Leo Kuelbs Collection Cocktail Reception and Debut Viewing of “Earth Revisited”
Preview of NH Collection Video Art Award
Thursday, April 28th
6-9 pm
NH Collection Hotel Friedrichstrasse 96, 10117 Berlin
“Earth Revisited” Artists:
Danielle de Picciotto + Lary 7, Vadim Schaeffler + Pablo Paolo Kilian, Nina Sobell + Laura Ortman, Sarah Walko + Justin King, Laszlo Zsolt Bordos, Eike Berg + Jarboe, Shir Lieberman, Jonathan Phelps + Alon Cohen
Leo Kuelbs Collection is proud to announce the debut of “Earth Revisited,” a seven-piece collaborative video art and sound project at the NH Collection Hotel in Berlin.
“Earth Revisited” presents works examining our shifting relationship to the Earth itself. The ground beneath our feet, beneath our roads and buildings contains our past. As we move further into consciousness altered by the digital experience does our relationship to history change? These are some of the questions and issues presented to a group of artists—visual and sound—who realized the concepts in a variety of ways both personal and universal.
Also being celebrated is the preview of the upcoming NH Collection Video Art Award. The work of four artists will be previewed at the event, each of whom is in the running to be the first ever recipient of NH Collection’s Video Art Award. The full videos and the award ceremony will be held on May 12th, at the same location. Until then, you can have a drink and a preview of their work at this exciting collaborative event in a truly special environment.
Concept/Curated by Leo Kuelbs.
“Earth Revisited”
“Earth Revisited” is a New Media group art show to be presented by Leo Kuelbs Collection in the Winter of 2016. As humankind evolves further into digital, non-terrestrial realities, “Earth Revisited” asks artists to reexamine their relationship to the earth itself. While shifting relationships to physics and environmental science have been well explored, “Earth Revisited” seeks to reconnect to the ground and explore our contract with the dirt below us.
Thousands of years of human endeavors, from the most base to the most inspired, rest in pieces beneath our feet. Throughout the world, the remains of human history create the foundations of our present and physical future. Like a dark universe of dirt, minerals, living insects and the ruins of the past create a complex constellation that represents mankind’s host/parasite relationship to the place we call home. This view seeks to serve as a template for a selection of works that, instead of looking outward and creating a survey of what is seen, are generated by looking inward; from the conscious, through the subconscious and spiritual, through the surface of the ground and into years of terrestrial history, finally into the earth’s very core. It is a deeply personal, yet universal exercise and experience, the goal of which is to represent our constant and dynamic connection to the land we live on. Our minds might have begun their gradual ascent upwards into the cloud, but our feet remain firmly rooted in the land. Up to our ankles, our necks in the past, while gazing at the stars above.
Trailer available here.
On display:
László Zsolt Bordos, "IO"
Through the use of digital animation and NASA sounds from space, Bordos makes physics a tactile reality in his amazing IO video.
Sarah Walko + Justin King, "The Enchanter"
"The idea that we know what we want is palpably false. We’ve been suckled since birth on an endless elaboration of consumer fantasies, so that it is nearly hopeless for us to figure out what is our and what is the enchanter’s suggestion. When someone is whispering something in your ear, there is no way to think your own thoughts or feel your own responses. The signals that your heart sends you are constant but they’re also low and rumbling and easily jammed by the noise and the static of the civilization we’ve built lately.” - Bill McKibben on Henry David Thoreau.
Thoreau’s writes of culture as “The Enchanter” and nature as a way one can answer two simple yet indispensable questions; how much is enough and how do I know what I want?
Shir Lieberman, Jonathan Phelps, + Alon Cohen, "Earth Revised"
Art is balance, as is life, as is everything. Striving to perceive and present holy experiences by means of science and experiment; we document and transliterate a true & fantastic conversation and co-creation with the universe itself. By using methodic technique and intention in deep meditative states, Earth Revised literally asks the Earth and Stars what story would be best to share.
Vadim Schaeffler + Pablo Paolo Kilian, "Twirl & Levitate"
A repetitive and at the same time a solid structure is the nature of the pattern. The transition from an old pattern into a new structure means a great amount of energy and there are short moments of of instability and chaos. The new pattern rarely corresponds to the desired structure. The parameters of the structure change and twirl. The pattern levitates.
Danielle de Picciotto + Lary 7, "Earth Revisited"
Danielle de Picciottos and Lary 7's stark and hypnotic Earth Revisited uses text and a set of visuals culled from years of marketing and pop culture references to present a vision of man's relationship with the planet.
Eike Berg + Jarboe, "Munich Revisited"
Munich Revisited is a hypothetic retrospection from another state of mind in the future into the present. Memories are re-appearing and condensing to short scenes of Munich in 2015.
Nina Sobell + Laura Ortman, "Subliminal"
Subliminal draws upon idiosyncratic symbols to reveal meaning from memory as it rides below the depths of time and opens doors to the dwelling of dreams when Earth is revisited. Autobiographical episodes morph the presence of the past with flowers, rocks, clay and bodies, bringing to light an alchemical union. Deep from within, sounds and song emerge as if exhumed only to be interred again by the music of the Earth's core.