Five Shanghai Germans (Group Show)

Dear stage候台BACK friends,

We are pleased to invite you for the opening reception ( 开幕接待 ) of Five Shanghai Germans -Group Show

Date: May 16 2009.

Time: 6pm - 10 pm at stage候台BACK Gallery.

We hope to see you.

Susanne Junker & Amandy Chien

Five Shanghai Germans

Alexander Brandt, Roland Geissel, Susanne Junker, Rolf A. Kluenter and Lothar Spree

Group Show

May 16 – June 26 2009 / 2009年5月16日至6月26日

Opening reception: May 16 2009. 6pm - 10 pm at stage候台BACK Gallery.

开幕接待: 2009年5月16日 18：00 - 22: 00 stage候台BACK艺术画廊

TiMELINE:May 16 – June 26 2009 / 2009年5月16日至6月26日

stage候台BACK Shanghai is delighted to present‘Five Shanghai Germans’, a group show of recent works by Alexander Brandt, Roland Geissel, Susanne Junker, Rolf A. Kluenter and Lothar Spree.
The exhibition offers a look through the eyes of 5 German artists who have been living and working in Shanghai during the past 3 – 10 years. Shanghai, the trend-setting metropolis with a capitalistically characterized dynamic, has been challenging their artistic practices and exploration into new or different ways of expression.
The show is curated by Ke Luo Fu, Shanghai
‘Five Shanghai Germans’ will be exhibited at Bridge Gallery, 798, Beijing in November-December 2009, at K GALLERY, Chengdu in the first half of 2010 and at TEAPOT, Cologne in the first half of 2011.
The Catalog is edited by Ke Luo Fu and published by stage候台BACK and Ke Luo Fu, in cooperation with timezone 8, soft cover, 88 pages, color plates

stage候台BACK荣幸呈现“上海五德”联展，届时五位德国艺术家 飞苹果(Alexander Brandt)，葛若朗（Roland Geissel），云筱苏 (Susanne Junker)， 柯罗夫 (Rolf A. Kluenter)和 洛塔 斯普瑞(Lothar Spree) 将联合展出其最新艺术作品。
“上海五德”通过五位长居上海的德国艺术家的独特视角，展现他们在过去3-10年间与上海这座独特城市交融迸发的艺术作品。上海一向以“小资”著称，这座大都市如今正以其独特的活力走向现代潮流的最前端，这强烈撞击着艺术家们的艺术创作，激发他们探索各种新的艺术表达方式
艺术联展由科罗夫策展。
“上海五德”将于2009年12月在北京798桥舍画廊做第一次联展，接下来将于2010上半年和2011年上半年分别在四川成都K GALLERY和德国科隆Teapot艺术廊做巡回联展。
艺术画册由柯罗夫编辑， stage候台BACK 和柯罗夫联合发行，软封，88页，彩板

More link:

facebook

cityweekend

synotrip

urbanotomy

shmag

china-daily

shanghaistuff

For further information contact:

Amandy Chien (Mandy)
cell: 135-01717-590
email: stageback696@gmail.com

P R E S S R E L E A S E

stage候台BACK 696 Weihai Shanghai is delighted to present ‘Five Shanghai Germans’, a group show of recent works by Alexander Brandt, Roland Geissel, Susanne Junker, Rolf A. Kluenter and Lothar Spree.

The exhibition offers a look through the eyes of 5 German artists who have been living and working in Shanghai during the past 3 – 10 years. Shanghai, the trend-setting metropolis with a capitalistically characterized dynamic, has been challenging their artistic practices and exploration into new or different ways of expression.
Alexander Brandt states in the context of his ‘ephemeral structures’, 4 times photography in c-print:: From a personal, purely esthetic point of view, most of Shanghai's new high rising buildings are visually more interesting during their construction phase than after their completion. This state is temporary; in a month's time, what was captured in the image doesn't exist anymore. At the same time, because Shanghai's construction sites are omnipresent, the presence of these ephemeral structures also has something permanent.”

Roland Geissel’s work “melusine – xujing’ includes photography and an object. ‘A Spatial Drawing is the interior of a Melusine’...... a series begun in 1997. Melusine is the collective title of all worksbelonging to a group whose design always follows the same basic principles, leadinghowever to a unique result each time. The Melusines are corporealobjects, occupying the borderlands between painting and sculpture.

.... the Spatial Drawings are site-specific and have so
far been temporary, documentation is necessary. However the photos Roland Geissel
takes, on 5x4” film, using a large-format camera, transcend the purely documentary
function and assume the nature of works themselves.

The photographs do not only succeed in translating the space via perspective onto the two-dimensional plane of film, much more than this they lead to an alteration in our perception. Our spatial perception as a whole shifts towards the visualization of flatter, graphic formations seen in the background, and optical effects are created which evoke a space other than the real one; new, unreal spaces are created. [johannes kögler－“journeys into space - roland geissel’s spatial drawings”, exhibition catalog, 2007]

Susanne Junker presents her photographic series “ - - - id - - -identity- - -
- work in progress”. R A Suri writes about her work: “Essentially, the photographic work of Susanne Junker is cathartic, humorous and violent in effect. Her trajectory is one wherein the role of subject/object, identity and transfiguration of medium revolve, intertwine and are re-cast in a conscious manner. Unfortunately, while the pivotal device of oscillating to and from established or fixed visual iconography-which she has sought to challenge- of women, embodying the same formal vocabulary in her staged self-portraiture, one might evaluate that rather than a rupture with the perversion and vulgarity of the portrayal or women by mass-media and the "victimization" of the fashion world in real terms on both the physical and psychological landscape of women, conversely, her work is somewhere testament to the legacy of that sphere upon contemporary photographic art. [R. A. Suri “Globales Geiles Gesicht”, guest contribution / essay / KUNST BLOG / (http://kunst-blog.com/2009/03/leerer_eintrag.php)

Rolf A. Kluenter’s mix media installation ‘st.st.not.that.not.this.six steps registration overkill’ shows canvases, a stencil, rubberstamps, a 2 minute video, a photo and text. Ilse Schache comments: “…the nature of self, the nature of the environment in which we find ourselves, and the relationship between them. The central theme of these works is not to capture some kind of abstract reality, life, as it 'is', but instead to explore the processes of creation and the creative process in and of itself. Kluenter is captivated by the verb 'to transpire', to cause something to happen, to go beyond, to cross something, to inspire. The purpose of his work is to demonstrate or to cause some kind of tension, since this, in his mind, will cause something to transpire. Kluenter is interested by the idea that beyond memory, there is something more, something non-material but nevertheless, very real. It is this 'beyond-ness' of things that his work is trying to expose. As something happens, or transpires, it passes into our memory, where this process of creation keeps developing. Nothing is finite and nothing has an end; one event is transformed and so leads on to something else.” [Ilse Schache “rolf a. kluenter – recent works, 2009]
Lothar Spree makes a very distinct statement in the context of his 2 simultaneously running films, title: ‘ shanghai passage voyage / dissolve’: “understanding media as a tool of exploration - zooming out the panoramic views of satellites and into microscopic close-ups of the psyche of people // although a filmmaker at heart, media art has become my main interest in the context of chinese art education // shanghai is a maze of media art reflections // here the two terms ‘media’ and ‘art’ carry both a certain acute urgency – they are terms of our times that signify essential demands and developments for global society/ visible in the cityscape of shanghai // under the term media we see our world transferring itself increasingly into the visualizing media/ not only because of the intensification of global communication and exchange -- more so because of the great virtualization of our life // formative events are not anymore happening in real life but in media only/ and more and more of human life takes place in the realm of virtuality // to work -- and live --

in the field of media/ especially in shanghai/ means dealing with the issues of humanity/ society and the ‘essence of life’ -- finding/defining/refining rules of changing reality before the media world forgets its humanity // art provokes the new and evokes the old/ reminding of the essence of the strife for progress // art is breaking the rules in order to liberate/ and challenging in order to define a next necessary step // making and braking the rules - art is the realization of both these impossible attempts // understanding media as a tool of exploration - to move out to the panoramic views of satellites and to return to microscopic close-ups of the psyche of people.”

The show is curated by Ke Luo Fu, Shanghai

‘Five Shanghai Germans’ will be exhibited at Brige Gallery, 798, Beijing in November-December 2009, at K GALLERY, Chengdu in the first half of 2010 and at TEAPOT, Cologne in the first half of 2011.
Catalog, published and edited by Ke Luo Fu & stageBACK, Shanghai, soft cover, 88 pages, color plates

Art Paris Opening 18.03.2009

Le Grand Palais

Acte 2 Galerie, booth P32: France first lady - Susanne Junker - Philippe Assalit and their work!


115 galleries / 800 artists / Grand Palais / march 19-23 2009

Upcoming on March 19th, ARTPARIS will be kicking off its eleventh edition, inviting international collectors, professionals and lovers of art from the world of art to visit the more than one hundred galleries which will be brought together under the majestic dome of the Grand Palais through March 23rd, 2009. 115 of the most dynamic galleries of modern and contemporary art currently active on the international art market they will offer a vast panorama of the art of the 20th and 21st centuries as represented through a range of media from painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video, installation and performance.

ARTPARIS 邀請國際收藏家，專業人士和愛好者的藝術世界 藝術訪問超過100畫廊將匯集 在雄偉的圓頂大皇宮通過2009年3月23日。 115 畫廊的最有活力的現代和當代藝術目前活躍 國際藝術市場，他們將提供一個廣闊的全景藝術的第20和 21世紀為代表通過各種媒體從繪畫，雕塑， 繪畫，攝影，錄像，安裝和運行。

Art Paris 巴黎藝術

Susanne Junkers work Geiles Globales Gesicht will be on view at Art Paris next week.

Please look out for Acte2 Galerie, booth P32
Art Paris 19 - 23 mars 2009 Grand Palais

云筱苏 做平 叫做 Geiles Globales Gesicht 下週會在Art Paris 展覽會。

情看下 Acte2 Galerie P32 Art Paris攤子 03月09年19日－23日 Grand Palais

Junkers work review on the KUNST BLOG

To read the whole review please click here

Thanks to Markus Wirthmann and writer and art critic R.A Suri

R A Suri (born: 1970, Montreal) is an autodidact artist/curator/critic/poet & writer.. He began as a freelance journalist in 1987 followed by independent investigations & research in socio-political experiments in film and theatre. As an artisan , artist & curator, has acted as an assistant director for Les Ateliers Graff- centre for contemporary printmaking(Montreal), Isart-independent centre for contemporary art (Montreal), artistic director for DDM Warehouse-centre for experimental art (Shanghai) where he spearheaded over 14 exhibitions & events from 2005-2006 with an axis on emergent artists from across S E Asia & in-situ creation. Independent projects since include artistic consultancy/direction for local and international figures in contemporary & experimental art within the mainland of China.
As a literary figure and critic/editor, he has acted as editor-in-chief for “Images: Revue Interculturelles” (Montreal), associate editor for “Ruptures: Literary Review of the Three Americas” (Montreal), the “Chinese Contemporary International Poetry Quarterly” (Chongqing), “Ling Du”-(Zero Writing) Literary Samizdat Journal (Shanghai), “Poetry Circle Quarterly” (Hong Kong) & “Sa Jiao” Literary Review (Shanghai). He was featured as a principle editor for the 2004 Anthology of New Chinese Poetry in Translation (Chongqing), a seminal project towards the promotion of new literature & poetry at an international scale. He has acted as an associate editor of “Yishushijie (Artworld) Magazine” since 2003. Since his arrival to Shanghai in 2001, he is the author of over 140 critical texts relating to contemporary art & performance published by both private and public press.
Regarding his own poetry, the seminal poet/performance artist of the Neo-Avant Garde movement, Julien Blaine cites…’a poetic of exquisite sensitivity…reminiscent of Giorno…with a profound sense of spirituality belonging to neither the Occident nor Orient” & the NYC based poet/video/performance artist Ellen Zweig…”a self-styled, ecstatic lyricist”.
His engagement in film and theatre brought him to work in concert as artistic director for the “Chinese and South East Asian Independent Film Festival “(Montreal), Pan Production Studio/Barrandov Studios (Prague), numerous documentary and television projects (BBC Channel 4) & cultural editor of Shanghai Television/Shanghai Broadcast Network. Contemporary Dance/Theatre works include his involvement in productions for “The Other Theatre” (Montreal), l’Agora de la Danse (Montreal) &“Zhu He Niao” (Shanghai). He has published extensively on the topics of Butoh, performance art & the evolution of physical theatre.
Current projects include acting as a literary consultant & editor for the forthcoming Pan-Asian
edition of “Doc(K)s- Review of New Literature” (Marseilles), an exploration on the emergence of new writing/visual experimentation in the Orient, the production of an independent documentary film & a volume of new poetry.

類風濕性關節炎蘇瑞（出生： 1970年，蒙特利爾）是一個autodidact藝術家/策展人/評論家/詩人＆ 作家..他開始作為一個自由撰稿人在1987年獨立之後， 調查與研究中的社會政治實驗電影和戲劇。同樣地 一個工匠，藝術家及策展人，擔任助理署長為法國製造 格拉夫中心當代版畫（蒙特利爾） ， Isart獨立中心 當代藝術（蒙特利爾） ，藝術總監DDM的倉庫中心 實驗藝術（上海） ，他率先超過14展覽及活動由 2005-2006年的軸應急藝術家來自全國各地及東南亞地區的原位 創造。自獨立的項目包括藝術顧問/方向 當地和國際人士在當代與實驗藝術的 祖國大陸。

他參與的電影和戲劇的工作使他在演唱會的藝術總監的“中國和東南亞獨立電影節” （蒙特利爾） ，潘Production Studio中/ Barrandov工作室（布拉格） ，無數的紀錄片和電視項目（英國廣播公司第4頻道）及文化編輯上海電視台/上海廣播網絡。當代舞蹈團/劇院工程包括他參與製作的“其他劇場” （蒙特利爾） ，歐萊雅小組德拉薩舞（蒙特利爾） ＆ “朱赫妮遨” （上海） 。他出版了廣泛的專題舞踏，表演藝術的演變與物理劇院舉行。
目前的項目包括作為文學顧問和編輯為即將舉行的泛亞洲
版的“文件（金）的S -審查新文學” （馬賽） ，探索，出現了新的寫作/視覺試驗在東方，製作一個獨立的紀錄片及大量的新詩。

ICS TV Video - city beats - @ Geiles Globales Gesicht

Check out the video below, or click here

Geiles Globales Gesicht @ #1 Art Museum Shanghai China

I was invited to participate in a group show together with Tan Gengxiong last December. It was held at the #1 Art Museum in Shanghai, 1 Jianguo Rd. This event also being covered on citybeat

Geiles Globales Gesicht - Installation view

Geiles Globales Gesicht - Susanne Junker - Soloshow - September 8 - 28 2008 " 個人表演 "

An essentially untranslatable term, “Geiles”, either grand or aroused by desire, has been coined by Susanne Junker for her most recent photographic series. 12 images of the artist transformed after painstaking applications of facial paint confront spectators with a work constituent of anonymity, cultural associations & iconography as well as silent protest. In the traditions of Chinese Opera, female characters were exclusively portrayed by male performers, the masks and painted visage irrefutably linked to dramatic personae, and narrative discourse predictable and unwavering. With “Geiles Globales Gesicht” (Grand Global Masks), a seductive counterpoint is given: the performer is one female, the symbolic reference of the masks sabotaged, rendered “perverse”, and visual reference one of auto-portraiture. For those familiar with Susanne Junker, this versatile artist/conceptual photographer is not adverse to challenging either gender portrayal, sexual iconography or to employ role-reversal as a means of visual subterfuge. The use of the masked figures is a conscious attempt to address specific social constraints and paradoxical elements in the visual vocabulary of the people of the PRC, the voyeurism of the nations’ expatriate audience and community. The faces are silent, the facial details entirely submerged in centuries old practice of multiple layers of grease paint, mouths obscured, and save for one image, reminiscent of the European Harlequin (yet, derived from a traditional character of Chinese Opera), reflect upon the inherent associations of the art form and its transformation. The “Harlequin” poses an interesting jest, as the character itself plays against cultural monogamy and symbol: an image shared by radically different cultural histories and traditions ridicules us with a sad air as part of the exhibition.

In contemplation of the use of the mask not only as a cultural icon or metaphorical device for whatever proposed allegory, we need to recall the significance and conscious/unconscious associations in our collective visual experience. A central vehicle for dramatic anonymity, as well as character portrayal, the mask today symbolizes what aspect of our society? The stage of today, inundated with virtual and artificially manipulable digital sequencing and projections has near abandoned the craft of the mask, yet their appearance is evocative nonetheless.
This work well reflects Barthes associative logic of the photographic moment with that of “death”. Times passage demands the re-analysis of form & & psychological association, history reminds of our changing perceptions of what constitutes cultural symbols & technological advent and innovation now demands we challenge aspects of our cultural heritage. Fascination and voyeurism are doubtlessly aspects of the human condition which have been amplified, and the artist transfixes the stage in mute protest. For Barthes, this suggests that photography creates the conditions for a profound loss of meaning, an absence in which referentiality is removed although we still understand what we see.

In contrast, Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theories on photography explain a moment of perception which exceeds the normal boundaries of the everyday. This excess is at one and the same time an encounter with the self and with history. It moves the activity of viewing from a transparent relationship of meaning and expression to a level in which meaning seems to be there without the presence of subjectivity. It is as if the photograph brings out the unconscious, is also a representation of the unconscious and at the same time denies all of these relations of meaning. Junker has undoubtedly redoubled the examination of these two contrastive theories, the loss of meaning is observed, in a relational sense, yet, by the incorporation of more sublime elements rather than a clearly defined "studium" and "punctum", she delivers a visual experience which is highly evocative, more akin to a Lacanian analysis of the medium.To graft the mask from the dramatic arts and make it a central component of conceptual photography, to transform the characters associated with each specific folkloric character (in this case those immediately recognizable from either Jinju or Kunju Opera) as an extension of an artist's adopted psyche- a precarious venture which Susanne Junker has attempted in multiple previous experiments- is no small task. A new representation of an object already categorical & representational, embodiments of narrative fictions to be performed onstage and now suspended in a silent two-dimensional vortex, specters of themselves cast upon the visage of the artist at work in an indivisible act of auto-portraiture, leads to an annihilation of the former and enlivening to the latter. In her work, the artist has afforded new life, and in doing, contrast socio-cultural parallels with her own personal inclinations to provoke the unthinking mechanisms and latency of our image ridden society. Ours is a visual culture, her attempts reminds us that we need constantly analyze and re-analyze the immediacy of our visual environment, and equally, that this auto-reflex has become a part of our post-industrial, ultra-technological society...we are made dependent on the same devices which we have created towards an actual liberalization from the past and former bastions of cultural and societal "advance", now, defunct. While the sincerity of the artist is undoubtable, her personal situational "flux", (from her former series attempting to transgress the field of vision from her experience as a model to that of photographer, from a past of the fashion industry to that of conceptual or fine art...) has led to a body of work which signals diversity and boldness. The current series, while aesthetically and technically more mature leaves one with a sense of greater coherency than several of the series of experiments by the artist of past years, yet the depth of examination is somewhat lacking. While having consciously decided on 12 faces/masks and there presentation is remarkable, within the sphere of cultural reference & social commentary, there remains an understatement in content & manner. Would it not be in order to cross-reference the function of the mask and its use in photography ? A similar re-examination of those faces of antiquity well known and understood in the Italian traditions of Dell'Arte, the Medieval traditions of the Mime and later comic characters of the popular drama's and repertoires of North American film, television and theatre may have a direct trans-cultural impact for the audiences of Chinese origin? For a similar lack of full comprehension and a similar field of misinterpretation exists in visual translations from the Occidental to Oriental vocabulary. We may anticipate an extenuation of the Geiles Globales Gesicht in new applications of form and content in the near future with an emphasis on the Global. To bridge the representational is perhaps to command or control the representational, and while the Geiles Globales Gesicht manifests as a travesty of the transformations behind a medium from one iconographic reference (whether contemporary or traditional) and to another symbolism a minor note of detraction exists in her derisive mirror of the sublime and the crass. It is one where the most neglected audience is denied a role of similar contrastive analysis as the artist, while in a full enthusiasm and passion towards the act of auto-portraiture and individual transformations of the representative icon, has overlooked the importance of the signifier of the "Other" beyond the Euro-Centric errors of both the past and present, and has forgotten the importance Sino-Centric errors of the interpretation of cultural symbols in balance. Nonetheless, a stark commentary is inherent in the message itself & as an emergent series, proves to be confrontational and engaging.
R A Suri

After a long summer break we got ready for the Shanghai "art month" September that featured 2 art fairs, the Shanghai Biennale and about 80 gallery openings in one week. Jam! I hung my newest series "Geiles Globales Gesicht". Take a look on the piece I done, you can find it here.

等到很長的暑假我們準備趕上上海 “藝術月” 9月兩個藝術務，Shanghai Biennale 還有80多哥艺术家的开幕式在同一周. Jam! 我吧我的最新的个作品瓜 " Geiles Globales Gesicht". 情到这里看 GoSee