Walt van Beek, Ariel Hassan, Ida Koitila, Jukka Korkeila, Roland Persson, Jussi Niva, Marguerite van Sandick

PRESS RELEASE

Vienna International Apartment opens its doors to the public this summer in Berlin with an art-event How did I get here? (Part 2). The event is organised in cooperation with the Berlin-based art platform Black Market. How did I get here? (Part 2) takes place in Vienna International Apartment, Sredzkistrasse 53, in Berlin. The art-event is open to the public on Saturday 20th June 2015 from 12pm to 6pm.

How did I get here? (Part 2) features artworks by seven contemporary artists: Walt van Beek (Belgium), Ariel Hassan (Argentina), Ida Koitila (Finland), Jukka Korkeila (Finland), Roland Persson (Sweden), Jussi Niva (Finland) and Marguerite van Sandick (The Netherlands). The event addresses the reasons for being at this particular time and place: it refers to various everyday happenings that led to Here – to the art-event, to a moment in time, to a particular place shared by the artists the organisers and the members of the public, to Berlin.

The idea for How did I get here? Is open-ended; It began in Helsinki, Finland, with an art project organised by the artist and independent curator Silvio Salgado, in collaboration with a multidisciplinary group LaitosKollektiv. The site-specific intervention demarked a place, a time, and a year in the artist’s life.

How did I get here? (Part 2) presents artworks by the selected artists within the Vienna International Apartment’s domestic space. The works claim a portion of the space, and by doing so, change the everyday domesticity of the apartment into a new experience both for its dwellers and for those visiting the art-event.

Walt van Beek presents a video depicting an outdoor sport activity; the video image is edited to give the viewer a sense of fragmentation of time and place. Jukka Korkeila shows two portrait paintings that depicts the artist’s muse; the works are insightful as well as compelling and reveal a frail as well as brutal expression of the artist’s object. Marguerite van Sandick performs an everyday act during the course of the art-event; a performance that makes reference to the common activity in an artist’s daily practice. In addition, van Sandick displays a series of drawings mapping her lines of thought.

Ariel Hassan, whose works can also be seen at the Venice Biennale this year, presents photography and sculpture. The plastic harmony of Hassan’s art works is archived through a careful rendering of space. Ida Koitila participates with a sculpture installation of objects that resemble natural detritus found at the sea side; its organic and textural qualities elevate Koitila’s art-objects to a poetic language. The allusive Roland Persson; whose art-objects are a reflection on the fantastic – realism versus surrealism. Last but not least, Jussi Niva’s use of symmetric and asymmetric stretches of the canvases, special rendering of overlapping plans; it gives his painting a sculpture quality.

How did I get here? (Part 2) Is an invitation to cross the threshold between the public and the private space. We are looking forward to receiving you within our realm. Welcome!

Organised by Silvio Salgado (Vienna International Apartment), Olli Piippo and Marcus Eek (Black Market)

Black Market, an art-platform currently based in Berlin, was founded in 2014. It is run by the Finnish artist Olli Piippo and the Swedish artist Marcus Eek.

Vienna International Apartment organises art-events and exhibitions, mainly in its own private domestic space that changes its location every time its founders change home. It was founded in 2001 in Vienna, Austria, by the Portuguese artist and independent curator Silvio Salgado and Antti Kaski, a diplomat and International Relations scholar from Finland. Vienna International Apartment continues to challenge the public through the exploration and subversion of boundaries between the private and public domains.

Vienna International Apartment

Sredzkistrasse 53

10405 Berlin, Germany

Public View: Saturday, 20 June 2015, 12pm - 6pm. 

Private View: Friday, 19 June 2015, 6pm - 9pm