Niko Abramidis & NE, Cana Bilir-Meier, Keto Logua
Niko Abramidis & NE, Cana Bilir-Meier, Keto Logua
October 7, 2018 to January 20, 2019
Curator: Julia Höner
KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION is hosting the exhibition for this year’s ars viva award winners: Niko Abramidis & NE, Cana Bilir-Meier and Keto Logua. The exhibition is based on a cooperation between KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION and the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e. V. Since 1953 the Kulturkreis has awarded the annual ars viva prize for visual art to young artists living in Germany, whose works are marked by high artistic quality and an awareness of questions that echo the complexity of our present times. In addition to two exhibitions accompanied by a corresponding publication, first at KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION in Düsseldorf and in the summer of 2019 at the Kunstmuseum Bern, the artists will receive a residency on Fogo Island (Canada) and a stipend of 5,000 euros each.
Niko Abramidis & NE (*1987) studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich and art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. In his artistic work he explores topics such as power structures, utopian future scenarios or global urban development. He creates complex spatial installations that comment on contemporary working environments by playing with traditional symbols of power, fictive corporate identities and the increasingly interchangeable face of major cities. His drawings, objects and digital prints reveal a subversive sense of humour and offer various references, for example to science fiction, philosophy or economic processes.
Cana Bilir-Meier (*1986) studied art and digital media at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, among others. Starting point and essence of her films and sound-based works is the preoccupation with material from her family’s archive. Based on sources from her personal surroundings, the artist, herself a grandchild of Turkish immigrants, inquires into universal narratives and the collective memory. The process of reviewing material, comprising image and sound recordings, letters, newspaper articles and documents, is itself of central importance and denotes her specific artistic perspective on the archives.
After studying painting at the Tbilisi State Academy of the Arts, Keto Logua (*1988) followed up with studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. Recurring references in her sculptures and films are natural phenomena and socio-cultural themes. Processes of densification and conversion are deployed on both found and self-produced objects. This has resulted in works such as a 3D print of the world’s first flower, which had been scientifically reconstructed last year, or a large-scale sculpture made of elements from a beehive. In another work the artist uses everyday objects to design possible survival strategies in an increasingly complex world.
The exhibition of this year’s awardees marks the beginning of the tenth anniversary of KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION, which will be celebrated with several exhibitions and events.
in cooperation with:
The exhibition is supported by:
Exhibition views
![[Translate to English:] Cana Bilir-Meier, Ses Alma Rehberi, Bildcollage, Lecture-Film-Performance, 2016](/fileadmin/_processed_/0/d/csm_02_Ses_Alma_Rehberi_Cana_Bilir-Meier_429b8d3a1e.png "[Translate to English:] Cana Bilir-Meier, Ses Alma Rehberi, Bildcollage, Lecture-Film-Performance, 2016")
Accompanying program
, 6 pm
Concert: Saâdane Afif: DWARF LIFT DWARF sings „The Pirates’ Who’s Who”
Location: Rudas Studios, Zollhof 11, 40221 Düsseldorf, Entrance fee: 5€, Reservations at +49 211 99 434 130 or info@kaistrasse10.de
The experimental music band Dwarf Lift Dwarf performs lyrics commissioned by the artist Saâdane Afif on the theme of piracy. The concert, produced by KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION and the Beaufort 21 Art Triennial, is part of Afif’s exhibition contribution “The Pirates’ Who’s Who”, which also includes an LP release.
4.30 pm Guided tour with the curator through the exhibition at KAI 10.
, 3 pm
Finissage and artist talk
On the occasion of the conclusion of the group exhibition Pictured as a Poem, curator Marion Eisele will lead a discussion with Sarah Kürten and Thyra Schmidt. The focus will be on how the two artists use a lyrical language to address interpersonal relationships and social conditions. (in German)
Your health is important to us! Due to limited capacity, registration for the event is required by phone at 0211 99 434 130 or by email: info@kaistrasse10.de. 2G+ applies for the event: Please come vaccinated or recovered AND tested.
, 4 pm – 8 pm
Gulliver’s Sketchbook: Soft Opening
For the soft opening and for regular visits of the exhibition 3G applies respective of the Corona regulations in force.
, 7 pm
Where is drawing these days?
People were already drawing 20,000 years ago. Nevertheless, drawing still has a firm place in today's art scene. But which one? What role does drawing play in art institutions and on the art market?
Panel discussion with Joana P. R. Neves, Curator, London & Artistic Director of Drawing Now Art Fair, Paris and Jan-Philipp Frühsorge, Art Historian and Curator, Berlin / Paris, moderated by Ludwig Seyfarth, Exhibtion curator (In English).
, 3 pm
Finissage and artist talk
Trace and Observation
Drawing as an imprint and as a response to imaging processes in the natural sciences
With: Sandra Boeschenstein, Hanna Hennenkemper, Oliver Thie and Irene Weingartner
Moderated by Ludwig Seyfarth, Exhibition curator
, 7 pm
Landscapes of Labour: Opening
Welcome: Monika Schnetkamp, Chairwoman Arthena Foundation
Introduction: Julia Höner, Curator of the exhibition
, 3 pm
Public guided tour | Landscapes of Labour
, 7 pm
Panel Discussion | Brush and paint - only an illusion? Painting at the interface of digital image production
Dr. Reinhard Spieler, art historian, director of the Sprengel Museum Hanover
Julia Stellmann, art historian, art critic and cultural cultural manager, Düsseldorf
Wolfgang Ellenrieder, artist of the exhibition, Munich and Professor of Painting at the University of Fine Arts Braunschweig
in conversation with Ludwig Seyfarth, curator of the exhibition
, 7 pm – , 1 am
Düsseldorf’s Night of the Museums 2023
Performance (N)ON SITE BODIES — (IN)VISIBLE
7.30–8 pm, 8.30–9 pm
Short tours through the exhibition Phantoms and Other Illusions
7 pm, 9.30 pm, 10.30 pm
, 7 pm
Panel discussion | Painting – still an "unalienated medium"?
Friederike Feldmann, Berlin, artist of the exhibition, and Raimund Stecker, Düsseldorf, professor of art studies at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Essen in conversation with Ludwig Seyfarth, curator of the exhibition.
In 1995 Raimund Stecker curated the exhibition Das Abenteuer der Malerei (The Adventure of Painting) at the Kunstverein Düsseldorf. 20 years ago his book Malerei: Das unentfremdete Medium (Painting: The Unalienated Medium) was published. Is painting still a more authentic and more immediate means of expression than other, more technical media? Friederike Feldmann's painting seems to argue against this. What seems to have been cemerged spontaneously and immediately is based on projections and manifold processes of transfer. Yet her work always revolves around the painterly gesture, which has not lost its power of fascination to this day.