Emily MayReviews09 December 2024ArtReview the choreographer imbues her lifelike creations with an unsettling awareness of the limits of their own reality Puppets are made to be manipulated: they only come to life when animated by a puppeteer who that puppets are a key feature of French-Austrian artist choreographer and director Gisèle Vienne’s 25-year practice: their innately submissive personalities are the perfect metaphor through which to explore themes of personal relationships violence and trauma – particularly as experienced by children and adolescents where her lifesize puppets perform alongside human actors and dancers But in this show (part of a wider Berlin-based showcase of her art and staged work) the anthropomorphic creations are motionless captured in a photographic series and displayed like specimens in a line of glass vitrines the puppets’ arrangements are intended – as the show’s title suggests – to evoke the experience of faltering awareness Much of Vienne’s work here references her theatrical repertoire: the key scene in the tableau draws from and is titled after her 2021 production L’Etang (The Pond) an interpretation of eponymous short story (c in which a boy stages his suicide to test his mother’s love a pair of puppets recline rigidly on a bed the boy’s arm reaching suggestively over the girl’s stomach as her head turns uncomfortably away from him staring blankly at the empty white room in front of them – the audience views the whole scene from a distance and is prohibited from entering either space – in which an identical replica of one half of the duo lies dejectedly on the floor While this could represent a staged suicide the scene is more effective as a depiction of dissociation: while physically present at the party floating in an abyss disconnected from their uncomfortable reality Vienne seems to be playing with levels of reality splitting one of her characters in two and causing psychological turmoil in the process The success of this vignette lies in the puppets’ stiff body language and vacant gazes Vienne takes a choreographic approach to demonstrate the expressive potential of movement and bodily gesture This is also evident in 63 colour photographs of her puppets taken between 2003 and 2024 (63 Portraits 2003–2024) By placing their heads at subtly different angles Vienne imbues these lifeless figures with emotions of shame The way that their faces are painted enhances this effect flushed tones and glossy finishes creating the illusion of streaming tears It feels as if Vienne is training us to listen to the stillness and silence of her puppets to become more attuned to signs of suffering in everyday life If there’s any doubt about what has caused her puppets’ distress look closer at the dolls encased in glass boxes on the ground floor While they project confidence in sportswear and spiked punk armbands closer inspection reveals blood-flecked hands bandaged wrists and bruised legs hidden under sheer white tights (The show’s final room is strewn with bloodstained shipping boxes suggesting injuries sustained during the violent journey to their current location.) Here Vienne implicitly urges us to take time to notice these unsettling details and reflect on how paying more attention could improve our understanding of the unspoken struggles of those around us This Causes Consciousness to Fracture – A Puppet Play at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, through 12 January From the November 2024 issue of ArtReview – get your copy Claudia RossReviews Martin HerbertReviews Tom MortonReviews Gaby CepedaReviews Chris MurthaReviews ArtReviewNewsartreview.com02 May 2025 The painting, worth €50 million, has sustained visible scratches The 10 Exhibitions to See in May 2025ArtReviewPreviewsartreview.com02 May 2025 Our editors on the exhibitions they’re looking forward to this month, from the Venice Architecture Biennale to Gallery Weekends in Berlin and Beijing AdvertisementHow the Museum Became a WeaponWilliam ShokiOpinionartreview.com02 May 2025 In apartheid South Africa, museums glorified white settlement and erased Black history; in the US today, they are again being captured under the guise of neutrality Vyjayanthi Rao to curate 2026 Sharjah Architecture TriennialMia SternNewsartreview.com02 May 2025 She will be joined by Tau Tavengwa as associate curator Ari Emanuel buys Frieze from EndeavorArtReviewNewsartreview.com01 May 2025 The entertainment company’s own former chief executive has acquired Frieze for a reported $200m Inaugural Annie Leibowitz prize awarded to photographer of migrant experiencesArtReviewNewsartreview.com01 May 2025 Zélie Hallosserie to receive $10,000 for her documentary work in Calais Helmut Lang Has Always Been ProvocativeClaudia RossReviewsArtReview01 May 2025 Lang’s newest artwork, like his clothing, explores the uncanny ways that industrial refuse can interact with and even evoke human flesh IKOB Feminist Art Prize announces winnersArtReviewNewsartreview.com01 May 2025 Matt Copson: Never Grow UpMartin HerbertReviewsArtReview30 April 2025 “What’s living with no hope?” asks the artist’s big animated baby at KW, Berlin. One thing is certain: we can’t stop watching Disability Is Not a Separate Category of PersonhoodAlice HattrickOpinionartreview.com30 April 2025 The disabled experience is increasingly visible in the artworld yet an ableist political landscape is constantly on the attack. This affects us all We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy You don’t need to break the bank or hop on a plane to Mallorca to enjoy a day at the beach if you call the Wiesbaden area home Pinta Beach offers an affordable waterside escape with a variety of activities on the Raunheimer Waldsee A trip there does require some initial steps Because the beach is a privately owned recreation area Aside from the challenge of getting a day with conditions hospitable to beachgoing online tickets can be purchased only up to a week in advance And there are no refunds in the event of bad weather or cancellation I found the online ticketing system easy to navigate on my phone while sitting in my car at the on-site parking lot The website offers a full English version at the click of a button be sure to bring some spare change for the cash-only fee of 5 euros Reservation options online include park admission and shaded seating arrangements ranging from folding beach loungers to large daybeds The amenities have expanded significantly in the several years since I last visited Pinta Beach It wasn’t hard to imagine how popular this area can be later in the season because there is a slew of activities for all ages The family area centerpiece is the ship-themed playground which is befitting a place named after one of Christopher Columbus’ vessels from the famous 1492 voyage The family area also houses the cheapest reserved seating starting at 20 euros for a full-day reservation which is essentially an inflatable obstacle course that floats on the lake An additional fee lets guests use it for one-hour time blocks or get an all-day pass paddle boats and inflatable boats are also available to rent at the aqua park There’s an abundance of food options on site ranging from the permanent imbiss-style snack bar to food trucks offering burgers For guests seeking more adult-oriented fun an adult-only VIP area and the Chamaeleon am See beach club and cocktail bar Behind a fence on the far end of the beach a secluded nudist area provides recreation space for those wanting the freedom to bare it all After digging my toes in the sand and soaking up some rays given the fact that there had been rain and hail the day before I eventually adjusted to the temperature and found the cold water quite refreshing I stopped by the beach club after my swim for what turned out to be the highlight of the day closed my eyes and stretched out on the padded lounge chair under a straw umbrella The cozy accommodation and ambient music playing near the bar provided a much-appreciated vacationlike atmosphere guests can drop in on a space-available basis for tableside food drink and hookah service using a QR code ordering system All lounge seating is available for reservation so access to the beach club may be limited during peak times The view of the industrial sand quarry across the lake and the multiple flyovers involving Frankfurt Airport traffic occasionally pulled me out of the moment but not enough to detract from my vacation vibes Many patrons even seemed to enjoy the up-close view of the planes While it is by no means a Mediterranean or tropical paradise Pinta Beach does offer a convenient day trip alternative for a beach getaway without the hassle of airline travel or depleting the vacation fund I’m sure the family and I will return multiple times this summer and maybe watching the airplanes will help remind me of how much money our staycations save me 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m.-8 p.m 4 euros for children 5-17 and free for children under 5; seating reservations range from 20 euros to more than 100 euros Teachers and “villagers” gather for an informal German language session at Waldsee the German language village of Concordia Language Villages One of the gifts of the Information Age is that news and stories from around the world are immediately accessible to almost anyone But the challenge is what to do when that information raises concerns especially about places and people many hold dear Concordia Language Villages, a camp established in 1961 by Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., to provide cultural immersion programs, experienced this challenge last year. A parent found a concerning link to the German language village’s name, Waldsee, which loosely means a forest, lake or idyllic place in the woods. Troubled by this discovery, especially since his grandparents had died at Auschwitz, Treitler emailed Christine Schulze, executive director of Concordia Language Villages. “It was incredibly shocking,” she said. “It wasn’t any part of our history or background.” The German village team includes prominent German scholars and historians, including Dan Hamilton, a dean of Waldsee, the executive director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University and a veteran of the U.S. State Department, including as senior policy adviser to the U.S. ambassador to Germany. Schulze forwarded Treitler’s concerns to Hamilton and other village leaders. “We’re embarrassed by this,” Hamilton said. “I found out only two weeks before summer was starting. It was a gut punch. It just never came up before over 60 years.” In light of the discovery, Hamilton formed an advisory group of historians, Jewish community leaders, educators and parents, including Treitler. He also contacted the mayors of two German towns named Waldsee to ask them to dig into their historical records. Neither was aware of the Auschwitz connection to their town’s name. Concordia Language Villages then addressed the situation head-on, holding open forums for all campers to hear about the Auschwitz connection to Waldsee and join conversations about the name. “It’s really fostered a very healthy language and dialogue through a really challenging educational moment.” “We had more than 150 people total in those discussions,” Hamilton said, noting that he thought it was important to bring in lots of perspectives before the camp made a decision about what to do with the name. “My inclination was that we shouldn’t rush to judgment. Instead, we should explain immediately what we had found out in a letter. We should put a plan in process to use the summer camps to engage the community.” After all, Waldsee was more than the name of the German village: it was an important part of the founding of the camp and a microcosm of the Northern Minnesota woodsy setting where the villages are located. “All our other village names are a derivation on that theme,” Schulze said. “Waldsee was the first village, and they all resonated back to that as a template. It had such an identification with our entire community.” For example, the Japanese village name translates to of the forest, and the Arabic village name translates to an oasis, as forests are rare in most Arabic-speaking countries. Hamilton said the advisory group learned a lot, not just about the Holocaust or Waldsee but about each other. Some members reminded each other that the Holocaust was not just a German issue, and that it is important to think about how hatred and historical trauma affect all the language villages and how they teach about those issues. Jewish advisory members said it was important to teach about the German Jewish culture beyond the Holocaust, and that the richness of that history should not be neglected to focus only on the horror. Instead of covering up Waldsee’s Nazi association, the camp felt it important not to merely change the German village’s name. “The ultimate recommendation is to retain the name but also with a responsibility to educate about the history of the name,” Schulze said. “It’s really fostered a very healthy language and dialogue through a really challenging educational moment.” Concordia Language Villages’ mission, “to inspire courageous global citizens,” aligns with the camp’s decision to tell the stories of the past, even ones that are potentially embarrassing or painful. Hamilton sees it as part of his Christian faith to build stewards—people who will serve the community and listen to others. We are a church that values and encourages diverse voices and lively dialogue in our faith and life. Living Lutheran is an opportunity for church members to express individual perspectives, and does not necessarily reflect official positions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Concordia Language Villages confronts an ugly truth head-on as a step toward healing In 1960, an educator named Gerhard Haukebo returned to Minnesota from a stint overseas with a vision. Could the language immersion methods he'd seen on German playgrounds be married to the summer camp experience he so loved? Buoyed by the success of Lager Waldsee, the villages eventually swelled to 15 language concentrations, where thousands upon thousands of children have been steeped in other cultures including French, Norwegian, Russian and Japanese. The reputation of the camps, eventually rechristened Concordia Language Villages (CLV), only became more burnished over time. Then, earlier this year, nearly 60 years after Haukebo's vision became reality, Concordia faced a shocking truth: There was another Waldsee. But this Waldsee was not a peaceful place of rest. It wasn't even a real place. Steve Hunegs, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), put it starkly. "It was," he says, "a horrible euphemism for Auschwitz." In Nazi-occupied Hungary during WWII, Concordia camp leaders would soon learn, Jews were herded onto trains with the promise of a lovely and tranquil destination. "We learned that our journey's end was a place named Waldsee," says the young narrator of Imre Kertész's Nobel Prize-winning novel, "Fatelessness." "When I was thirsty or hot, the promise contained in that name immediately invigorated me." For decades, the connection went undetected, as throngs of campers ate, slept and breathed German at Waldsee village ("Lager" was eventually dropped), located since the early 1980s on Turtle River Lake near Bemidji. Last spring, the curiosity of one man led to the shocking discovery. "I put two terms — 'Waldsee' and 'Nazi' — in the search bar," said Alex Treitler, president of Life Language, a family and personal history business. His daughters had attended the Swedish village, and he became curious about the German village when family friends spent a weekend there in 2017. As a man whose grandparents likely died at Auschwitz, "I'm sensitive to the topic," he said. He began to read about the phony Waldsee with a sense of fascination and horror. What did Concordia know about this? Treitler contacted Christine Schulze, executive director of Concordia Language Villages, expressing his concern and dismay. "Your heart sinks," said Schulze. "To be perfectly frank, it was news to us. We were incredibly surprised — this was a program that had been connected to the German government, towns and researchers. We weren't hiding under a rock, if you will." "Frankly, we were just not aware," said Dan Hamilton, dean of the Waldsee village. "I'm a professor of international relations, so we were a bit embarrassed." Almost immediately, that embarrassment was channeled into action. A message was sent in May to the CLV community documenting the discovery and outlining steps toward possible solutions. The feeling of CLV leadership, Hamilton said, was "we had a choice to make. Would we step forward to face the issue frontally, inclusively, openly, or sweep it under the rug? The only responsible response was to engage the whole community." Engage they did. An advisory committee was recruited, comprising 21 people with a mix of insights including scholars, museum directors and experts on the Holocaust and the Jewish community. Forums also were held with parents, students and alumni; results from those sessions, and a separate call for input, resulted in 40 pages of responses, adding perspective that helped shape the ensuing discussion. "I have to underscore how impressed I was by [Concordia's] response," said advisory group member Leslie Morris, professor of German and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. "While it is widely known that the Nazis practiced this sort of deception, this particular case was not known," she said. Friedrichsmeyer, who originally named the language camp, only recently learned the story himself. "If I had known any of [the history], I would have thought twice," he said. The marquee deception for Concordia, of course, was the name Waldsee. Should it stay or go? "Initially I was incensed, and really wanted Concordia to change the name," said Treit­ler, one of the advisory committee members. "But the better point is to use it as a learning opportunity, to keep it as a reminder." Hunegs, of the JCRC, said he went into the process "fairly open-minded" but was persuaded the name should stay after speaking to camp counselors. Most had come up through the camp as students and were deeply invested in its legacy. "The consensus really did become, if you bend on the name, you dissociate from the history," Waldsee dean Hamilton said, "but you lose an opportunity, an obligation that others can learn." So Waldsee would remain Waldsee, but that was just the start of the debate. "By choosing to retain [the name], we have a moral and ethical responsibility to do justice to the history, the victims and survivors," Schulze said. "It's not entirely about changing the name," advisory group member Morris agreed. "We need to have an ongoing conversation. We need to address the larger trajectory of history in other aspects of the camp." Continuing the conversation meant tackling a most sensitive topic. "I think it's accurate to say there is reluctance to bring up the Holocaust," Treitler said. "Some kids are attending [the camp] for college credit, so it's perfectly appropriate, but from what I heard, I don't think it has been accurately addressed." Sonja Wentling, another advisory committee member, teaches a "History and Memory" course at Concordia, with special focus on the Holocaust. The topic, she says, is in danger of fading from consciousness because of the dwindling number of survivors and a growing disconnect from the events of WWII, especially among young people. "Holocaust remembrance has become universalized, abstract, a mere metaphor for the ultimate evil," she said, "while awareness and knowledge about the Holocaust have significantly decreased." Thus in the resolutions reached by the committee (see accompanying sidebar) the emphasis is on more education, adapted for different ages, about German-Jewish history. "We already do quite a bit of what we are recommending, but we will be more intentional," Hamilton said. He said the gathering of resources for staff, including assistance from the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., has begun. The physical surroundings of the camp will also come under consideration. A space for reflection will be created, and building names re-evaluated. All agree that healing this painful chapter will be ongoing. "We need to make sure that this is not the end of the story — not just at Concordia Language Villages, but everywhere," Morris said. Schulze added that one principle guided Concordia's actions. "Our mission is to inspire courageous global citizenship. Dan [Hamilton] said, 'This is what it means to be courageous.' "This was it — this is how we looked at it from the get-go." Cynthia Dickison is a features designer. She is a St. Paul native and graduate of the University of Minnesota. She has worked at the Star Tribune since 1978, starting on the copy desk. Dickison has worked in every department — news, sports, features, even a short stint on the business cover. No Section Peek inside homes for sale in the Twin Cities area After falling behind 17-0 at halftime and being dominated most of the game the Bulldogs may have locked up a spot in the College Football Playoff konstantin grcic combines his own designs with everyday objects for a new solo exhibition at haus am waldsee in berlin the ‘new normals’ exhibition uses design to explore possible future realities to explain the concept behind ‘new normals’ haus am waldsee talks about a smartphone on a desk which seems ubiquitous today but would have been cutting-edge and even futuristic in the 1990s or earlier.‘in this way our respective new realities are repeatedly changed by the objects as well as the behaviors attached to them and our lives are constantly transformed by their use and their increasing everyday nature,’  explains haus am waldsee grcic channels his future-oriented design approach to create fragments of potential future living and working environments allowing visitors to use their own imaginations to fill in the blanks of these speculative new worlds.  ‘his designs not only take on a new form new worlds in which these objects could unfold their potential grcic‘s designs thus shift our perspective from the existing to the coming.’ ‘new normals’ is curated by ludwig engel the exhibition is on view at haus am waldsee in berlin an exhibition catalogue will be published by verlag der buchhandlung walther könig including an interview between the two curators and konstantin grcic haus am waldsee presents ‘new normals’ as part of a series that’s included ‘full house – designers in berlin’ (2007) radio and tv antennae,image by florian böhm installation view konstantin grcic – new normals name: konstantin grcic – new normals venue: haus am waldsee AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style University Calendar Policies This year’s must-see shows range from a Nordic Pavilion exploring transgender spaces to a compelling Lebanese project confronting the realities of ecocide Frieze returns to The Shed in May with more than 65 of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries and the acclaimed Focus section led by Lumi Tan the artist’s life-like dolls use silence to navigate discourse around violence John Cage questions whether time lapses between sounds should be considered silences Even if we were surrounded by complete silence the sound of our nervous system or blood circulation would be heard a consensus around what is deemed worth listening to and what exists within and outside of a musical intention If we transcend silence as solely a sonic phenomenon the concept can also carry political implications in relation to subtle systems of violence Gisèle Vienne’s arsenal of crafted teenage dolls lies inert inside glass vitrines displayed along Haus am Waldsee’s main hall Part of her installation Dolls in glass boxes (2003–21), these life-sized figures – eyes wide open heads turned to one side – resemble corpses Their gloomy configuration hints at a distressed response to an out-of-shot calamity emanating instead a tacit scream prompted by some unrevealed horror Vienne uses this voicelessness to develop a discourse around violence positioning teenage bodies as archetypes of innocence whose developing political opinions encounter social expectations and influences beyond parental control The delicate human replicas in ‘This Causes Consciousness to Fracture – A Puppet Play’ reflect various subcultures in appearance: from the spiked wristbands and skull iconography of black-metal fashion to the pleated skirts white socks and Mary Jane shoes of the preppy aesthetic The exaggerated garments and makeup suggest an imitation game often interiorized by teenagers as an outlet for their effervescent angst the eerie sense of witnessing the aftermath of a brutal event prevails I Apologize (2004–17) features a set of empty crates in which the dolls were likely transported are photographs from the series ‘63 PORTRAITS 2003–2024’ (2003–24) which depict dolls in individual close-ups Their eyes gaze forward into the distance or are cast down narrating with bodies even when they are static objects she considers her wooden teens to be ‘actors in a play’ Their (non)movement is purposefully orchestrated – whether in front of the camera or within the gallery space – to shock and horrify the audience to stir emotions with staggering immediacy in the popular imagination The artist's mordant puppetry is deliberate: she turns her figures into idols akin to uncaptioned images that might fit any storyline they could equally be martyrs of direct conflict such as social inequality and systematic oppression The dolls ultimately reflect our own lack of agency revealing our position as complacent puppets within the social organizations of a decomposing system Whether Vienne’s figures allude to the vicious attacks on children in Gaza and Lebanon the countless victims of American school shootings or a freak-off afterparty at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s mansion is less relevant than the awareness of how depictions of horrors in wide circulation lead to a frightening normalization We have commodified violence into spectacle turning the ones who have the guts to look – but can do nothing to relieve the suffering – into voyeurs By replicating objects of violence in her silent plays without addressing specific contexts or perpetrators Vienne tasks the viewer with assigning meaning and reflecting on collective perception Gisèle Vienne’s ‘This Causes Consciousness to Fracture – A Puppet Play’ is on view at the Haus am Waldsee ‘This Causes Consciousness to Fracture – A Puppet Play’ Courtesy: the artist and Haus am Waldsee; photograph: Frank Sperling From Gülbin Ünlü’s portals to alternative realities to Remi Ajani’s emotive still lifes here’s what not to miss during Various Others a group show subverts purist sculptural principles memory and tedium to inspect the hidden realities behind everyday life From Monica Bonvicini’s sculptural representations of female agency to Phung-Tien Phan’s dinosaurs that prod at consumer culture, here’s what to see this Gallery Weekend Berlin At Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen the artist tracks what safety obscures – from state violence to the silence of forgotten stories a group show studies the variations and chance connections that form our worldview the artist’s unsettling sculptures are replete with religious imagery the artist’s silk canvases reimagine painting as a porous and philosophical practice the artist’s largest exhibition yet features miraculous paintings and drawings that will leave you feeling uplifted  a show traces how the artist’s soak-stain canvases reshaped abstraction a show of the East Village artist’s photographs and archival materials paints a picture of her queer community the artist’s sculptures challenge the ways bodies are scrutinized at nation-state borders © FRIEZE 2025 Cookie Settings | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Martin HerbertReviews17 October 2023ArtReview The First Finger (chapter II) at Haus am Waldsee Berlin mixes the Tbilisi-born artist’s orphaned works with collaborations and standalone artworks by 12 other artists The phrase The First Finger refers to a situation most people would prefer to avoid blood flows protectively from the extremities to the organs; at some point and the human body reduces itself to what this exhibition’s booklet guide calls ‘a life-sustaining core’ That ‘core’ twists metaphoric as you navigate Tolia Astakhishvili’s show a sequel of sorts to a recent one at Bonner Kunstverein which mixes the Tbilisi-born artist’s orphaned junk installations paintings and drawings with collaborations and standalone artworks by 12 other artists and writers The century-old Haus am Waldsee was once a manufacturing magnate’s villa and it pointedly offers asylum to artworks across its two floors but doesn’t make ‘home’ synonymous with safety; at points this show proffers the most unsettling pseudo-dwelling space this side of a Gregor Schneider installation you’re plunged into Astakhishvili’s I am the secret meat (2022) a darkened room whose inset Plexiglas windows are smeared with shit-brown acrylic and scratched with gnomic abstract marks; propped raw plasterboard suggests we’re interrupting someone’s haywire internal renovations In the main ground-floor space – past an untitled and undated Judith Scott sculpture (of aquamarine and lavender wool wrapped around a big bushel of twigs) that turns crocheting monstrous – we reach Ser Serpas’s oil-on-unstretched-jute painting Untitled (2022): a nude torso the figure’s arms folded behind it as if for execution Oblique bad stuff happening turns out to be one of the show’s leifmotifs: upstairs Astakhishvili’s collaboration with Dylan Peirce presents a large corrugated-metal box from which emanates an eight-channel 50-minute audio installation of portentous abstract clanks several deceptively artless installations by Astakhishvili suggest a deceased person’s effects that the living don’t know what to do with: unruly rows of model boats laid out on window-sills things that look like beekeepers’ and falconers’ gear pain and imperfection coexist with the fact of shelter the crumbling Manhattan piers repurposed as a cruising ground in Alvin Baltrop’s glimmering monochrome photographs (undated a now-gone secret holdout and are preserved in turn here; or a classically anguished archival drawing by Antonin Artaud (Untitled The existential instability in the standalone works spreads like Astakhishvili’s various sporelike interventions on the walls in watercolour and coffee Architecture and artwork collapse together viewers are invited to laminate their own speculative narratives on the makeshift In Astakhishvili and James Richards’s collaborative work I Remember (Depth of Flattened Cruelty) (2023) a ten-minute video walkthrough of The First Finger (chapter I) becomes an artwork via weird fearful distorted views and a fractured soundtrack it’s not what it was – it’s the original show deformed The First Finger (chapter II) at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, 23 June – 24 September designed and edited by florian böhm, the catalogue features stunning full-page color spreads as well as an in-depth interview with grcic where he talks about the concept behind the exhibition and how his design projects are like children the industrial designer sent designboom a preview of the catalogue and we’ve selected a few of the reality-bending images for you to check out below the already overused phrase for our post-pandemic world provides the name for konstantin grcic’s exhibition ‘new normals’ imagines possible future realities by offering seemingly bizarre and sometimes tongue-in-cheek reinterpretations of grcic’s previous design projects exhibits include the ‘traffic’ chaise longue, which grcic first designed for magis, that has been reimagined with selfie sticks surrounding it. there’s also the designer‘s ‘champions’ table with added rearview mirrors and two ‘brut’ sofas that are now home to a pink exercise ball whether these visions of the future become reality or not grcic hopes they act as a starting point for viewers to examine and explore their own idea of the future.  see designboom’s full coverage of ‘new normals’ here catalogue title: konstantin grcic: new normals – berlin published by: ludwig engel and anna himmelsbach Emily MayReviews29 December 2022ArtReview candy-coloured stage for reflecting on society’s expectations of what a woman is and isn’t Female hysteria was a ‘disease’ commonly diagnosed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when a woman behaved in any way that made men feel uncomfortable insomnia and loss of appetite for food or sex symptoms thought to be caused by the fragility laziness and irritability of the female disposition Feminist historians later argued that these were caused by women’s oppressed social roles Many patients were sent to asylums and even received surgical hysterectomies offers a lens through which to consider Los Angeles-born Berlin-based artist Leila Hekmat’s first institutional exhibition Female Remedy transforms the idyllic lakeside villa Haus am Waldsee into a satirical surreal sanatorium where nurses and patients engage in debauched This so-called ‘infirmary for an illness which needs no cure’ recasts the symptoms of female hysteria as positive forces confronting the misogynistic notion that stereotypically feminine behaviours require medical attention ‘Hospital Hekmat’ is no relaxing female haven Walls are draped floor-to-ceiling with fabrics printed with intricate lacelike patterns and Hannah Höch-esque collages of hybrid women: one pairs the head of a young girl hotchpotch mannequins are dressed in patients’ robes erotic lingerie (one doll’s red leather knickers read ‘big girl panties’) and blue jackets with ‘Krankensister’ embroidered on the back and posed suggestively: one bent over an examination table others reclining seductively like Renaissance nudes distorted or digitally manipulated while body parts are augmented: bustles accentuate buttocks limbs are covered in black lines as if marked up for plastic surgery These amalgamated creatures are at once unsettling – as if created by some mad scientist or unethical cosmetic surgeon and recalling Bertolt Brecht’s 1926 play A Man’s a Man with its First World War soldiers whose injured bodies are patched up with makeshift prosthetics – yet the collages’ combination of male and female body parts as well as the decadent costumes and makeup worn by her mannequins that appear to reference drag aesthetics suggest Hekmat is interested in blurring gender lines and working with a wider definition of femininity than was commonplace when hysteriawas diagnosed such as a wooden platform punctured by a grid of upturned metal nails and painted with the phrase ‘trust me with your troubles’ there is little change in the situations Hekmat’s dummies are positioned in or in the barrage of hanging fabrics covered in superficial Instagrammable feminist phrases (‘tampons should be free’ including a room full of beds with patients’ comical diagnoses printed on the white sheets – ‘a hippy who hates hippies’ ‘Jewish lesbian witch’ – and a soundscape of characters’ voices draw attention to what’s missing: the living breathing individuals who would bring Hekmat’s stage set to life It’s unsurprising that Female Remedy feels more mise-en-scène than installation: Hekmat is best known for performance work referencing the Theatre of the Absurd and Commedia dell’Arte Yet Symptom Recital: Music for Wild Angels the 90-minute performance accompanying the exhibition did not take place in or interact with the theatrical setup the five-strong cast of female characters – though several make references to their penises; more gender-blurring – are dressed in costumes referencing their inanimate counterparts inside it was easy to become immune to the incessant would-be humorous/outrageous onslaught of innuendos the performers executed a seated choreographic routine licking their fingers and caressing their bodies while letting out erotic and deranged sighs and screams Its success lay in the performers’ embodiment and distillation of Hekmat’s theme which in the installation feels too surface-level to provoke deeper conversations Perhaps Female Remedy is an intentional critique of the shallowness of contemporary feminist politics it’s much easier to reshare a photograph without further comment to demonstrate your allegiance to a cause (free sanitary products!) than to take direct action to achieve it Female Remedy at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, through 8 January also covers Mayer’s early speculative projects and material studies Mayer’s architectural language is heavily influenced by art and sculpture Navigating through analogue and digital experimentations Sketches and models throughout the exhibit illustrate the foundations of his design dynamic practice VIEW GOOGLE MAPS escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox on view at the haus am waldsee until october 4 ‘revolutions of choice’ is a retrospective exhibit that presents more than 25 years of work demonstrating the practice’s dedication to material exploration and the tools and instruments for transforming that into architecture barkow leibinger, two walls, installation view, barkow leibinger – revolutions of choice, haus am waldsee, 2020, photo: roman märz at the main entrance in front of the villa visitors encounter a passage made of two concrete walls cast in sand and rock the piece is a spatial and physical experience that introduces the firm’s work barkow leibinger – revolutions of choice barkow leibinger – revolutions of choice, installation view, haus am waldsee, 2020, photo: harry schnitger installation view barkow leibinger – revolutions of choice barkow leibinger – revolutions of choice title: barkow leibinger – revolutions of choice curators: ludwig engel and katja blomberg venue: haus am waldsee location: berlin Tuesday to Sunday: 4:00pm - 6:00pm AddressHaus Am WaldseeArgentinische Allee 3014163 Berlin-Zehlendorf.How to get there ...var cex1 = "aW5mb0BoYXVzYW13YWxkc2VlLmRl";var dex1 = atob(cex1);dex1 = decodeURIComponent(escape(dex1));jQuery(document).ready(function() {jQuery(".ex1").html(""+dex1+"");});+49 30 801 89 35.www.hausamwaldsee.de The Haus am Waldsee, dreamily situated in idyllic Zehlendorf, and located in walking distance to Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke, has been a meeting place for art connoisseurs since it was founded and opened as an exhibition centre in 1946 (!). The Haus am Waldsee is considered a permanent institution and an absolute top address for international contemporary art in Berlin. The range of exhibitions on show includes fine art, design, fashion and architecture, as well as individual pieces of contemporary art and classic works of post-war modernism. Regular children's vernissages, artist talks, artist dinners, performances, the summer academy and concerts, solidify the Haus am Waldsee as a place that actively communicates art content and strongly relates to its visitors. Following the refurbishment in 2018, in line with heritage requirements, a large event hall and a whole floor for workshops have been added for the education programme. The adjoining sculpture garden is filled with ever-changing art pieces so that the walk through the garden, sloping gently down to the shore of the Waldsee, can be experienced over and over again. Audio guides can be borrowed to explore examples of outstanding architecture in Zehlendorf. During the tour, you will come across buildings from Hermann Muthesius to Walter Gropius. Bestellen Sie jetzt Ihren individuellen Newsletter Note: Our newsletter is only available in German Bitte schicken Sie mir bis zum Widerruf meiner Einwilligung den Newsletter mit Informationen zu neuen Beiträgen. Die Datenschutzerklärung habe ich zur Kenntnis genommen und akzeptiere diese Would you like to discover more beautiful things View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow In the spring of 2023, the Haus am Waldsee presents the first comprehensive retrospective of Berlin-based artist Margaret Raspé (b who created a significant body of artistic work in the immediate vicinity of the Haus am Waldsee over the past five decades Raspé developed an ideosyncratic artistic language that considers life and art and their everyday conditions in unison In addition to important film works from the early 1970s and large-scale installations in both indoor and outdoor spaces The investigation of perceptual processes is central to her practice Ephemeral approaches that respond distinctly to their environment are employed to investigate given and societal structures Raspé developed the so-called “camera helmet” before these were industrially available: a construction site helmet equipped with a Super 8 camera that captures the exact central perspective of the artist’s gaze and enabled her to film her everyday life The resulting films show the artist performing automated everyday tasks Raspé can be seen in clinical detail whipping cream into butter in Der Sadist schlägt das eindeutig Unschuldige (1971) Kuchen (1973) or washing up Alle Tage wieder – let them swing Besides lending visibility to the often invisible they also bear witness to the mostly unconscious physical processes at work These automated actions are sometimes violent in their transformations but equally banal The automatic is examined as a process between the conscious and the subconscious the body as a programmable ‘Mensch-Maschine’ (human machine) or as a ‘Frautomat’ (female robot) in which the camera helmet acts as a prosthetic extension of the body and enables the viewer to experience the artist’s own perspective universally mirrored The installation presents GRAFT’s extensive spectrum of work and inspiration while providing answers to questions such as: How is beauty created Why is narration important for architecture How do you invent test strategies of forgetting and How is ambiguous interestingness created GRAFT has offices in Berlin, Los Angeles and Beijing. They label themselves as a “global think tank” and laboratory for the cultivation of future cultures. Exhibition View - Courtesy of Haus am WaldseeThe exhibition will conclude February 12th, 2012. Bird Island - Energy House, Malaysia © GRAFTSource: Haus am Waldsee, sci-arc You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email Please enable JavaScript to view this page correctly For many who have been longing to cool off from the summer heat and who enjoy swimming in the cool lake it was really bad news when it was announced that Langener Waldsee would be closed until further notice there is good news: the lido will reopen to visitors next Monday Then also the parking lot on the grounds of the bath can be used again In coordination with the police and fire department those responsible from Bäder- und Hallenmanagement Langen GmbH (BaHaMa) and city administration could now make the positive decision for the reopening due to the end of the summer holidays and the weather no longer being quite so hot it can be assumed that there will not be such a rush as there was just under two weeks ago the 700 or so parking spaces in the baths should be sufficient to prevent vehicles from being parked illegally on the B44 or in the forest as the risk of forest fires has not dropped significantly despite the rain of the past few days additional safety precautions are being taken as a precautionary measure and more security personnel are being deployed to keep the forest paths free of cars This will also ensure that emergency routes can be used at all times we promised that we would reopen as soon as we had the chance," said Langen Mayor Jan Werner "And we are pleased that we now succeed in doing so who behave very reasonably - in contrast to the incorrigible Wildparkers." there will still be no online ticketing system at the lido as there is at the leisure and family pool "Such a one would not solve the problems we had in any way," explains BaHaMa managing director Joachim Kolbe you can't tell the owner of an online ticket whether he came to the lake on foot or parked his car illegally in the woods." But it is also clear: If there are again obstreperous people who go overboard the bath will be closed again in the short term fire department and police are already looking further ahead - to the time after Corona Because the pandemic had exacerbated problems outside the baths but a change in the parking and access situation has long been on the agenda the arrival and parking situation was already more than annoying in the past The fact that little has been done so far is due to the fact that concrete proposals for solutions have found little or no hearing with other decision-makers who have a say around the lake Jan Werner and Joachim Kolbe are confident that the importance that has the lido Langener Waldsee for the entire region Mayor Jan Werner has already announced to strive for a round table everyone in the region would benefit from positive changes at Lake of the Woods The lido at Lake of the Woods will again be open daily from 8 a.m On the city's website, the operating company informs on all opening days in real time about any capacity limits reached. This is made possible by the official Twitter account of the Langener Bäder (@BaederLangen), through which the team reports on the website as soon as it is tight on site. Reading the news on www.langen.de/baeder.html does not require a separate Twitter account The city informs about all changes of the pool offer in Langen via the official website the municipal Facebook account (@Langen.RheinMain) or its own Twitter page (@Stadt_Langen) Following successful stops in Vienna and Milan David King’s extraordinary exhibition on the history of Stalin’s photographic falsifications is on display at the Haus am Waldsee in Berlin until 7 February features much of the original material upon which King based his book of the same name (Metropolitan Books In the introduction to his book the author writes: “In Stalin’s times there was so much manipulation of pictorial material that it is possible to reconstruct the history of the Soviet Union on the basis of retouched photographs.” The politics of the October Revolution and the early years of the Soviet state stood in sharp opposition to the policies of the bureaucracy under Stalin To the extent that the latter came to power as a parasitic caste based on the property relations established by October it was necessary for Stalin to liquidate his opponents inside the Bolshevik party King’s exhibition reveals and records above all the ruthlessness and brutality with which the emerging bureaucracy secured its power It was not enough that Stalin’s victims were physically wiped off the face of the earth; it was also necessary to obliterate them from history and memory altogether One of the first displays that one sees on entering the exhibition is a series of four photos/portraits The first photo shows Stalin in the middle of a group of three leading members of the Communist Party (Antipov For the pictorial history of the USSR printed in 1940 Nine years later in a pictorial biography of Stalin Schwernik has also disappeared The last in the series of four exhibits is a painting of Stalin based on the original photo The crudity with which various “retouchings” were made gives the impression that those responsible sought to intimidate and horrify the viewer during the years of the terror In some of the pictures faces have simply been cut out or pasted over large groups of persons have been whittled away to leave one or two behind (see accompanying interview with David King discussing the Lenin/Gorky picture) In portraits and pictures Stalin’s facial pockmarks vanish and instead the dictator is shown in warm pastel colours with his secret police henchmen surrounded by children and brightly coloured balloons Naturally there was no place in Stalin’s new order for Trotsky played the leading role in the October Revolution This applied not only to photos and pictures featuring Trotsky in public life Even casual snapshots came under the scissors of Stalin’s police The exhibition includes a photo of Trotsky and his wife in the backseat of a car during the former’s convalescence in Georgia in the winter of 1924 In a reproduction of the photo from 1936 Trotsky and his wife have been obliterated by a figure who has been crudely superimposed Authentic photos from the time of the revolution and of the Bolshevik leaders were extremely difficult to find after Stalin’s terror began This was due not merely to the gigantic apparatus devoted to falsification under Stalin The threat of reprisal meant that many collectors and artists exercised a form of self-censorship As King writes in the introduction to his book in the 1930s those found in possession of a picture or reproduction of Trotsky could anticipate immediate arrest One of those who preferred to keep his “suspicious” material hidden was the celebrated Soviet artist Aleksandr Rodchenko At the end of the 1980s King found a treasure trove of material in the attic of the long-dead painter Amongst the material he found was the picture book Ten Years of Uzbekistan In the book the faces of local party functionaries who were executed by Stalin in 1937 were simply blacked out unintentional tribute to the fallen victims in one room of the Haus am Waldsee King has made an attempt to set the record straight He has filled all four walls with the police mug shots of a small number of the hundreds of thousands of nameless Everyone genuinely interested in understanding Stalinism and its repercussions for the twentieth century should make an attempt to see this exhibition Footnote: King’s work indicates that the deliberate falsification of Soviet history did not end with Stalin and Khruschev’s secret speech of 1956 outlining Stalin’s crimes the forgers in the Kremlin received fresh orders the selective obliteration of Stalin from a number of important pictures and publications He who lives by the razor dies by the razor David King’s book in English: The Commissar Vanishes: The falsification of photographs and art in Stalin’s Russia