Special exhibition “The New Naked” with Sonja Brüggemann
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have experienced a real loss of public art and culture in recent months. With the “Maßnahme” project, artists want to counteract this decline in Kiel from 28.08. to 13.09. – and at the same time revive empty spaces. The Gallery Simone Menne is exhibiting portrait photos by Sonja Brüggemann at a location in Schwedendamm 9. The exhibition “The New Naked” deals with the ways our everyday life has changed since Covid-19. It shows a new kind of vulnerability that stems from us only being allowed to meet in public wearing masks. Taking the photos was a different experience than usual portrait projects: Normal signs of non-verbal communication, emotions and facial expressions were almost completely eliminated. The smile behind the mask is often invisible.
I have known Sonja Brüggemann for a long time, first through her industrial photographs, then through her artistic works. Looking at the faces of “The New Naked” touches me very much. As an outsider, the individuality of each person is revealed primarily through the choice of mask.
You can visit the special exhibition from August 28 to September 13 every Thursday to Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m.
Click here for more information, including on the other exhibits (German only)
[:reboot] – Current Exhibition by Jörg Plickat and Rotraut Fischer-Plickat
I am delighted to host jewellery by Rotraut Fischer-Plickat and sculptures by Jörg Plickat as my gallery’s current highlights. The material chosen by Jörg Plickat, steel, has played a decisive role in Kiel’s history: It is reminiscent of shipbuilding and weaponry. The natural stone jewellery made by Rotraut Fischer-Plickat offers a delicate contrast to the massive sculptures, the stones used are also silent witnesses to the history of the earth.
You can find more information about the jewellery and the sculptures in our catalogue:
A restart for public art: Vernissage [: reboot] by Jörg Plickat and Rotraut Fischer-Plickat
Like most other parts of public life, the art business was on hold from mid-March to the end of May. This naturally also affected my gallery, which had to close from one day to the other. That is why I am happy and a little proud that the current exhibition [: reboot] by Jörg Plickat and Rotraut Fischer Plickat took off with a successful vernissage. Instead of celebrating the exhibition with a big party, we focused on personal conversations with the artists and a close exchange about the exhibited works. Art lovers were able to register in advance and visit the gallery in small groups from May 22nd to May 24th. The format was quite unusual, but I enjoyed having more time for individual visitors and their interests. I think it also fits very well into a time when we value each individual encounter more than ever before.
Visitors can still visit [: reboot] until the end of August by appointment. The exhibition plays with seeming contrasts and materials: Plickat’s large and small sculptures in bronze, stone and iron are complemented by landscape and nude paintings. Plickat painted the latter using Chinese ink during his time as visiting professor at the art academy in Hangzhou, China. The jewellery pieces by Rotraut Fischer-Plickat, on the other hand, appear quite filigree. However, they demonstrate their earthiness and solidity, if you will, through the use of unworked flint and lava stones. If you would like to experience more of Plickat’s art, you can do so by taking a walk along the sculpture path “Line – Volume – Space” on the grounds of Kiel University of Applied Sciences. The contrast between the pieces exhibited in my gallery and the massive, dominant large sculptures of the sculpture path encourages a change of perspective and offers a moment of respite.
Sequenz
The special exhibition ‘Sequenz’ by Nanja Heid took place in a former shoe shop located in Holstenstrasse 2-12 – a space that was both roomy and unconventional. For a whole year, Nanja Heid drew inspiration from noises and sounds in her everyday life, she then sewed the images into pictures of fabric and paper: 365 abstract landscapes made of lines and surfaces that offer space for new worlds of thought.
Zwischenhinein
How do different materials interact? What effects do they have on us? Nanja Heid explored these questions in her exhibition “in between”. The artist, who originally worked in the fashion industry, explored the effect that combining different fabrics has on both the material and on the viewer. “in between” featured drawings made with a sewing machine on paper. The other exhibits, a “sounding floor” and “silent stones”, also pursued Nanja Heid’s concept. The sounding floor is made of hollow stones into which the artist has incorporated fabrics. A pendulum swings over the stones and causes them to resonate with different sounds. Due to the unevenness of the surface, the melody produced is never the same, the pendulum swings in unpredictable directions and creates an ever-changing symphony.
Industrialized Being
On September 28th 2019, I opened my art gallery in Kiel. My first artist, Marcus Meyer is a gifted sculptor who looks at humanity through its relationship with animals. My gallery displayed his series “industrialized being”, which shows animals that are subject to mass agriculture. They combine beauty and trepidation, as some body parts are left out on purpose and other body parts are accentuated to show the influence of livestock farming. The animals are made out of industrial wood which is typically used for buildings and not for sculptures.