Exhibitions Archive Contact Olga Holzschuh, Desire Moheb Zandi, Johanna Odersky The Way We Fall 12. November 2021, 5-9 pm Simone Weil, in her notebooks that would later be published as Gravity and Grace, describes the inescapable force that drags us all down as a condition of our creation. Ever since the maker’s cord was cut at the knot of our navels we’ve been plummeting. A hidden force that spares no one and no thing, from funus to funis,¹ this is the way we fall. Can we be relieved of this burden? The graceful practice of Decreation, Weil replies, will ‘make things come down without weight.’² We must unmake ourselves and our hall of mirrors. * The artists here work within the firmament between gravity and grace. (This is not to say they hover – beware the levitating cowboy.) * In the Islamic tradition, the loom symbolises the structure and motions of the universe. The upper roller is named the heavenly roller; the lower stands as Earth. In between, a realm of entanglements, held in suspension. Bodies entwine and keep a hold of themselves here, intimate liaisons. Passing throughs, homecomings, reunions, divorce, about turns. Continuities clot into something resembling a pattern. When the work is done, the weaver cuts the threads that were tethered.³ * Beyond the security of the frame and within the slackening loops, pleats, blemishes and puckers, disorientation is an opportunity for new cartographies and minglings. * To fathom [from the German Faden] the world, we embrace it with outstretched arms. We have always measured in spans of hands, feet and forearms, instrumenting our frailties to make the material world robust, containable, to make space yield. In addition to jostling away undesirables, or propping up one’s boredom, the Ancient Egyptians used the elbow as a vital measure: the cubit – the length of a man’s arm from his elbow to middle fingertip. The Great Pyramid of Giza was 280 cubits high. We have not ceased to extend our soft rulers and with a clenched fist hammer everything into shape. Upon a fall, the elbow fractures easily. * Writing, Eileen Myles’s 2001 poem, begins: I can / connect // any two / things // that’s / god // teeny piece / of bandaid. * Icarus, the craftsman’s fledgling, was warned to fly neither too low nor too high. * In 1934, Claude Lévi-Strauss, who proclaimed his distaste for the crowd-pleasing circus of colour photography, preferring to sieve the world into binarisms, turned toward the setting sun. Aboard a Brazil-bound ocean liner, the structural anthropologist attempted to transcribe his experiences of being spellbound daily when our star would fall from the sky. Over eight pages of his logbook, Lévi-Strauss rapturously records ‘the phases and sequences of a unique event which would never recur in the same terms.’ As the sun ceases to be an architect and becomes in its final moments a painter, ‘gradually the evening’s constructions-in-depth began to dismantle themselves. The mass which had stood all day in the sky … seemed to have been beaten flat like a metal leaf, and behind it was fire first golden, then vermilion, then cerise. This fire was beginning to work on the elaborate clouds – melting, disintegrating, and finally volatilizing them in a whirlwind of tiny particles.’ After it sinks beneath soil and sea, he and I and you return to black and white – ‘ a stick of charcoal on granulated paper.’⁴ Elsewhere, colour rises. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ¹ Francis Ponge, ‘The New Spider’ in Things, New York: Grossman Publishers, 1971, p.108. ² Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, London: Routledge, 2002, p.4. ³ The root of the word ‘text’ is literally „thing woven,“ from texere „to weave or braid.“ ⁴ Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, New York: Criterion Books, 1961, pp.65-73. Text by Ella Lewis-Williams Photos by Eike Walkenhorst Di 16.11.21, 13:03 Share Facebook Share Twitter Di 12.10.21, 14:00 Upcoming Group exhibition including Olga Holzschuh, Desire Moheb Zandi and Johanna Odersky Opening: November 12, 5 – 9 pm Exhibition: November 12 – December 18, 2021 Share Facebook Share Twitter Sa 24.7.21, 20:12 Nazanin Noori – Ambient Room Opening: July 30, 5 – 9 pm Exhibition: July 30 – August 14, 2021 AMBIENT ROOM is a walk-in sound installation by Nazanin Noori, in which the artist makes the transition between the states of being her subject of discussion, restaging the gallery into a liminal space. “Due to being in the first generation to have access to constant and infinite war reportage in real time, we experience an extent culture of political despair. With AMBIENT ROOM, I intend to build a space, in which our understanding of sonic and visual syntaxes get shifted. A space that therefor allows us to turn inwards. I intend to provoke a mental state that loosens a structure of thinking. Accordingly all elements in the installation resist obvious imagery and pave the way for ritual detachment from the prevailing orders of perception.” Kindly supported by Lars Murasch from Murasch and Sons, Sebastian Grimm from einklang Hifi, KEF, Etritanë Emini for her camera work, as well as Phil Maier for the audio mastering. Share Facebook Share Twitter Di 13.7.21, 12:59 Lena Großmann – X ways through organised space // EIGEN + ART Lab Opening and first performance: July 16, 6 pm Second performance: July 21, 7 pm Closing and last performance: July 24, 5 pm Photo: Veronika Galli Share Facebook Share Twitter Do 24.6.21, 11:55 Felix Leon Westner: I killed some parts for what they did – FANTASY RAP First performance: June 25, 7 pm Second performance: July 10, 5 pm Please note that a negative covid test is obligatory as the performance takes place inside the Lab! Share Facebook Share Twitter Do 17.6.21, 13:09 Lotte Meret – AMTSALON From June 17 – 24, 2021, each day from 12am – 7pm, the former Amtsgericht Charlottenburg opens it’s doors – as a pop-up of 24 Berlin-based galleries. United under one roof, they are showing selected works by their artists. EIGEN + ART Lab presents on the 3rd floor in room 16 the artist Lotte Meret. With two bars made of welded metal placed in the middle of the room, the artist takes up the video installation “To Fear, Hope and Desire Again”, which was already seen at the Lab in the last year. In this work, Lotte Meret examines the altered experience of embodiment within the technological age by the representation of the human body itself in the form of organic and medical images. In her new work, the artist uses objects which are functioning as a sort of “prosthesis” to replace parts of the body or have the power to constitute identities or forms of existence. That’s why the bars are covered with all sorts of “junk and kitsch”, which, in terms of the own property, can have a great influence on the personality. Share Facebook Share Twitter EIGEN + ART Lab EIGEN + ART Lab, the project space of Galerie EIGEN + ART, is an innovative field for experimentation of contemporary artistic positions. The exhibitions, interactions and the concept of the Lab reflect dynamic contexts in various sections of art and society. EIGEN + ART Lab is located at Torstraße 220 since January 2015. Jakob Schäfer Torstraße 220 10115 Berlin Tel. + 49 – 30 ‐ 308 779 40 lab@eigen-art.com Tuesday ‐ Friday 2 pm ‐ 6 pm Saturday 11 am ‐ 6 pm Galerie EIGEN+ART Impressum / Datenschutz