gallery for contemporary photography
| go to website >>> Erratic Photography 13. February - 10. April 2010 The artist is present - also for booksigning. Talks: photo
edition berlin |
FLOWERS "UND ABENDS BLÜHT DIE MOLDAU" |
© Eliska Bartek from the Serie 'Und abends blüht die Moldau'
2003/04
is probably one
of the most diverse contemporary artists. Not only does she experiment
with different media such as painting, photography and video, she
explores each medium in depth. In her first solo exhibition at Photo
Edition Berlin new photographic works will be on show.
"Flowers" are prominent in the works of Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nobuyoshi Araki, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, or Thomas Florschuetz and often stand for the limits of visible perception, notions of beauty and the ephemeral. Eliska Bartek continues and expands this tradition, producing breathtaking images with her own signature of light, form and colour.
On the occasion of the release
of her new book ,
published Jan. 2010 by the
DuMont Buchverlag Köln - Mathias Harder (ed), Helmut Newton
Foundation, Berlin; the series
will be one main focus of the exhibition.
ERRATIC PHOTOGRAPHY
© Eliska Bartek from the Serie 'Erratic Photography - Abu Dhabi' 2008
The artist has come to be increasingly interested
in the subconscious and the mystic, the sense that there is another
reality behind pictures, that remains unshown. It is this unshown reality
that Eliška Bartek focuses on in her recent work, as in this 2008
series of black and white photographs. Created on a journey to Abu Dhabi,
the series reveals both a hightened sensitivity for the void and a profound
curiosity for orientation in an unknown culture. By working with time
exposure and camera in motion, the artist succeeds to capture the
fluid image of a megacity at the moments of departure and arrival on
its airport. She presents us with a sense of tension which builds up
in transitional moments of arrival and departure, and which seems to
correlate with the discrepancy between image and non-image, longing
and disappointment, familiarity and estrangement, expectation and passiveness.
© Eliska Bartek from
the Serie 'Erratic Photography - Paris' 2008
SHIFTING MOUNTAINS - New Edition in 2010
© Eliska Bartek rom the Serie 'Shifting mountains: Niesen mit Thunersee' 2008
Her previous solo exhibitions in Warsaw, Paris and St. Petersburg were mainly dedicated to photography. „Painting with light“, whether in photography or actual painting has been the driving force behind her work for the past 20 years.
Eliska Bartek followed Hodlers traces in 2009, and went on a painterly journey through the Swiss alps around Bern.Unlike Hodler she does not show the sensuous grandeur of an undeniably majestic nature in rhythmic harmony of heaven and earth. The severe reduction to black and white, together with a distinct scraping technique make reference to the tradition of expressionist woodcut, for instance the work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The mountain landscape appears in mystical flare from a black depth, and seems at the same time energetic and raw.
Bartek confronts Hodlers rhytmical mountainscape with a nervous pulsative and vibrating nature. No majestically looming crests but rather an uncanny apparition emerging from complete darkness.
The artist responds to Hodler's timeless beauty and quietness with a heightened momentary presence. Instead of spheric symbolism ecstatic unleashing.
Bartek is aware of the tragic biographical
weight that clings to the painting of the „Stockhornkette mit
Thunersee“, which had been forced from the owners who died in
Auschwitz, and is still subject of a legal battle concerning art theft
from the National Socialists.nTo a certain extent Hodlers peaceful
world reappears in Barteks paintings as one that has witnessed the
atrocities and deep human suffering of the second world war.
It can no longer be contemplated with „innocent“ eyes.
Barteks way of dealing with Hodlers
landscapes indirectly denotes this dreadful context.
The once cosmic idyll of Thunasee is charged with the disturbing experience
of death.
The covering of the alps through mass media and the Tourist industry
has lead to a disenchantment of the once mighty and threatening mountains.
In Barteks images the seeming grasp and domination of nature dissolves
and the latter appears again strange and uncanny: an existential,
material-spiritual field of forces.
(Matthias Haldemann, Kunsthaus Zug)
ARTIST DINNER
PHOTO EDITION BERLIN invites to the traditional . There will be a selection
of Swiss and Czeck specialities.
This time with a book signing by the artist and an introduction to
her work by the gallery owner Gunther Dietrich.
Contribution of 25 Euro (incl. drinks) R.S.V.P.: 10. March 2010
Reservations: contact(at)photo-edition-berlin.com
PHOTOBOOK "SILENCE"
Book release:
On the occasion of the solo exhibition
at ROSPHOTO, the
State Russian Center for Photography in St. Petersburg, Russia, appeared
a 120pp book, "Silence", with essays
by Christoph Tannert, Magda Durda, Christina Wendenburg and Gunther
Dietrich.
The book assembles photographic works from 2004 – 2009.
ISBN 978-3-00-028291-1
Book order for the price of 20 Euro in the gallery or via Amazon
from the Series "Und
Abends blüht die Moldau" 2004
or from the Series: "O.T. - Abu Dhabi" 2008
Open Edition
Website of the artist: www.eliska-bartek.de