H E A L I N G
Duration: April 2 – June 30, 2018 Location: Concept Gallery PAULINA’S FRIENDS, Gartenstr. 114, 10115 Berlin-Mitte Opening: Thursday, April 26., 7 pm Opening times: Monday – Saturday 12-7 pm Curator: Paulina Tsvetanova
Including 29 artists & designers awarded through a contest
Adi Davidoff, Andreas Brunolupo, Beate Flierl, Britta Schwalm, Claudia Hartwig, Dagmar Gester, Donat Fritschy, Doreen Trittel, Dr. Klaus Chmillon, Elisabeth Schneller, Eva Lippert, Evelyne M. Fricker, Graf Seibert, Gret Beth, Hannes Albert, Julia Antonia, Jutta Imelda Kanneberger, Lucy Libre, Lukas & Robertson, Pasquale Aleardi, Peter Schlangenbader, Philippe Ségalard, Simone Birk, Tatawa (Wei Tan), Ulrike Hofmann-Schüll, Uwe Schwarz, Valentina Pisarra, w e i s s über den tod hinaus, Dr. Yoanna Planchette
Art exposes, shocks, transforms: fears, weaknesses, trauma. Inner conflicts, heart aches, losses. A re-flourishing, new beginning, healing. Our artists and designers tell stories of strength, hope, love, and redemption, that inspire the answers to life’s important questions.
The exhibit includes the HEALING Festival: interactive workshops and courses on Bodywork, self-awareness, mindfulness, and work-life balance. More information about all topics at: https://www.paulinasfriends.com/en/healing-festival/
Adi Davidoff (*1978) lives and works in Berlin. She completed her art education in Sofia, Paris, Berlin, and Seville. Her works are owned by: Museo del Baile Flamenco Christina Hoyos, Alliance Française Kasanlak, and the Bulgarian Embassy in Madrid. Between 2014 and 2015, she studied photography at the New School of Photography, Berlin.
o.T. 30×40, Colored Pencil and Oil Pastel, Edition: 1, 2017, 450 €
BRUNOLUPO (*1961) is a sculptor and architect. He studied with Jürgen Weber, Peter Färber, Hinnerk Wehberg, Matthias Koeppel, Wolf Kahlen, and Ute Safrin, among others. After a pause in his career, he refocused on sculpture and art. He creates emotionally expressive ceramic sculptures. Every figure is unique in its own handwriting. His creations combine watercolor, photography, and work in cement, wood, and paint.
Beate Flierl (*1959) was born in Berlin. She completed a weaving apprenticeship (1975-1977), studied applied art and textiles in Schneeberg (1977-80), and has been a self-employed textile artist since 1981. In 1990, she founded the association Offene Kunstwerkstatt e.V., where various artistic workshops are offered. She has taught textile art since 1990 and has worked on sociocultural projects since 1991. Since 1996, her work has been included in fashion shows and dance performances and since 2002 she has been learning shamanistic healing techniques for both the earth and for humans. Since 2005, she has been consciously combing art and healing, and in 2007, she began the center for nature- and healing projects, exhibits, and textile workshops opened in Warthe / Eckermark. Her work has been exhibited in and around Berlin, as well as in Munich, Moscow, Mexico, Tallin, including watercolor, batik, woven cloth, apparel, and tapestry. More information at: https://www.paulinasfriends.com/en/project/beate-flierl/
PACHA MAMA, handwoven tapestry, 30 000,- €
“Glückskind” (Child of Fortune) – this work consists of a ring, inside which lies a baby named Jamie. As long as one wears the ring on their finger, the baby is not visible. There is another baby on the outside surface of the ring, named Sam. But only the baby on the inside can do wonderful things. Jamie, as well as Sam, can be given as a birthday present. Jamie has comforting powers when a mother, father, or grandparent has lost a child, no matter how long ago the loss was. Time plays no roll in grief and death. Many families have said that the ring gives them power, courage and faith in their lives. But I am not the only artist involved in the process of creation, as Jamie is made as per the ring owners request. The ability to shape the ring is a significant moment in the healing process. A stone, date, asterisk, or angel wings may also be engraved. Every ring is an individual work of art, and the ability to shape the ring allows parents momentary power to bring their child back. They can feel their child again at any time.
Many healing rings have arisen out of this collaboration. Sometimes the bereaved is so open and brave as to allow me to publish their letters, or leave comments on the homepage. I also have so many photos of gravestones and letters filled with words of thanks, that are not suitable to publish, to protect the privacy of the bereaved.
“When distance digs a trench, we live with cracks. In the course of time, hope is the driving force to reunite the separated. I was born in Germany, with a protective wall and a barbed wire fence. My parents were expelled when I was seventeen. The loss was overpowering, and put me in a state of limbo. The search for identity runs like a red thread through my artwork, revealing itself in sculptures and objects, originally made of jute, linen and wire. The process of concealing and rendering visible is important in my work, an interplay that creates tensions in my sculptures. I am concerned with an energy that can combine opposites. I transfer my energy to my objects like a Shaman. Development, growth, and maturity are important in my paper-clay work. The sculptures are new expectations of hidden forces.” – Claudia Hartwig.
Reifezeit I (Adolescence), paper yarn, 130 x 50 x 30 cm, 2017, 2600 €
Dagmar Gester focuses on the search for home –probably the most important search of our lives. Her serial image-text works create space that welcome us into this theme, as she brings us closer to the inexpressible, the unimaginable, and the invisible. Her art is both skilled and aesthetically pleasing.
From the series “Was bleibt. Fluchtgepäck” (What Remains. Flight Luggage), 5th edition (2 artist proofs and 3 for sale), graduated prices: #1/5 €833, #2/5 €1,071, #3/5 €1,309. To be purchased in groups of at least two.
Donat Fritschy prefers to work with stone and wood. His sculptures develop intuitively, often with organic forms that invite the touch. The hardness of materials contrasts with the feeling of its polished surface – hard becomes soft. Larger work involves a concept and structured execution, but in the background lies an important transition – a stele whose surface gradually changes, or a smooth granite roll. Other works touch on pain, wounds, and their healing.
Donat Fritschy, computer scientist and freelance sculptor, born 1956. Lives and works in Bern (Switzerland).
Der Schrei (The Cry), 2009, Cristallina marble, 15 x 50 x 36 cm, 950 €
Schießen für den Frieden (Shoot for Peace), number 6|2017, set of 3, two-part installation/object, target with thread, beads, and sequins embroidered in the bullet trap (black metal). Each 15 x 16 x 5 cm, 2017, 360 €
Doreen Trittel: Doreen Trittel: “Art is for me a chance for change and personal growth. It is for me a way through the maze of life, at whose entrance stands anxiety. I always wanted to ask questions that I didn’t know existed. I always push boundaries. I want to spark change, as change begins with us. In collage, installation, and photography, I grapple with my memories. I observe and reflect objects, place them in new contexts and transform them. I am fascinated with the transformation process of the past, present, and future. A focus of my work lies in my east German migrant background, and my experience as stasikind. I was born in 1973 in East Germany.
Dr. Klaus Chmillon
“Reanimation” symbolizes the heart attack of a sea snail. This light object is technically elaborate, with a unique snail heartbeat. Important here is the dynamic of light and sound. Retrospectively, this work of art has great significance for me, an important step in helping me recover self- identity lost in illness. “Reanimation” is not only a biological process, but also an event, the restoration of something lost.
The sudden end of a promising career, falling into an abyss of permanent pain, life-threatening operations, because of an illness without a cure.
“Most of my work is mounted on small tables (mesas). The objects include various light mechanisms. I mainly use brushed stainless steel and precious African bronze figures made with the lost wax process. They come from Mali (Dogon), and are very rare antiques (Sahel war zone). I use elegant modern figures of Ouagadougou from Burkina Faso. My design goal is always the creation of a strong emotional response.”
“In a time with painful questions of open relationships and subsequent separations, I feel that my injuries and sadness are incorporated into clay. Female torsos reflect my emotions. In the time of #MeToo, the torsos are explosively timely, as questions of womanhood, vulnerability, boundaries, powerlessness, anger, grief, and self-esteem are discussed worldwide. A single torso says more than a thousand words.” – Elisabeth Schneller
Torso “Beengt” (Constricted Torso), 2015, 41 x 24 x 19 cm, black clay with rusty chain, 750 €
“My work wants to tell stories. It is inspired by personal experience, dreams, travels in foreign cultures, and from nature, sometimes current events. The ideas are combined through different techniques, such as weaving, embroidery, knitting, collages, printing, painting, and the incorporation of found objects, and help me process impressions.” – Eva Lippert.
Metamorphose (Metamorphosis), woodcut on Japanese paper, netting, textile collage and Birchwood frame, 72/79 cm, 1.200 €
“The person embedded in the tree root can be understood in different ways. Perhaps he died, and from him something new will develop. Perhaps a new phase of life begins for him. He is not alone, but rather is watched by a mermaid and diver. It was important to me to capture the mood of dreams in which our subconscious shows us the way.”
Anorexic Bed, steel, foam, fabrics, 210 x 40 x 70cm, photo: Bartosz Plodovski, 4.600 €
Depressed Lamp, concrete, steel, electrics, 250 x 60 x 160 cm, photo: Bartosz Plodovski, 3.800 €
Despite living in one of the wealthiest and most stable countries in the world, recent studies show a staggering increase of 76% in the diagnosis of mental illnesses over the last 10 years. Almost 40% of high school students in the USA are on Retalin prescritions. More and more members of our performance-oriented society have a difficult time coping with the pressures of having to keep up. In many places mental disorders are still considered a topic that is taboo. Having a mental disorder is viewed with the same stigma as a facial tattoo. More than a few people visibly display their pain through self-inflicted injury. Even though the wounds may heal, the scars remain. These pains are not unfamiliar to both Patricia Yasmine Graf and Fabian Seibert, as you can imagine. Imagine walking across the world’s biggest furniture fair: tons of design pieces in endless variations totally overwhelm you. Smartness and prettiness. What would happen if Graf Seibert’s furniture pieces could not withstand the pressure and develop mental problems of their own? Does a depressive lamp give light or does it symbolise the dark side of our meritocratic society? Is an anorexic bed still of some practical use?
re:form I + II, Email auf Stahl, Graphit, 25 x 25 cm
KRAFT, 85 x 55 x 55 cm, 2015, oak wood, 3200 €
KNOW THAT EVERYTHING TURNS OUT TO BE GOOD!
The eagle is a mighty, majestic animal. Kings, aristocratic houses, the Federal Republic of Germany have him as heraldic animal. With the Indians of North America, it symbolizes the great spirit. He pulls his circles confidently at great heights, uses thermals and currents to hover effortlessly. Contemplative, calm, calm, easy, light, waiting to surprise his prey at the right moment with high speed in a dive. The prey dies, completely surprised without fear within a few fractions of a second by the impact of the impact. No bloodbath, no slaughter, no long torture. Short, painless, precise. I had the idea for this work in a difficult life situation in which I felt discouraged and emaciated. And there I wished for the strength, accuracy, calmness and clarity of the eagle. The eagle’s ability to do the job at the right moment without a lot of attention.
Simone Birk: “In my painterly creations, I hope to reflect emotions back to the viewer. I use various techniques and materials such as clay, wood, and stone. For a few years I have also been devoted to painting.”
Frühling, acrylic on paper, 2018, 40cm / 50 cm, 480 €
Julia Antonia: “During a meeting with a shamanic therapist, I imagined that strong internal spaces such as the ones here, which I sketched right after therapy. This is a concrete inner space of healing for a close friend. The picture is not yet finished…”
vindeca sunete (healing sounds in Romanian), 2018, 100 x 100 cm, framed in shadow gap, nettle, from the series “Therapy” 2,800 €
“I had four miscarriages, and displaced the pain. In March 2006, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in the left middle of my chest. After the initial operation, results showed that I had to have an additional operation. I opted for the radical surgery without reconstruction, for survival. I am an Amazon. During Chemo, there was a mistake with one of four intravenous needles, placed in the right crook of my arm that destroyed the tissue. I could have taken the doctors to court for negligence, but I had no strength. In 2006, my life changed forever. I found my new mantra: What stays? Forever! I approach philosophical questions photo series and spatial productions. I stopped working as a stage and costume designer.” so Jutta Imelda Kanneberger.
Selbstportrait (self portrait), three part watercolor series, 2006, ca. 17 x 24 cm, 450 €
Lucy Libre
Total Eclipse of the Heart, pendant series, “Milagritos” (small wonder), leather
A large pendant in bright colors that protects your own heart underneath from anxiety, lovesickness, and fear. One is reminded again and again of his requests by the pendant due to the size and conspicuousness of the jewelry.
Beast & Beauty otoman, L 200 cm x B 80 cm x H 50 cm x G 60 kg | hand-carved hoofs and horns in walnut tree | leather and fur | petticoat Élitis, 8500 €
The work is using its aethetics and spirit of the Beauty&Beast story to calm one´s soul and heal his body. Equipped with horns for sophisticated relaxing.
Sturmtief Burglind (Low Pressure Front Burglind), Photograph, 65 x 53 cm, oak frame, 44,5 x 31,7 cm photograph, 620 €
When I feel gloomy inwardly while it is gloomy outside, I capture the moment: figuratively, in writing, or in music. In this case, I was on my way to Berlin on the ICE and felt upset because I got sick, and was unsure about my upcoming concerts. The view of the storm “Burglind” gave me the rest. But whenever I feel down, I decide not to let myself stay down. These captured moments remind me to be courageous! I remind myself that every crisis, as well as every storm, passes and can be overcome!” Pasquale Aleardi
Tatawa (Wei Tan): “My interpretation of “HEALING” is to heal through the act of purging. Each of my abstract paintings is a journal entry and a self-revelation through improvisation. Like making soup, materials are thrown onto the canvas and mixed together through spontaneous gesture. Often a period of mindless doodling is carried out before the painting settles down with an unexpected coherence. The process of improvisation and automatic drawing allow thoughts from the subconscious to emerge. The paintings exist in a space between the real and the abstract, where real-life objects float in a sea of abstract colours and forms. The everyday objects in the paintings – such as cups, boxes, windows and ladders – represent the meaningless clutter in the mind. By releasing these objects onto the canvas the mind is cleared and cleansed.” The Storeroom Had a Stomach Flu, Mixed Media on Canvas, 100 x 120 cm, 2350 €
Printemps japonais, 2016, Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm, 2000 €
Philippe Ségalard: This is healing time. Spring. Japanese’s spring because of space, the way space is represented. Happy energy of spring, as now the very long winter, which didn’t want to finish, has ended. It is not only the winter of time, every years winter, but of course a glimpse to the winter of Richard III: Now is the winter of our discontent…And so, now this winter of our discontent is over. The field can wear the proud and powerful colors of Spring. And the strange shadow of a bridge…The white figure, mysterious just in front of the painting that probably comes from that winter. And underneath, just a calm music player. This is the kind of healing this work proposes.
“The painted flat screen with the motive “reigen” (‘circle dance’, after Arthur Schnitzler’s novel) shows the present and future dance of our desires, obsessions, and fetishes, which keep us from clear knowledge. The changing love carousel of a futuristic society. Future is now!” Peter Schlangenbader
Reigen (Circle Dance), acrylic/flat screen, 150 x 176 x 55 cm, 7,500 €
Uwe Schwarz uses experiments of various pictorial possibilities to express his critique of civilization. With his metaphorically symbolist, sarcastic, subtle works, he turns against human self-overestimation, emotional numbness and the obnoxious indifference which goes hand in hand with selfishness and bears destructive traits. He gladly reaches into the treasure chest of the cultural history of humanity to keep the observer’s eyes on the mirror, over and over again.” – Karin Weber
Fortuna, Bronze figure with painted acrylic disk, height 32 cm, 600 €
All jewely by Ulrike Hofmann-Schüll are unique pieces made of silver, gold, brass, copper, or iron and are often combined with gemstones. Trained in artisanal metalworking and forming techniques, she has the capability to carry out her many ideas. A few years ago, she began creating entirely new, exciting forms of jewelry: large, light, asymmetrical shapes incorporating luminous faceted stones. Hofmann-Schüll’s creative power became even more intuitive, dynamic, and far-reaching. She has written a book about this journey, entitled “Up to the stars and back: About the creative process.”
Sternenbahnen (Star Tracks), necklace, unique, 2012, Height 35 x width 29 x depth 1.5 cm, weight 170 grams, 925/000 Silver with natural oxide. Stone: Zirkonia pink
Dr. Yoanna Planchette
La lutte éternelle entre le matériel et le spirituel, entre le corps et l’esprit… lorsque l’âme aspire à s’évader dans une autre réalité, plus pure, plus parfaite que l’image du fantôme qui la retient sur terre. Un réel combat entre la vie et la mort, lorsque l’art demeure le seul moyen de s’enfuir, un remède miracle, plus puissant pour affronter et plus durable pour échapper au péril…
The eternal fight between matter and spirit, between body and soul… Sometimes the soul longs for another reality, purer and more perfect than the image of the phantom that has arrested her on earth. A real fight between life and death. Sometimes art is the only permanent means of escape.
Anatomie des Geistes (Anatomy of the Soul), H 29.5 cm x B 21 cm, Acrylic paint, collage, felt-tipped pen, framed
Valentina Pisarra
Our last moments do not have to be arbitrary, but can be designed consciously. In addition to death, coffins, urns, and mourning jewelry designed and crafted by the artists, artistically designed and crafted, w e i s s über den tod hinaus offers insightful and artistically competent advice on all farewell art topics.
Es gibt auch ein Leben vor dem Tod (There is also a life before death) interview with Lydia Gastroph, founder of w e i s s über den tod hinaus.