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© Carsten Klein, Eine Reise ins Ich, 2007
Inside/Outside Nature
Carsten Klein | Mariana Viegas
Curated by Katerina
Valdivia Bruch
Inside/Outside Nature
is an exhibition about the relationship between humans and their
natural environment. Usually we associate nature with the
unpredictable, the original, the pure and the incorruptible. As we all
know, the consequences of human behaviour affect nature in a dramatic
way. In fact, due to fast-paced changes in climate and some worldwide
natural disasters, nature has become an issue in contemporary political
discussions in order to protect and to try to avoid natural tragedies.
The results of these are still open to be seen.
Between 2000 and 2007 Carsten Klein (Wiesbaden, 1966) has been working on the series of photographs Eine Reise ins Ich
(A Journey into Myself). These photographs depict a personal journey
into his own youth, going back to a general idea of childhood and
adolescent experience. In this journey, nature belongs to the original
and the untouchable, but it could also be seen as an unsafe and
insecure place.
The photographs of Eine Reise ins Ich try
to explain interior feelings that are visible through an exterior
atmosphere of empty landscapes full of snow. The cold atmosphere in the
photographs expresses some internal feelings of the portrayed person,
to which the natural environment appears as unfair and impotent.
Adolescence is a period of our lives in which we start to inquire about
many things. It is also a period in which we identify with someone else
or become insurgent against something we don't believe in; it may also
be a time of reflection and insurrection against some established
structures. The presence of snow in the photographs shows a closed
environment, which does not understand the inner struggle of the
adolescent becoming an adult. Klein won several prizes for his
photographic work, such as the Merck Prize in Photography (Honorable
Mention) for Eine Reise ins Ich and The Art Prize at the Grosse Kunstausstellung Halle/Saale for the series Das Stille Bild.
Mariana
Viegas (Lisboa, 1969) explores the relationship between humans and
nature in the form of man-made natural environments, such as public
gardens, parks and vegetable gardens through photography and video. Her
work concentrates on the culturally created image of natural
landscapes, which have been changed by man recreating a real natural
place that in reality is completely set up as a “natural” artificial
scenario. Her photographs show a part of certain natural places and
their ecological significance, which have been changed by man,
especially the ones in urban areas. Viegas has been creating a body of
work and researching on these issues in cities such as New York, Lisbon
and Berlin.
Her latest series of works in photography and video, Why Monkeys Do Not Make Good Pets,
present the complex recreation of a historical, almost mythical natural
surrounding - that we may, for instance, associate with landscapes in
Cambodia or Laos -, but which is actually an image of an artificial
setting for apes in the Berlin Zoo. For Viegas, nature does not seem to
be capable of development without human touch, as it is adapted to
human needs, such as green areas in urban spaces, parks, etc. The works
of Viegas are part of the collections of Centro de Artes Visuais,
Coimbra, Instituto da Biblioteca e do Livro, Lisboa, Museo da Imagem,
Braga, Fundação Ilídio Pinho, Porto, Fundação PLMJ, Lisboa, and can
also be found in several private collections.
With the support of: Embassy of Portugal in Berlin, Fundação Ilídio Pinho, Instituto Camões, Vera Cortês Art Agency
Exhibition:
Oct. 31st - Nov. 29th, 2008
Galerie IAC-Berlin
[English PDF]
[Deutsch PDF]
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