ONLINE: 1 week – 1 artist – 1 artwork!
11 Years aquabitArt at Auguststrasse 35
Week 1
9 – 15 June 2020
Week 2
16 – 22 June 2020
Week 3
23 – 29 June 2020
Week 4
30 June – 6 July 2020
Week 5
7 – 13 July 2020
Week 6
14 – 20 July 2020
Week 7
21 – 27 July 2020
Week 8
28 July – 3 August 2020
Week 9
11 – 17 August 2020
11 Years aquabitArt at Auguststrasse 35, Berlin-Mitte
Online Group Exhibition
Curated by Irina Ilieva
Venue: ONLINE
Exhibition: 9. June – 10. August 2020. Extended until 17. August 2020
1 week – 1 artist – 1 artwork!
Our first ONLINE group exhibition with works by the gallery’s artists takes place for 9 weeks.
Start: every Tuesday at 12 noon on › INSTAGRAM
We asked them to present one art work and to give us a hint why they chose to participate in the 11th anniversary exhibition EXACTLY with this work.
Find the backgrounds in THE MESSAGE.
We are super excited to experience these contributions as the online medium gives us huge freedom to explore new perspectives in art!
Stay tuned!
Week 1: Tuesday, 9 June – Monday, 15 June 2020. Artist › Peter Lindenberg
Week 2: Tuesday, 16 June – Monday, 22 June 2020. Artist › Margaret Hunter
Week 3: Tuesday, 23 June – Monday, 29 June 2020. Artist › Hugo Stuber
Week 4: Tuesday, 30 June – Monday, 6 July 2020. Artist › Paula Klien
Week 5: Tuesday, 7 July – Monday, 13 July 2020. Artist › Sebastian Häger
Week 6: Tuesday, 14 July – Monday, 20 July 2020. Artist › Poren Huang
Week 7: Tuesday, 21 July – Monday, 27 July 2020. Artist › Wilfried Habrich
Week 8: Tuesday, 28 July – Monday, 3 August 2020. Artist › Annette Selle
Week 9: Tuesday, 11 August – Monday, 17 August 2020. Artist › Janine Mackenroth
Grass-storm reloaded
Site-specific Installation
Wooden beams, iron pipes
THE MESSAGE
A small observation of the aquabitArt gallery
Downwards, at the end of the famous Auguststraße, which is considered one of the gallery miles in Berlin, is located the aquabitArt gallery. Almost out of sight – “Is there anything else?“, many gallery hoppers will have asked themselves. Yes of course, there are always very interesting exhibitions! The small room with the huge window pane is almost always used as a “space”. Rarely are there classically hung pictures. Mostly the volume is seen as an installation body, which itself forms a unit with the artworks.
At least that is how I see it. I’ve known Irina longer than her gallery, I thought it was a wonderful step to develop an art space alongside her architectural practice. The way she does it, they have a lot in common. She always sees the gallery as an independent spatial body that presents the works of art, paintings or sculptures in different proportions.
Irina has invited me to solo exhibitions several times. The first time with a sculpture that filled almost the entire room. 4 meters high, the “Grass-Storm” took the visitors into other dimensions (they felt smaller?). Now, after 11 years, the “Grass-Storm reloaded” has really grown high!
Afterwards I mainly showed paintings at her place. Always the works were excitingly arranged as an installation. Even against the line of sight.
We continue! And it’s always worth going one step further – almost to the end of Auguststraße.
Peter Lindenberg, 05.06.2020
Dance
Oil on canvas
2004
100 x 80cm
Acquire online › ARTLAND
THE MESSAGE
The life of the artist and gallerist can be precarious. Nothing is assured for either of us: survival and success are therefore significant achievements.
During the current times of social distancing and uncertainty, Irina Ilieva has applied her considerable knowledge and talent to build a virtual exhibition, an online platform, to present the work of her artists to the public.
Irina’s loyalty and the belief she has upheld in her artists is a valued gift. In a fast-changing art world of often superficial and transitory values, it is a testament that Irina celebrates eleven years in her Auguststreet gallery.
The act of two people in a dance exemplifies the attributes required between the gallerist and the artist: confidence, respect and trust. Knowing that Irina is a talented and passionate tango dancer, I chose to show my painting Dance as a reflection of our mutually supportive relationship.
Margaret Hunter, June 2020
VIDEOINSTALLATION
Woodcut from solid poplar wood
Acquire online › ARTLAND
THE MESSAGE
After 11 years as an art gallery at Augustraße 35 in Berlin-Mitte, which shows works of art “physically” in the gallery rooms, and after a total of 17 years after its foundation as an “online gallery”, a temporary return to the “online world” is now taking place.
At the time of the “crown”, when we are in a forced (also spiritual) retreat, much of what we do now becomes virtual.
Where is our need for physical contact, as physical, partly material beings?
In 1998 I came to Berlin to finish my studies at the UdK (at that time still “Hochschule der Künste”). I came from Bilbao and was enthusiastic about Berlin, about a city that showed me modernism in all its glory. The art world was bubbling over with technology, a large number of works of art were equipped with highly specialized electronics and computer technology at that time, Art & Technology was the motto, it was even the name of a club in Berlin-Mitte. I wanted to be a part of it too and began to get involved with this technological world.
At the turn of the century, we had organized the largest exhibition of my life. It was the eagerly awaited year 2000, the Internet had really started, the “dot-com-euphoria” was born, everyone wanted to have an Internet presence, everyone wanted to have something to do with the virtual world; including me. Well, when I started to work, I found an emptiness in so many art works, which wanted to be replaced by the excellent technology, but it didn’t succeed. That made me want to make a connection with that technology and that possible emptiness.
This is how the “VIDEOINSTALLATION” came about – a title suggested by Professor Heinz Emigholz, which I immediately found very suitable. The title is a generic word, a reference to a kind of artwork, which is metaphorically addressed. A video installation that is not about a construction of electronic and computer components, but about the form itself, which interprets this construction itself. Therefore, ironically, one does not find an actual video installation, but 4 monitors, 40x40x40cm, carved in wood on 4 white pedestals. One of the monitors was stolen from my studio in 2001, and so the “VIDEOINSTALLATION” was disassembled into 3 individual parts. In the year 2020 they carry the ticker of the time stoically as single unique pieces.
With this reference to the virtual world through a work of pure organic matter, “VIDEOINSTALLATION” contributes to closing a cycle of the gallery from “online” to “offline” and back “online” again.
Hugo Stuber, June 2020
Batismo
Chinese ink on paper
114 x 145 cm
2019
Acquire online › ARTLAND
THE MESSAGE
Batismo, or Baptism in English, is the title of the artwork I’ve chosen for the 11 Years aquabitArt online group exhibition. It comes in two parts – the artwork itself and a video art performance entailing the process of the painting in a river in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a Chinese ink on paper painted on top of a stone slime in a stream of cold water.
The reason for my selection is that it refers to the gallery and its name aquabitArt.
“Aqua” stands for the basic element in nature and “Bit” – for the basic element in artificial intelligence.
My whole body of work relates to the gallery, but especially with this piece the reference lies in the process of creation. I decided to work with water (Aqua) to play with its flowing and liberating characteristics, as opposed to the human obsession to control.
And for me the control lies in the “Bit“.
Happy 11th anniversary to @aquabitArt gallery!
Paula Klien, June 2020
bkdbrw
Edition 1/7 + 1 AP
Direct print on
Alu Dibond®, 6/0, 5mm,
weather-resistant and UV-
resistant
140 x 200
2019
Acquire online › ARTLAND
THE MESSAGE
——————————
Overexcited 2009
A vivid art talks
despite the tango
——————————
Sebastian Häger, July 2020
Waiting
Sculpture Bronze
Edition 8
51 × 72 × 126 cm
2005
Acquire online › ARTLAND
THE MESSAGE
After Chinese New Year was celebrated in January, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) broke out. The world we have grown to know and love changed ever since. We were forced to quarantine and stay isolated. Social distancing was implemented, and we were suddenly torn away from loved ones. It was and still is an ongoing tragic event.
I have known Irina Ilieva since 2016 and she has been nothing but supportive. Besides frequently mounting solo exhibitions at the gallery, she also seeks collaboration and exhibition opportunities outside the venue, such as collaborating with Deutsche Bank Ludwigsfelde-Berlin and Gallery Weekend Berlin. This year, Irina applied her extraordinary talent and incredible knowledge to construct a virtual exhibition. It is an online platform where the public can enjoy the artworks displayed by her artists in the safety of their own homes.
Waiting is one of the earliest works of The Dog’s Notes series. A human’s best friend always behaves, waits patiently and seizes the opportunity to showcase its talents. There is a pointy spot on the top of Waiting’s head, which represents charisma and wisdom. Thus, most of my later works have this feature. I believe we must be prepared every day and be ready to go at a moment’s notice because there are so many wonderful opportunities waiting to be seized.
Through my art, I hope my works can spread positive thoughts and energies to
everyone. I believe the coronavirus pandemic will eventually be over soon. As our
lives return to normal, I hope humanity has learnt valuable lessons, our souls
cleansed, and have evolved into a better version of ourselves.
Huang Poren, June 2020
Transition to the 3rd dimension
Painting, poem, video
Mixed media, 102 x 48 cm
2020
Two colors / Zwei Farben
Es gibt nur zwei Farben – das Schwarz und die Linie.
Sagt der Raum zur Linie, führe mich nicht in die Irre.
Das Schwarz hängt wie Lehm in den Stangen, die leicht im Wind schwanken.
Die Linien überlagern, verdichten sich, verklumpen wie Flächen, die die Spuren heilen.
Wilfried Habrich, July 2020
THE MESSAGE
Dear Irina,
Congratulations on the 11th anniversary of the gallery in Auguststrasse, thank you for that.
As an old friend, I wish you all the best and good luck.
In my art I was always interested in the relationship between surface and space, and I think you can feel that in the painting “Transition to the 3rd dimension”.
Since you are at home in architecture too, I thought this work would fit well in your gallery.
Kind regards, Wilfried Habrich
Elsewhere
Oil on canvas
100 x 140cm
2020
THE MESSAGE
The water landscape of an indefinable place. Everything hovers and yet something holds the world together here.
For me, the small white gallery space with the opening into the second level has a great sculptural effect. I am very excited about the interaction with my painting. Several times in the past few years I have been able to experience how my art was made to sound here and how it gives the room a further dimension.
Dear Irina, I congratulate you on this place that you have discovered and have been using for 11 years now. On into the next 11 years! I am looking forward to many new art delights in Auguststrasse.
Annette Selle, July 2020
› YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (Full video)
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
2018, 4K Video, 17 minutes 46 seconds, loop; For presentation: TV/Projection, comfortable seating and Blue Chip bags
Installation, Performance, Video / Film
“Women were allowed to study at German Art Academies for the very first time 100 years ago – as in many other western countries. Nowadays 60% of the art school graduates are women. Looking at the art history departments we are talking about 90% women. But still appr. 80 of the 100 most successful artists are men and only 20 are women. So, this is not a question of: where are the women in art? It is the question of what makes the difference of becoming a successful artist – a “blue chip” artist? We know about gender discrimination, less chances for (institutional) exhibitions for women and other minorities, public collections nowadays spending at least 75% of the budget for art by white men – and to sum it up: therefore female artists only representing 2 percent of the blue chip-art market worldwide.
During my residency in New York I noticed the so-called “BLUE CHIPS” of Gardens Eatin’ in the supermarket. Whilst smiling about it, I immediately had the thought of the much sung about concept of the “blue chip” artist in my head – the internationally famous and super successful artist. The idea of a performance in a building that used to be a church, now converted into artists’ studios and exhibition rooms in Brooklyn, just had to be realized: according to the motto “You are what you eat”, I took a seat in the former sacred room and enjoyed the whole bag of blue chips. The performance video was shown in the exhibition “Common Place” in the Silas of Morisse Gallery in New York, with chip bags distributed to visitors inviting them to elevate them to a blue chip version of themselves(…) that they all already are.”
THE MESSAGE
Dear Irina, I chose this video because the 11th anniversary coincides with the 100th anniversary of women at the German art academies. I would like to celebrate this at every opportunity and draw attention to it 😊 You lead the way with the perfect example: there are 5 women and 5 men artists in your gallery. I would like it to be in all institutions, collections and galleries. That this is the case with you, and that it is so natural for you, that is 2020!
Best regards!