Wed May 12, 2010 00:00 - Sun Feb 21, 2010

Iceland

The Reykjavík Arts Festival is held every year in May. It was held biennially from 1970 and annually from 2004. The Festival is one of Northern Europe's the oldest and most respected arts festivals. It is organised by an Artistic Director, appointed by the Board. The three Board members are appointed, respectively, by the Minister of Culture and Education, the Mayor of Reykjavik and the Festival´s Council of Representatives.

The purpose of the Festival is to promote Icelandic and international culture in all fields of art. The programmes offer a range of concerts, theatre performances, exhibitions, dance and opera. In combination with its focus on Icelandic culture, past and present, the Festival has hosted many outstanding international artists and performers.

Sat May 15, 2010 00:00 - Sun Feb 21, 2010

Iceland

111 - Maria Dembek & Robin McAulay
15. 05. 2010 - 13. 06. 2010

Opening 15th of May at 6 pm.

http://this.is/klingogbang/archive_view.php?id=203

Project 111 is a series of analogue photographs taken by Maria Dembek and Robin McAulay in Berlin, 2009. The project documents the working and living spaces of several contemporary artists occupying a building at Torstrasse 111 in former East Berlin. The series depicts only a short moment in time taken from the program of perpetual changes of this unique property.

The main house was built approximately in 1880. In 2000 after a long period standing empty, the building including the courtyard was available for unrestricted use. It was soon occupied by a couple of artists who transformed the house into an art collective, workspace and artists run gallery.

The ca. 500 m2 / 40 room former residential property has been merged into one open unit by the consistent dismantling of specific residential structures and the re-opening of earlier apertures. It has become possible to experience the architecture, which has been modified to the new needs of the residents. Old living spaces and traces of previous occupancy have slowly lost their mark and started to play a new role - of studios, galleries, storage space, acting spaces, workshops and bedrooms, sometimes all in one. But the main character and aim of almost all the spaces in the building have stayed temporary under the influence of constant change.

Each space of the house is documented with a diptych, one panoramic and the other a 35mm snapshot documentation of a detail from that space. The panoramic images have been created with a medium format wide-angle pinhole camera. The images are accompanied by the sounds of the house inadvertently recorded while exposing the negatives using a mobile phone voice recorder that doubled as a makeshift exposure timer. On average each pinhole exposure took 5 minutes. Within that time frame people walked in and out of the frame, conversations and situations started and finished even though the images look empty.

Torstrasse 111 is a twin artists-run-gallery with Kling og Bang from Reykjavik and together they collaborate on several projects and exchange programs.

Maria Dembek

Maria Dembek is a contemporary artist and photographer born in Gdansk, Poland, 1975. Her work has grown on the foundation of documentary photography and focuses on social aspects of life, though often built upon structural experimentation. Since 2000 she has participated in many shows and projects, as an artist, curator and animator of culture. She lives and works in Denmark and Poland.

Robin McAulay

British artist and photographer, his imagery focuses on superlative urban themes with abstract elements. He works mainly in the field of experimental photography in which he connects old techniques with postmodern ideas and has been a participant of many photographic festivals. McAulay lives and works in Copenhagen.

The exhibition is part of Reykjavik Arts Festival 2010.

Kling & Bang gallery
Hverfisgata 42
IS-101 Reykjavik
Iceland

Open Thursday-Sunday from 2-6 pm.