ReMap International Architectural Symposium & Workshops

Ο Ιωάννης Χριστοφοράκος παρουσιάζει το έργο του Erik Steinbrecher WIND IN ATHENS / Μöhren in Athen

Ο Erik Steinbrecher ταξιδεύει από το Βερολίνο στην Αθήνα, κουβαλώντας στις αποσκευές του σουβενίρ, εργαλεία, τεμαχισμένα υλικά και έτοιμα έργα. Όλα αυτά θα τοποθετηθούν, θα στριμωχτούν, θα παρατηθούν, θα διασκορπιστούν και θα ξεχαστούν ακούσια είτε εκούσια σε διάφορες βιτρίνες καταστημάτων του κέντρου της Αθήνας. Οι επιλεγμένοι εκθεσιακοί χώροι είναι σταθμοί στην πόλη της Αθήνας, στους οποίους ο Erik Steinbrecher αφήνει τα ίχνη του, ένα χάος μακροπρόθεσμο και βραχυπρόθεσμο, όπου ιδέες, σχέδια - προσωρινά και μόνιμα – μπλέκονται, καταλύοντας ταυτόχρονα τη σχέση χώρου και περιεχομένου, όλα σκορπισμένα από τον άνεμο…

Ο Erik Steinbrecher προσκαλεί στην Αθήνα γνωστούς καλλιτέχνες και art agents, για να συμμετάσχουν στο εγχείρημά του. Ένα μυστηριώδες, ορατό και ταυτόχρονα απροσέγγιστο δίκτυο καλλιτεχνών εισχωρεί στις εκθέσεις του.

Birgit Szepanski, Βερολίνο

Ioannis Christoforakos proudly presents Erik Steinbrecher´s
WIND IN ATHENS / Möhren in Athen

Erik Steinbrecher travels from Berlin to Athens with a suitcase full of souvenirs, broken utensils, bits of stuff, fragmentary material, finished art works: all to be unpacked in the display windows of several shops in the city centre, whereupon it may or may not be reworked, revalued, degenerated, left behind, scattered, or forgotten, purposefully or not. The chosen exhibition spaces and intervention sites are stopovers in the city of Athens, where Erik Steinbrecher leaves behind traces and chaos – ideas and designs where the temporary and the complete join together, while at the same time breaking open the expected intentions and references of these spaces and contexts, unfastening them, bowling them over and scattering them to the four winds.

Whether remakes, plagiarisms, fakes, disfigurements, kitsch, pulverised, imploded or exploded; whatever form, title, size, Steinbrecher’s sculptural and performative interventions in Athens will take; how long they will stay there; in which places they will later appear, unexpectedly, illiciting a sense of deja-vu: all remains open, for us as for the artist. Erik Steinbrecher is challenging us to follow this art odyssey, to lose its thread, to contend with its foolhardiness and objectionable character. Bad money is faked, copied money, that isn’t worth what it appears to be. The producer wants to deceive the believer about its value. Can Erik Steinbrecher’s art and artworks, and their reception, be read in this way? Is he bringing ‘counterfeit art’ into play, is he deceiving us, himself and the art world through an absurd, ironic design and calculated sculptures? The viewer may be amused and seduced, confronted with frivolity, banality, absurdity.
Through the medium of irritation, transgression, an attention-grabbing dispersal, in the course of detours and false turns, through a polyphony of references, contexts and blank spaces, Erik Steinbrecher creates hustle, bustle, turmoil – a tornado, in the center of which a sounding board for further, multifarious contingencies occurs.

Birgit Szepanski, Berlin