ANNA BLUME, DER RAUM IST WEIT
ANGELA ANZI
JENNIFER LÓPEZ AYALA
SEBASTIAN MAAS
MARTIN WERTHMANN

HELDENREIZER Contemporary is pleased to present Anna Blume, der Raum ist weit, a unique off-space group exhibition for the first time in the historic rooms of a former secret bunker complex of the German Wehrmacht Air Force. In this privately owned bunker in Grünwald, which is not open to the public, HELDENREIZER Contemporary will be showing four outstanding young contemporary positions from February 16 to April 20, 2024, for which the question of space and the discourse on space is of central importance. On display are site-specific works by Swiss performance and installation artist Angela Anzi, Düsseldorf installation artist Jennifer López Ayala, Berlin painter Sebastian Maas, and Berlin-based artist Martin Werthmann.

 

At a symbolic "place of concealment," which has historically been both a shelter and a place of threat, the exhibition Anna Blume, der Raum ist weit aims to visualize the cultural, metaphysical, and ontological dimensions of space and expose them in situ. The central aim of this exhibition project developed by HELDENREIZER Contemporary is to bring visitors closer to the complex relationship between the self and space and to sensitize them to the virulent discourse on space. The spatial extreme of the former Wehrmacht bunker is intended to form the resonance space for this in interaction with the positions on display. The exhibition illuminates the existential dimension of space along three aspects: Metaphysics, materiality, and identity. 

 

The multisensory space - Angela Anzi

With her site-specific, multisensory sound installations, Angela Anzi turns space per se into an artistic medium. In her works, Anzi uses sculptural and performative arrangements to examine the relationship between space, objects, and sound. Performance as a visual medium is an essential component of her artistic practice. For the bunker, the artist is developing an independent group of works that address the architectural and historical dimensions of the space. The starting point is the ear as a sensory organ that can only imperfectly resolve spatial allocations - as an acoustic system, it enables a rough orientation but cannot locate sound sources very precisely; instead, the auditory system is designed to encode serial processes such as speech and music. Against this backdrop, Anzi opens up a historical spatial axis and focuses in her work on the music of women read as degenerate.

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The metaphysical-symbolic space - Jennifer López Ayala

In her site-specific, space-penetrating installations and assemblages, Jennifer López Ayala explores the nature of a specific space and analyzes its physical as well as socio-cultural possibilities and limitations. She is particularly interested in the "wounded space" and the themes of pain, trauma, and healing in tension between the individual and the collective. Ayala's contribution in the form of a site-specific installation will question the meaning of the bunker as a kind of retreat or shelter from external threats. On the one hand, they can be seen as manifestations of fear and insecurity; on the other, given the current political situation, they stand out more clearly than ever as memorials. The associated fears and insecurities shape our perception and sometimes influence our collective idea of protection and security. Jennifer López Ayala's installation is located in this field of tension and will reveal this aesthetic breaking point and the possible wounds or secrets associated with it.

 

The social space - Sebastian Maas

In the works of Sebastian Maas, the significance of space as a social practice, in which social relationships, power relations, and cultural meaning are produced and reproduced, becomes tangible in a significant way. The space in his paintings, which is often collaged and fragmented, becomes a place of identity formation and always remains blurred. The sexual identity of his figures, as in his self-portraits, often remains ambiguous and fluid. By combining various elements from different spatial and cultural contexts, he reveals the complexity of human identity and illustrates its interaction with space. At the same time, he points to the decoupling of spatial presence and social relationship, driven by the increasing virtualization of the living world.

 

The ontological space - Martin Werthmann

Anyone confronted with Martin Werthmann's mostly large-format works is drawn into the pictorial event or pictorial space by their "overwhelming aesthetics" and enormous suggestive power. Viewers find themselves in a genuine cosmos of complex color structures, fields, and layers held together at their core by a diaphanous structure. The "diaphanous," the translucent, allows spaces and surfaces to merge, boundaries to blur, and textures to soften: Space is delimited by space and light. This transcendent experience of space is characteristic of Werthmann's works and leads to a synthesis of pictorial and viewer space. Werthmann creates precisely constructed "spaces without concrete content," allowing the viewer a spectrum of meaningful, sensual experiences and thus allowing them to visualize their humanity.

 

Taken as a whole, these four art positions offer a multi-layered view of space and its meaning in various dimensions - from the metaphysical and social to the ontological and multisensory levels. They illustrate the deep connection between space and human identity and are intended to invite visitors to view and experience space from different perspectives.