Co-founded by Rhea Dall and Kristine Siegel, between 2013 and 2015 PRAXES Center
for Contemporary Art presented four half-year cycles of exhibitions,
publications, and events—each revolving around two unassociated artistic practices—in Berlin.
Expanding its timeframe and moving this experiment to a new context, as part of
the triennial Bergen Assembly 2016 PRAXES developed a year-long episodic and
itinerant investigation centered on the work of two artists only: Lynda Benglis and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd.
Jutta Koether’s unique approach to painting can best be descri-bed as multipurpose. Through
her more than twenty-years investigation of the language, history, and
relevance of this medium, Koether has continuously crossed into other fields of
expertise to challenge, layer, extend, and revisit gestures on canvas. At
Praxes, two sculptures and a gouache from 2013 become the centerpieces in a
triptych exhibition structure—
and the starting point of a speculative dossier, extending into Koether’s vast practice. The works—titled Viktoria, Luise, and Isabelle—were previously exhibited together under the title
“The Double Session” in London, exploring Derrida’s notion
of doubling from his eponymous 1969 lecture. While placing these exhibitions in the artist’s on-going performative reading
of this text, this doubled double also marks a homecoming as the works return to the German context to which they are intricately linked. Back in Berlin —where the artist herself moved in 2010 after more than two decades in New York—the works are greeted by the unruly extended family of Koether’s practice while reaching out towards future associates and collaborators.
and the starting point of a speculative dossier, extending into Koether’s vast practice. The works—titled Viktoria, Luise, and Isabelle—were previously exhibited together under the title
“The Double Session” in London, exploring Derrida’s notion
of doubling from his eponymous 1969 lecture. While placing these exhibitions in the artist’s on-going performative reading
of this text, this doubled double also marks a homecoming as the works return to the German context to which they are intricately linked. Back in Berlin —where the artist herself moved in 2010 after more than two decades in New York—the works are greeted by the unruly extended family of Koether’s practice while reaching out towards future associates and collaborators.
Gerard Byrne uses photographic, video, and live art to explore the ambiguities
inherent in revisiting the legacies of cultural forms such as theater,
photography, and magazines. Engaging ideas of episodic patterns and the
temporality of reconfiguration
—found throughout Byrne’s practice—the extended duration of display at Praxes is announced in a timetable that
loosely references, directs, and annotates the shifting works on show.
Organized as a reverse chronological journey, the timetable soon reveals itself
as a scripted gesture of staged surprise encounters and performed
interpretations—as is often the case in Byrne’s transformation of historical sources. The cycle at Praxes is the first
extensive exhibition of Byrne’s work in Berlin.
Gerard Byrne, installation view.
Jutta Koether, Viktoria, 2013. Detail.
In 2007, Byrne represented Ireland at the 52nd Biennale di Venezia. Other recent
presentations of the artist’s work include dOCUMENTA (13) and a survey at Whitechapel Gallery, London, which
travelled
to Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm. Byrne lives in Dublin and is a professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen.
to Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm. Byrne lives in Dublin and is a professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen.
Koether has exhibited extensively, including venues such as Tate Modern, London,
the Whitney and São Paulo Biennials, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and latest a touring show at
Dundee Contempo-rary Arts and Arnolfini, Bristol. Koether lives in Berlin and
New
York and works as a professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK) in Hamburg.
York and works as a professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK) in Hamburg.
PRAXES
Bergen Assembly
Østre Skostredet 5 – 7
Bergen 5017, Norway
PRAXES’s Berlin venue has closed. In 2016 PRAXES will open its new iteration in Bergen,
as part of the Bergen Assembly
