ReView: Fast Kotzen

Binge. Purge. Project. Scatter. Gather. Reorder. Repeat.

Round 38’s final show, Fast Kotzen, was not just another version of their Unfinished Hase work. You possibly recognized the signatures. Given space to expand, you definitely could see the growth. Best of all, if you left without a physical experience, it was your own fault.

There were people lined up at Valentine’s photo booth most of the evening. Instead of a camera, there were various artists inside. People were going back to create a collection of portraits in different styles. Atsuko’s floating room had people searching for stability from within. That’s the only thing they really had control of, as the floor and all the objects in the room were independent and had no connection to the ground.

People lounged behind the purple strings on Izzy’s cushion as they watched an alternate reality. Others crowded into the dark to have their stomach churn as Tomas’ TVs took them to channels they didn’t necessarily want to see. Ludmila’s mattress was never empty, nor were the people using it.

The experiences were not a carnival. They had messages attached to them, as did the works of the other artists. In her curatorial text, Tena Bakšaj drew parallels to  German philosophers Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.  In our  current world situation, she sees little change from their post WW2 observations on social domination.

The 38th round of Pilotenkueche International Art Program brings together 16 emerging artists that share a similar sensibility directed towards multi-layered social and cultural structures. Engaged in various topics, their approach can primarily be described as analytical, as most of them reflect on the social character of contemporary art in their practice and thus in a way deal with the question whether or not art can contribute to the transformation of this world.

If art can transform the world, surely the artists of Fast Kotzen are up for the challenge. It may be a long time before their work can affect actual change, but for sure it affected people’s experiences in the short term.


Fast Kotzen

Vernissage:  23.03.19, 19h
Performance: Twin Effect

Open:  24 – 27.03.19 17h-20h
Location: PILOTENKUECHE, 2nd Floor, Franz-Flemming-Str. 9, 04179 Leipzig, Germany

International residents

A L Kleiner
(Painting, installation; Sydney, Australia)

Amanda Struver
(Interdisciplinary: Syracuse, NY, United States)

Ana Castillo
(Illustration, painting, animation: Paris, France)

Atsuko Mochida
(Installation, site-specific installation, public art: Tokyo, Japan)

Ece Canguden
(Painting, sculpture: Istanbul, Turkey)

Eliana Jacobs
(Etching, objects, collage, conceptual: Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Isabelle Kuzio
(Video, sculpture, painting, installation: Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada)

Jose Sarmiento
(Painting, drawing, etching: Bucaramanga, Colombia)

Charles Park
(Photography: New York, NY, US)

Marloes Staal
(Sculpture, photography, drawing: Enschede, Netherlands)

Ludmila Hrachovinova
(Painting: Bratislava, Slovakia)

Roman Bicek
(Painting, collage: Bratislava, Slovakia)

Tomas Orrego Gianella
(Video, installation, collage: Lima, Peru)

Valentine Emilia Bossert
(Drawing, printmaking, sculpture, video, installation: Geneva, Switzerland)

Local Participants

Henrike Pilz
(mixed media: Leipzig, Germany)

Paul Altmann
(Conceptual art, photography, video, installation: Leipzig, Germany)

Curator

Tena Bakšaj
(Zagreb, Croatia)

Interns

Ciara Brown
(Fine art, multimedia: Birnley, UK)

Maria Maceira
(Art history: A Estrada, Pontevedra, Spain)

Samra Sabanovic
(Photography: Helsinki, Finland)

Mihyun Maria Kim
(Painting, drawing: Edmonton, Canada)