TALES FROM THE OTHER SIDE
PHANTASMS IN SCULPTURE - FROM MODERNISM TO THE PRESENT
IN COOPERATION WITH THE BILDGIESSEREI NOACK
CURATED BY GESA ZIPP AND ISABELLA GREENBERG
July 14 extended until November 30, 2024
Under the title Tales from the other Side, the Noack foundry and gallery in Berlin and the BS Kulturstiftung Darmstadt are presenting positions of international modern and contemporary sculpture in the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden. The bronze and nickel silver sculptures on display, spanning a period of 122 years, were all produced in the Noack foundry.
Connected by an aesthetic dimension of mystery, the exhibited artworks open up unexpected approaches to expanding the world of this world through the unfamiliar. In the context of the exhibition, the »other side« is to be understood as an imaginary constructed counter-world to what is generally referred to as »reality«, whereby it is inseparably connected to it, similar to a shadow. In the most diverse formal language, artistic strategies become recognizable that are aimed at manifestations of inner life and their origin in fantasies, dreams and visions. There are diverse cultural-historical references, such as to concepts of psychoanalysis, human thinking in utopias or the effect of knowledge about physical laws that cannot be experienced ad hoc on our world of thought.
ABOUT THE NOACK FOUNDRY
The foundry was founded in 1897 and was based in Fehlerstraße in Berlin-Friedenau until 2009. The foundry has helped shape and preserve Berlin's cityscape by recreating prominent monuments such as Schadow's Quadriga, the casting of the Berlin Bears based on a design by Renée Sintenis and the restoration of Drake's Victoria on the Victory Column.
The history of sculpture in the 20th century is thus closely linked to the name Noack. Even during the division of Berlin, we remained one of the first addresses for renowned artists and became internationally known through the execution of commissions in Europe and the USA. For Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Käthe Kollwitz, Georg Kolbe, Henry Moore, Joseph Beuys, Rainer Fetting, Georg Baselitz and Jonathan Meese, we helped to bring about and develop the artistic change in the conception of sculpture. Over the years, we have developed further casting, patination and finishing processes in addition to classic bronze casting and have been able to constantly raise our production standards.
Further information
Website of the Noack foundry and gallery
Thematically, there are also links to the exhibition venue, the Spanish Tower and the sculpture garden around it. The origins of the Spanish Tower are shrouded in mystery. Presumably built in its foundations and first floor as an artificial ruin at the end of the 18th century, Charles of Hesse had the tower completed in 1853 and gave it its current name, »Château d'Espagne«, which is a French expression that metaphorically stands for utopian, unrealistic ideas or the German term »Luftschloss« (castle in the air). It was built at the time of the emergence of artistic modernism, which was also influenced by the new findings of psychoanalysis and the discovery of the aesthetic potential of fantasies, dreams, reminiscences and hallucinations.
The Noack foundry was also founded at a time characterized by enormous social upheavals, which also had an impact on art. The unifying constant remains the millennia-old craft of bronze casting, in which artists have their ideas cast in the long-lasting material of bronze. Against this background, the works shown in the exhibition reflect the effects of these changes right up to the present day.
With artworks by: Anna Bogouchevskaia, Karol Broniatowski, Luciano Castelli, Per Dybvig, Rainer Fetting, Fotis, Leiko Ikemura, Georg Kolbe, Alicja Kwade, Heinz Mack, Jonathan Meese, Vera Röhm, Louis Tuallion, Arie van Selm, Thomas Zipp
HOURS
extended until November 30, 2024
Saturdays: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Sundays: 11:00 AM – 17:00 PM
Admission
Free
FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE VISIT
EXHIBITED ARTWORKS
EXHIBITION CATALOG
On around 100 pages, the catalog for the exhibition Tales from the other Side. Phantasms in Sculpture - from Modernism to the Present contains interesting information about the artists and their exhibited works, texts about the exhibition and the sculpture cast in the Noack foundry as well as exhibition views and work photographs by Carsten Costard and René Antonoff. The exhibition catalog is available for EUR 19.80 via the Justus von Liebig Verlag webshop (plus shipping) and during opening hours in the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden.
Price: EUR 19.80
Dimensions: 22 x 22 cm
Number of pages: 102 pages
Publisher: BS Kulturstiftung Darmstadt, 2024
ISBN: 978-3-87390-520-7
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