23 Oct 2012

Axel Lieber SILENT MOVIE at Hengesbach Gallery, Berlin

From the 27th of October to the 15th of December, Hengesbach Gallery in Berlin will present the exhibition SILENT MOVIE by the sculptor Axel Lieber. Works will be shown that construct a fictional parallel world and use techniques from cartoons and animation in their sculptural alteration of everyday objects. The exhibited works of Axel Lieber assemble numerous temporal and spatial dimensions, creating hybrids from anthropomorphic tokens of childhood and adulthood.

We cordially invite you to the opening at 6 PM on the 26 October.

A pair of pants whose dimensions swell from a childish pant leg to the voluminous hip of a stately adult; a cane shortened to the scale of a child; a sturdy chair compacted to a child's high chair – Axel Lieber cuts his original motif and reassembles the material elliptically. This way of working can be compared to that of film editing, whereby temporal cuts, flashbacks and flash-forwards as well as irrationally spliced episodes are made possible. Characteristic of these sculptures is that parts of two or more forms are reassembled without the temporal process of transformation being made apparent. In fact, this takes place fictionally in the mind's eye of the viewer, which the works inevitably trigger due to what's missing.

In his work, the montages can be based on tactile, i.e. functional or architectonic contradictions, but in the solo exhibition SILENT MOVIE, they are restricted to the antitheses of childhood and old age. As such, the works then also refer to cartoons, not only since they cite the narrative means of comics, like speech bubbles, panels and characters, but also because Lieber comically/laconically exaggerates the works and – as in the original definition of cartoons – he doesn't make use of verbal language. Created by pointed emphasis that unfolds from an ironic juxtaposition of opposites like childhood and adulthood, a certain melancholic drama touches us in an idiosyncratic way. Questions arise within us that address our intimacy – questions concerning identity, missed opportunities, the housing of fears, desires and the meaning and goal of life itself. With its fictionality, SILENT MOVIE represents a way of living that searches for meaning but also implies feelings of pain and emptiness by way of transience.

Axel Lieber (*1960) lives and works in Berlin and Malmo. Recent selected solo shows include: 2011 GEOMETRIE UND ALLTAG Hengesbach Gallery Berlin (DE), 2009 SZENENWECHSEL Museum für Konkrete Kunst Ingolstadt (D), 2008 SPELPLAN 2 Landskrona Konsthall (SE), 2005 Kunsthalle Winterthur (CH), 2004 RELEASE, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA (USA); Recent group shows include: 2012 20 YEARS Hengesbach Gallery, Berlin (DE), 2010 BERLIN TRANSFER Berlinische Galerie (DE), 2009 DAS FUNDAMENT DER KUNST Städtische Museen Heilbronn (DE), 2010 MODERNAUTSTÄLLNINGEN Moderne Museet, Stockholm (S), 2008 AS IT SEEMS Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto (CA), 2007 BODYCHECK 10th Triennale Kleinplastik, Fellbach (DE); 1978-84 sculpture studies National Academy of the Arts Düsseldorf (DE), in 1992 he founds the group INGES IDEE, since 1993 lectureships at european academies of arts i.a. Düsseldorf, Malmö Art Academy, Bauhaus University Weimar, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen, Haute École d'Árt et de Design Genève, Geneva (CH); Selected awards and grants: 2011 CITÉ DES ARTS Paris (FR), Swedish Arts Council Grant 2006-2011, I.A.S.P.I.S., Headlands Centre for the Arts, San Francisco (US).

Hengesbach Gallery represents original positions in contemporary art with a European focus. The program reflects the material and contentual possibilities of art in many ways. Our interest is to initiate a dialogue with contemporary cultural philosophy. Hengesbach Gallery was founded in 1991 and has been based in Berlin since 2009.

Parallel to the exhibition, a monograph THE LONG WAY HOME with a text by Dr. Stefanie Kreuzer (Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen (D)) will present the works of the last 25 years and illustrates the essential characteristics of his oeuvre. The book launch is on the 29 November 2012, 7-9pm in the gallery.

Simultaneous to this exhibition Hengesbach Gallery will be showing the solo show REMAKES by photographer Björn Siebert.

For further press information as well as questions concerning images please contact
Elsa Horstkötter (e.horstkoetter@hengesbach-gallery.de) at your convenience.