Exhibition Opening: December 8, 2018 | 6.30 p.m.
December 8 & 9, 2018 @1 Shanthi Road Studio Gallery
HOW TO OPEN A COCONUT is an exhibition of final presentations by 4 bangaloREsidents and 1 resident of Lichtenberg Studios Berlin Artist Exchange. In a joint, eclectic presentation they will present the first or final results of their projects developed during this year’s bangaloREsidency.
Each of them is from a different field of the arts and chose a different topic to work on.
Benjamin Brix@Sandbox Collective
I started my work with the idea of tracing the journey of a few products that found their way to the Bangalore market. Where were they grown/produced and how did they travel to Bangalore? We spent a long time with the people working in the various industries. Our interactions led to conversations and some level of closeness. After some time it felt natural because everyone was just doing their job. They were fishing, and I was filming, it seemed quite organic.
I don’t want to build a chronological story line or a linear narrative with the shots I choose and the way I edit, because I don’t feel the need to explain anything. What I try to do is transport a notion. In this process fishermen become actors and the fish shop becomes a film set with carefully chosen set design. The audio is a patch work of actual recording on spot and collected sound from other places. As a result what is completely natural takes on a fully-staged appearance.
Laura Fiorio: bangaloREsident@MOD Institute
The project by Laura Fiorio is a work in progress about transformation of places in the modern city. The artist’s research is mainly focused on city development, urban memories and personal archives. Most of the cities in the world were originated near water sources, in Bangalore water is supplied from elsewhere through the construction of artificial ponds and tanks, which constituted the water supply for centuries before being cemented and constructed for several reasons, careless of the importance and sacrality of water even in the contemporary society.This reflection brought artist Laura Fiorio to follow ancient maps to go and see what remains in those places where there used to be water.
The project also aims at collecting memories and pictures of Bangalore’s inhabitants through a Facebook page “disappeared lakes of Bangalore”, workshops and interviews, to create an online archive of images and subjective maps.
Ingo Gerken: bangaloREsident@1 Shanthi Road
Ingo Gerken understands the context “city” as a playground for intervention in the public space. Small observations, changes, and interventions into urban operations are photographically documented or form the basis for his sculptural works. He is interested in the strong contrasts between chaos and order, the tension between real life and artificial structure. During his time in Bangalore, he has built a geometrical foreign body, which makes its way through the swarms of the urban wholesale market. The specular object fuses with the environment but at the same time it breaks it up into kaleidoscopic fragments. In the middle of the daily rush of traffic, the sculpture is balanced over the heads of the crowd. As abstract neuter, it faces social relationships and encounters unforeseen resistance.
Annika Hippler: Artist in Residence@1 Shanthi Road
Annika Hippler uses laser beams to create hypnotic spatial and pictorial compositions. In her ephemeral light installations, she broaches the issue of elementary, cosmic and scientific phenomena of universal world contexts. In her own poetic imagery, she explores the scenic qualities of light frequency and wavelength. Reflection and kinetics, the use of foils, prisms and fluorescent pigments – these are characteristic means of expressions of the Berlin artist.
During her residency, Annika Hippler worked with laser light in spiritual places and will present the results in the form of photographic works in the exhibition. Furthermore, she will show a site-specific installation with color pigments, which have a special ritual significance in public space in India.
Oliver Walker: bangaloREsident@1 Shanthi Road
Oliver Walker is a visual artist who uses live art, interventions, and video to investigate social and political systems. In Bangalore during his residency, he has been looking at the traffic situation.
Coming from Berlin, a city struggling to improve its cycling infrastructure, Bangalore provided a new look at how we get around, and who has which space on our streets. His artistic response was a performative intervention in the traffic situation.