Contemporary art: Kiosk of Fictional Space

This just in from artist Catrin Huber, who has recently been exploring the Vesuvian sites and using their inspiration for her contemporary work.

Dear all,
You are warmly invited to

Kiosk of Fictional Space at Kiosk24 in Herford, Germany.

Catrin Huber imagines El Lissitzky and a painter from ancient Roman Pompeii meeting to discuss wall painting, exhibition design, and the merging of art & life. Visual results and documentation of this debate will be presented from 23rd October to 24th November at Kiosk24 as Kiosk of Fictional Space. The opening is on 23rd October at 11am. The setting-up of the exhibition begins on the 19th October and can be watched by the public.

Huber’s practice investigates representations of fictional and imagined architectural spaces within painting, drawing and wall painting. The dialogue between wall paintings, panel paintings and a given architecture is completed by the viewer through the act of looking. Kiosk24, a former window display, lends itself to this interchange as it emphasizes the relationship between inside and outside, private and public realm.

El Lissitzky created his ‘Kabinett der Abstrakten’ for the Provinzialmuseum in Hannover in 1927. Within this room, the thoughtful merging of visual, spatial and temporal experiences was crucial. His subject for the meeting with the Roman painter as imagined by Huber is the role of architecture and utopia in late capitalism.

The antique Roman wall paintings (in particular their architectonic style) submerge the viewer in a multifaceted play of seemingly open and closed walls, while emphasizing the given architecture.

The Roman painter meeting with El Lissitzky as imagined by Huber brings a wealth of possible interpretations re function and meaning of Roman wall painting to the discussion.

Catrin Huber is an artist living and working in London. In 2008, an Abbey Fellowship at the British School at Rome enabled her to deepen her relationship with ancient Roman painters and their work. An early artist residency in Moscow (1992) also allowed her to build a close friendship with the work of El Lissitzky. Huber has exhibited her work in Great Britain (e.g. Barbican Centre London, Satorial Contemporary Art London) and internationally (Akademie Schloss Solitude, Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe, RMIT Project Space Melbourne, British School at Rome). She has won numerous awards, residencies and scholarships from, among others, the DAAD, the Royal College of Art (John Crane Travel Award) and the County Baden-Württemberg (Cité Internationale des Arts Paris). Huber studied painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe and the Royal College of Art.

Opening: 23rd October 2010 at 11am Kiosk 24, Radewigerstraße 24, 32051 Herford
Exhibition: 23rd October to 24th November
Setting-up: 19th to 22nd October 2010