Koi Pond is a pond for breeding and keeping Japanese carp. Kois are ornamental fish and require special care and environment in order to be beautiful and valuable To be fishing. The goal of keeping koi is to finish a koi at the right time and to allow it to participate in competitions as a prestige object or to sell it. In the exhibition "Koi Pond" KVTV presents eleven artists: inside and out, who stand out through their independent, subversive and award experimental positions. All participating artists have one thing in common Interest in using exhibition spaces whose structures are not clearly defined and which differ are also in constant change. In the basement of ATELIERFRANKFURT e.V. from April 29th to June 10th artistic works in various media by the artists: inside, Stefan Cantante , Catherina Cramer , Aneta Kajzer , Emilia Neumann , Brenda Lien , Nadia Perlov , Giulietta Ockenfuß , Felix Pötzsch and Yana Tsegay . In addition, the Exhibition of the multimedia real live performance Songs of Cyborgoisie by the artist duo BBB_ (Alla Popp and Alex Traka) in the pop-up gallery Umweg by PUNKT instead.

Stefan Cantante uses the transfer technique with inkjet printing for his latest textile work, which is mainly used in the hobby area. The works printed on cotton emerged last year out of the need to produce art independently of workshops, in a limited space, within one's own four walls. At Cantante, who spent a lot of time on TikTok during the ongoing pandemic, the idea to work with open-source archives and Creative Commons was born. In his collage-like works, the artist gives these available materials a semblance of diffuse symbolism, which is based equally on Lacan's idea of ​​the unconscious, but also on the 1968 revolt.

The digital print Hypersea (2021) by Catherina Cramer is reminiscent of a storyboard. The figures shown are partly taken from the cosmos of the film project Unleash the Beast (ongoing). The multi-part series was shot in 2020 in collaboration with Giulietta Ockenfuss. "Koi_Pond" shows the first chapter The Water Ape. It deals with questions of origin and identity. In the fictional documentary you follow the main character, a female water monkey. This figure embodies a narrative about the development of mankind, which differs from narratives that are posited as truthfulness in Western society, such as the Darwinist or Christian narrative of Adam and Eva. More chapters will be released gradually.

Aneta Kajzer shows four paintings that she not only selected for “Koi_Pond”, but partly also made new. They impress with their brilliant colors and presence They literally lift them out of the walls of the basement rooms of the ATELIERFRANKFURT. With technical finesse and intuitive style, the painter creates her own worlds of form between figuration and abstraction, which invite you to immerse yourself in an open way. Her artistic work found its origin in ink drawings with reduced application of color. Initially, Kajzer found it too traditional to paint on canvas, but thanks to her experimental approach, she was able to quickly develop her own position in the painting discourse without restricting herself to a dedicated format.

The video installation by Brenda Lien Work in Progress (2020 - ongoing) follows on from the artist's diploma film. In First Work Than Play (2020) Brenda Lien deals with the topics of “hustle culture” and burnout against the background of the creative freelance industry, which suffered a significant slump in connection with the Covid pandemic. As Staged fictional workplace, the work mimics the artist's own “home office”, who shares the fate of her film protagonist on a meta-level. From the director's point of view, this is how you immerse yourself in the process of filmmaking. At the same time, Lien's work refers to the current problem of exhibiting when the performance venues remain closed and the artists and cultural workers mostly work in isolation without exchange and interaction with the audience or conscious recipients.

For Emilia Neumann the creation process of Elektra (2021) must be understood at least as an equal part of her artistic practice, like the end product. Neumann's deformed plaster sculptures, which she gains from silicone casts of mostly large-format everyday objects, are multi-layered objects in terms of their materiality. Their details and colors appear organic, so that a feeling for their texture only arises when looking at the work in an ever-new way. For “Koi_Pond” Neumann takes an Aprilia scooter as the starting point for deconstruction and designs it in intense, earthy tones that could be reminiscent of koi or fire. Although she differs from the otherwise pastel colors of her sculptures, these are in no way inferior to her most recent work in terms of dynamism.

The paintings and drawings by Giulietta Ockenfuß tell dense stories in bright colors about protagonists: inside who undermine the humorous standardized representation modes of female and male figures. The figures in the works Brisa Marina (2021) and Almond Blossom (Monoculture) (2020) are threshold creatures between humans and animals or humans and plants. The compositions are based on sketches related to the shooting of her first film work Unleash the Beast (ongoing), a multi-part video series that was created in collaboration with Catherina Cramer. Unleash the Beast negotiates the formats of television documentaries and feature films with the element of water as a theme. The first chapter tells of a water monkey whose life path imagines the feminist evolutionary story.

Nadia Perlov accelerates with the film work Jardin J'adore (2020 ) an examination of spatiality and spatialization that goes beyond mere topographical features and has social implications. It poses the question of the power structures that are inherent in spaces. References, for example to the baroque garden or the cubic interior, which not only appear in the video but also serve as part of the presentation of the film, illustrate the artificiality of such places and refer ex negativo to what is supposedly naturally grown. Perlov also poses the question of identity and spatial belonging. The Tel-Aviv-born artist is concerned with the not only territorial but also religious conflict in the Middle East in this and in previous works.

Felix Pötzsch deals in the series Houses, Stargate, Portals (2020 - 21) with the question of the origin of culture. In particular, the language of architecture, its design elements, the ornaments and details are in the focus of his drawing work. Unless they are entirely based on the principle of “form follows function” (although even this credo is only to be thought of as ambivalent), buildings have topographical specifics: flourishes and decor that go beyond purely practicality go out. Pötzsch takes this designed singularity into the absurd, even allows the individual squiggles to become houses themselves and thus specifically addresses the perception and reception of built-up space. For "Koi_Pond" he developed an installation form of presentation made from found materials that place his drawings in a real spatial context and thus bring out the artefact-like and material aspects of his works.

The large-format painting installation by the artist Yana Tsegay moves consciously between the media forms of painting and sculpture: clay feet, inspired by antique furniture and bodies, as well Sticks and pillars that support the painted Tsegay canvases that invite you to linger as a spatial arrangement and yet are not suitable for making yourself comfortable in the supposed "lounge". Culture Lounge (2021) is a “non-place” that can be used as a reference to cultural Exchange, but not only understandable in the reading of a post-colonial criticism. Tsegay suggestively creates a space for reflection, in which the canvases face each other and negotiate, discuss and reconnect aesthetic traces, origins, interpretations and settings of culture, while remaining entirely within the framework of the artistic intervention.

As part of the exhibition Koi_Pond, the artist duo BBB (Alla Popp and Alex Traka) presents their latest work Songs of Cyborgeoisie (2020), which is a hybrid Event was planned between a concert event and visuals and, due to the pandemic, only took place online for the 2020 premiere. Organizing an actual concert in times of the global pandemic seems more difficult than implementing experimental and intermedia event formats. This alone makes it something special in terms of form, in the implementation of which a kind of melancholy of the past and still lasting state of social distancing and lockdown resonates. Now BBB_ will present Songs of Cyborgeoisie (2020) as a real-live-performance in the showcase-like window of the pop-up gallery Umweg by PUNKT in Frankfurt on June 5th.

Text: Naomi Rado

Opening times:
Tue - Fri: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat: 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. (only by appointment by 5 p.m. the day before)
Duration of the exhibition: April 29 to June 10

Visits by appointment only. Registration via:
Mail: kontakt@atelierfrankfurt.de
TEL .: +49.69.7430 3771

A catalog accompanies the exhibition. This can be purchased from the KVTV shop.

The exhibition Koi_Pond is funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds, Kulturamt Frankfurt,Hessian Ministry for Science and Art