the Asef-Burckhardt duo, they unfold the coastal strip of the Sea Ranch not only as a multi-faceted place of longing for a shared artistic quest in the Far West, but also elevate this specific terrain to their guiding coordinates of a new form of dual action between affection and real urgency. With this lively fusion between artistic field research and a productive network of relationships, the Kunstverein Göttingen is taking the first step into the new exhibition year.

Kirstin Burckhardt (b. Durban, South Africa) is a visual artist and psychotherapist who combines video and performance with sound and spoken word. Drawing on her training in psychology and neuroscience, her work critically explores the power dynamics interwoven with the body. By constantly questioning what constitutes a ‘body’, her artistic research focuses on the interpersonal space as a site for negotiating sensitivity, conflict, empathy, transgenerational trauma and the complexity of healing.
 She studied at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (Germany), at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts Lyon (France) and at the Academy of Art Hangzhou (China). At the same time, she studied psychology at the University of Hamburg and works as a clinical psychotherapist in Berlin. Her work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions at the KINDL Berlin Centre for Contemporary Art, KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation, Deichtorhallen/Sammlung Falckenberg Hamburg, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Exploratorio in Medellín (COL) and the Goethe Institute Sofia (BUL) and LA (USA). She has worked closely with performing and visual artists from China, Sweden and Colombia and has received work grants from the Fonds Darstellende Künste, the ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, the Elbkulturfonds and the working grant of the City of Hamburg.
more information: http://k-burckhardt.de

Mario Asef (born in Córdoba, Argentina) is a Berlin-based architect and conceptual artist. Flanked by his extensive expressive possibilities in acoustics and moving image, his projects mainly deal with theoretical and materialised constructions of humanoid-cultivated space, be it the built city or the domesticated landscape. He is also particularly interested in the ecological systems of microorganisms such as lichens and fungi, which form the generative basis of our planet’s flora and fauna. 
 He studied architecture at the University of Architecture and Urban Development in Córdoba, Argentina (Dpl.), and art at Chelsea College for Art and Design in London, England, at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe and at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin, Germany, where he obtained a Master’s degree. His work has been exhibited worldwide, most recently at the Daegu Photo Biennale (South Korea), Quartier 21 (Museumsquartier, Vienna), Wild Palms (Düsseldorf), Silent Green (Berlin), Junge Kunst e.V. (Wolfsburg, Germany), Kasa Galerie (Istanbul), Samzie Space (Seoul), HAUNT/ frontviews (Berlin). Recent museum exhibitions include Hamburger Kunsthalle, Villa Merkel (Esslingen, Germany), Künstlerhaus Bregenz (Austria) and Akademie der Künste Berlin. Since 2014 he has been organising exhibitions, festivals and lectures for Errant Sound e.V., a project space for sound art in Berlin.
more information: https://marioasef.net

The Annual Programme 2025
TERRA DIASPORA – ACTIVE TERRAINS

TERRA DIASPORA is the leitmotif of the Kunstverein Göttingen 2024-2025. In view of fundamental upheavals in the coexistence of nature and mankind, TERRA DIASPORA stands for a world on the move; for a terrain that is becoming increasingly alien to its inhabitants, and for an earth on which people are becoming foreign bodies. It is an earth in a foreign land, a terra diaspora.
After the first part of the TERRA DIASPORA – WELTEN WANDELN program series in 2024 explored contemporary forms of fantastic, figurative art, TERRA DIASPORA – ACTIVE TERRAINS is the Kunstverein’s current motto for 2025. As the second part of the comprehensive TERRA DIASPORA exhibition series, the fundamental distortions in the relationship between nature and man in our present day are shown and discussed here using real geographical case studies and the creative reaction of artists to precisely these conditions in Göttingen. This annual program is also developed and supervised by curator Stephan Klee together with the participating artists and related curators.

Kirstin Burckhardt (*Durban, South Africa), is a professional artist and therapist, who uses visual and performative techniques to explore the interactions and emotional bonds between people. Aspects of the body, gesture, touch, communication, and friendship are at the centre of her exploration. Mario Asef (Córdoba, Argentina), an educated artist and architect, focuses his attention and his distinctive expertise in visual and acoustic recording techniques on the complex interactions in the ecological networks of diverse species in wild and urban nature. Together as the Asef-Burkhardt duo, they not only unfold the Sea Ranch on the American West Coast as a multifaceted place of longing for a common artistic quest, but also elevate this specific terrain to their guiding coordinates of a new form of dual action between affection and real urgency. With this lively fusion between artistic field research and a productive network of relationships, the Kunstverein Göttingen is taking the first step into the new exhibition year.

We thank our sponsors: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, Stadt Göttingen, Landschaftsverband Südniedersachsen e.V. and Sparkasse Göttingen

Finissage
Sunday,  23 February 2025 at 3 pm

ACTIVE TERRAIN N°1
Asef–Burckhardt
SHELTER–BONE
Love in Tough Times

To mark the joint conclusion of the first exhibition of the year, we cordially invite you to the finissage at the Künstlerhaus Göttingen on Sunday, 23 February 2025 at 3 pm. Right at the beginning, the creators of the exhibition, the art duo Asef-Burckhardt, together with the curator Stephan Klee, will host a final tour through the greatly altered rooms. This offers the opportunity to gain direct insights into the work and thoughts of the duo and to enter into further discussions with them and the curator. The exhibition edition can also be viewed again and purchased if you like it – an important support for the work of the Kunstverein.

Sun 23 Feb 2025, 3 – 5 pm
Finissage–Reception with
– 3 pm: Joint tour with artists and curator
– 4 pm: Closure

event image: Asef–Burckhardt SHELTER–BONE, 2023 – 2025, photo creditss: Asef–Burckhardt, VG Bildkunst

…

The wooden residential and communal buildings of Sea Ranch in the north of San Francisco were developed and built in the 1960s by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and his wife, choreographer Anna Halprin, together with other ecologic avant-garde thinkers; the buildings are integrated into the rugged cliffs of the Pacific in an exemplary manner. Since then, the settlement has continued to grow and still sets international standards for the interplay between architecture and nature – in other words, “protection” and “environment”.

The works on display in SHELTER-BONE, the current project by the art duo and couple Asef-Burckhardt, are based on extensive periods of research and work in the visionary settlement in Northern California and question, among other things, the current relevance of the original utopia of The Sea Ranch. Against the acute backdrop of the global environmental crisis, new anthropological questions such as “What must architecture connect today?” and “What must love achieve today?” are raised and artistically explored in close relation to this real topography. Consisting of combined, multimedia works, the project is currently being expanded and further developed to be shown in changing settings at international exhibition venues. The Kunstverein is very pleased to be able to show this complex of works in Göttingen under the leitmotif: “What does protection mean in our time?
…

The annual programme 2025 of the Kunstverein Göttingen TERRA DIASPORA – ACTIVE TERRAINS is developed by curator Stephan Klee together with the participating artists. The duo Asef-Burckhardt will kick off the fresh year with an all–encompassing, sensory–appealing exhibition consisting of several installations, which takes the viewer directly into the beach forests of California, characterised by the forces of nature.
Kirstin Burckhardt (* Durban, South Africa) is an artist and psychotherapist who uses visual and performative means to explore the interactions and emotional bonds between people. Her work focuses on aspects of the body, gesture, touch, communication, and friendship. Mario Asef (* Córdoba, Argentina) is an artist and architect who focuses on the complex interactions in the ecological networks of diverse species in wild and urban nature supported by his distinctive expertise in visual–acoustic recording techniques. Together as the duo Asef-Burkhardt, they not only unfold The Sea Ranch as a multifaceted place of longing for a common artistic quest but also elevate this specific terrain to their guiding coordinates of a new form of dual action between affection and real urgency. With this lively fusion of artistic field research and a productive network of relationships, the Kunstverein Göttingen is taking the first step into the new exhibition year.

We would like to thank our sponsors: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, Stadt Göttingen, Landschaftsverband Südniedersachsen e.V. und Sparkasse Göttingen