Miroslaw Balka: Fragment. Akademie der Künste, Berlin

Miroslaw Balka’s solo exhibition at Akademie der Künste in Berlin has its focus on the video installations (1998-2010) of the Polish artist. The video projection BlueGasEyes (2004) shows two flames of a gas stove in combination with the hiss of the gas. The viewer is confronted with the aesthetic beauty of the flames on one hand and the knowledge of the crimes by Nazi Germany on the other. The work Carousel (2004) is even more direct. It consists of four circulating projections from one of the major places of murder, the concentration camp Majdanek.

Miroslaw Balka was born in 1958 in Warsaw, Poland. He lives and works in Warsaw and Otwock. The Polish sculptor is known for an oeuvre that often deals with personal and collective memories. In 2009, Balka installed How It Is (2009), the 10th Unilever Series commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London.

On December 13, 2011 there is a talk with the artists Miroslaw Balka and Pawel Althamer at the Deutsche Guggenheim, followed by a tour through the exhibition.

Miroslaw Balka: Fragment. Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Opening reception, October 28, 2011. Video by Astrid Gleichmann.

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