natalie czech - Galerie Katharina Bittel

GALERIE KATHARINA BITTEL
Admiralitätstr. 71
20459 Hamburg
T +49 (0)40/25 49 68 83
M +49 (0)179/2440951
www.galeriebittel.de
NATALIE CZECH
« Je n’ai rien à dire. Seulement à montrer. »
A hidden poem by Robert Creeley
When the light leaves
and sky’s black,
no nothing
to look at,
day’s done
That’s it.
C-Print, 120 x 86 cm, 2010
A hidden poem by E. E. Cummings #1
n
Othi
n
g can
s
urPas
s
the m
y
steR
y
of
s
tilLnes
s
doppelseitiger Druck, Cut-Out, 46 x 32,5 cm, 2010
A hidden poem
by Robert Lax
does
eve
ry
riv
er
run
to
the
sea
&
is
the
sea
a
home
for
me
?
the
sea
‘s
the
home
from
which
i
rose
&
home
ward
now
the
riv
er
goes
C-Print, 77 x 105 cm, 2010
A hidden poem by E. E. Cummings #3
“nothing” the unjust man complained
“is just” (“or un-” the just rejoined
C-Print, 64 x 46 cm, 2010
A hidden poem by Jack Kerouac
There’s nothing there
because I don’t care.
Stift auf Inkjet 31 x 22 cm, 2010
A hidden poem by E. E. Cummings #2
insu nli gh t
o
verand
o
vering
A
onc
eup
ona
tim
e ne wsp aper
C-Print, 120 x 92 cm, 2010
A hidden poem by Rolf Dieter Brinkmann
Überraschend
die zufällige Anordnung
des Aschenbechers
der Tasse, der
Hand zu einem
geschlossenen Bild.
Keiner kann sagen, hier
wird gelebt.
C-Print, 58 x 74 cm, 2010
Adieu ihr schönen Worte, warum habt ihr mich verlassen? War Euch nicht wohl?
handgeschöpftes Papier (140 x 110 cm, 2kg), aus allen existierenden Ingebort
Bachmann Schriften, Zettel mit handgeschriebener Tagebuchnotiz Bachmanns
Presstext Natalie Czech - « Je n’ai rien à
dire. Seulement à montrer. »
In her second solo exhibition at Galerie Katharina Bittel, Natalie Czech is showing new
works dedicated to various twentieth-century
poems. The artist examines to what extent
words evoke images, and how the perspective on what is depicted can be changed by
minimal alterations to the text. The works on
display scrutinize the potential of communicating one’s own perspective and of conceiving a given reality as capable of change.
Czech’s works often draw on textual sources
such as fragments of novels, film quotes, or
diary entries.
The newly created series Hidden poems
shows photographs whose material basis
consists of magazines, newspapers, or illustrated books. In the visible sections of text,
individual words have been highlighted using
a pencil or marker pen. Read in sequence, the
words form a poem that appears like a single
thought, a snapshot of sorts, engaging in a
dialogue with the remaining text and the adjacent illustrations.
In the work A hidden poem by E.E. Cummings #2, we see a detail from an American
magazine from the 1960s. The sky is lit up
in an unnatural pink color by a nuclear-bomb
test. The text describes the great enthusiasm among the spectators over the unusual
visual event. Individual words have been
crossed out, resulting in the poem In sunlight
over and overing. A once upon a newspaper,
which conveys the nostalgic image of an old
newspaper fluttering in the sunlight, pointing
up the uncritical reporting, inadequate by today’s standards. A poem about photography
Rolf Dieter Brinkmann wrote in 1963, entitled
Geschlossenes Bild (A hidden poem by Rolf
Dieter Brinkmann), is embedded in an essay
about ‘Appropriation Art,’ a strategy in art that
critically examines concepts such as authenticity, objectivity, and authorship. The artists mentioned in the text, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine,
and Richard Prince, have created photographs
out of found aesthetic materials and consider
copying such material to be the true artistic
act. Czech escalates this method by reproducing the works once more in a different context.
Additional works from the series examine the
exhibition concept of the ‘White Cube,’ which
calls for the presentation of works of art in
neutral white spaces, an idea that came under
heavy criticism in the 1960s from American
artists such as Michael Asher. A hidden poem
by Robert Lax accompanies the very personal
narrative of a man who sailed from the US to
Great Britain by himself; Robert Creeley’s poem
can be found in a text about a solar eclipse; and
another poem by E.E. Cummings can be read
in a report about the mathematician John Nash.
Our perception first latches on to qualities we
conventionally attribute to magazines that combine images and text. The highlighted poem intervenes into the beholder’s thought process,
directing a generally valid consciousness in the
direction of subjective sensation. Czech traces
vestiges in the historic material, and the words
acquire an independent meaning of their own
in someone else’s language.
The work Adieu ihr schönen Worte [Adieu,
ye fair words] presented in the second room
refers to a quotation from a volume of previously unpublished poems by Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973) whose content resembles
notes in a diary. Adieu, ye fair words, with your
promises. Why have you left me; were you ill
at ease?
Beginning with this quote, Natalie Czech visualizes the idea, having a single oversized sheet
of paper made out of all of Bachmann’s novels, stories, poems, and other writings
published in German. The final result is a sole
work of art in which, looking closely, we can
still read isolated syllables. A single page lies
on the floor, apparently torn from a notebook;
it contains the quote in Bachmann’s hand. In
Czech’s perspective on Ingeborg Bachmann,
the poet’s authorship is opened up toward
a level on which she quotes herself. Roland
Barthes’ famous line about the death of the
author and the gaze on the text as a collection
of quotes attest to forever new combinations
and arrangements.
By entitling her exhibition Je n’ai rien à dire.
Seulement à montrer, a quote from the philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin, the
artist gestures toward Benjamin’s method of
composing various observations and ideas,
trouvailles and fragments of modern life. In
her works, Natalie Czech likewise creates new
visibilities by eliding or highlighting individual
words. But whereas Walter Benjamin sought
to use the technique of montage to arrive at a
more objective representation, the artist, by
creating new levels of interpretation, engages
the beholder’s subjective gaze.
Nina Köller
Natalie Czech lives and works in Berlin. This
year, her works can be seen in exhibitions at
Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster, at Camera Austria/Kunsthaus Graz, at Kunstverein
Langenhagen, and elsewhere. 2010 Natalie
Czech received for her work “hidden poems”,
the grant “Contemporary German Photography” of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation. She was the recipient of the
2008 Peter Mertes fellowship, which included
a solo show at Bonner Kunstverein. She also
received the award for young contemporary
artist from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Her publication Today I wrote nothing (ed.
GwinZegal, 44 pp., 21 x 13 cm) has just come
out.
CV – Natalie Czech
born 1976 in Neuss
2000 - 2005: Kunstakademie Düsseldorf / Meisterschülerin von Thomas Ruff
lives and works in Berlin
Solo Exhibitions
2011: Kunstverein Langenhagen
2010: Galerie Katharina Bittel - „Je n‘ai rien à dire. Seulement à montrer.“
2009: Liste 09, Basel – „Non Visible Collages“ with Schnittraum / Lutz Becker
2009: Ehemalige Reichsabtei Kornelimünster, Aachen*
2008: Bonner Kunstverein – „without words would“*
2008: Galerie Katharina Bittel – „Time and Timing“
2008: Goethe Institut Nancy
2007: Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin – „Daily Mirror“
2007: Büro DC, Köln – „an And and and“
2006: Studio Kunsthalle Darmstadt*
Group Exhibitions
2011: Kunsthaus Bregenz - „Sieg über die Sonne“
2010: Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster - „Der diskrete Charme des blinden Flecks“
2010: Centre Photographique / Ho tel Fontfreyde, Clermont-Ferrand - „Le bénéfice du doute“
2010: Camera Austria, Graz - „Milk Drop Coronet“ cur. by R. Braun / M. Lübbke-Tidow
2010: Museum Schloss Moyland - „Landschaft ohne Horizont“ curated by Bettina Paust
2010: Kunstverein Langenhagen - „Armor Parvi“ curated by Oliver Tepel
2010: Fotomuseum Winterthur - Plat(t)form 10
2010: Institut francais, Berlin - „Ins Blickfeld gerückt“
2009: 7x2, Strausberger Platz 19, Berlin
2009: Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim – „Körpermuster. Jugendkultur“, curated by
Tobias Berger/Esther Ruelfs anlässlich des 3. Fotofestivals „Images Recalled“*
2009: Art Forum Berlin Sector Focus, with Öystein Aasan
2009: Galerie Katharina Bittel – „Grids and Line“
2009: Upstairs, Berlin – „Hardly Anything“ curated byChristine Nippe
2009: Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin - „Zeigen. Eine Audiotour“ curated by Karin Sander
2008: Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York - „A Sorry Kind of Wisdom“
2008: La Filature, Mulhouse, Frankreich, curated by Paul Cottin
2008: Open Space / Art Cologne, Köln (Solo-Präsentation)
2008: New York Photo Festival - „The Ubiquitous Image“* curated by Lesley A. Martin
2008: Kunstraum Düsseldorf (with Andreas Fischer)*
2008: Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln; Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn - „Jahresgaben“
2007: Union Gallery, London – „Great Expectations / Große Erwartungen“
2007: Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin – „Surreal“
2007: Bunkier Sztuki, Krakau, Polen – „Erscheinen / Verschwinden“* curated by Michael Staab
2007: KIT Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf – „Nach dem Sputnik“*
2007: Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach – „Jahresgaben“
2006: Kunstverein Heidelberg; Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg – „Arbeitsplätze“*
2006: Pingyao Photographic Festival, Bejing, China
2005: Musée de l‘Elysée, Lausanne – „ReGeneration-50 Photographers of Tomorrow“*
2005: Photographic Centre Nykyaika Tampere, Finnland – „Frontal 7“*
2005: Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie Arles, Frankreich*
2005: 701 e.V., Düsseldorf – „Regarding Düsseldorf“*
2004: Museum Villa Haiss, Zell a. H. – „Ein Stück Wahrheit“
2002: Kunstverein in Hamburg – „Andere Räume“*
2001: Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen – „einparken“
2001: Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg – „Neue Besen kehren gut“*
* = with a publication
Scholarships/Award
2010: Alried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stipendium für Zeitgenössische Fotografie
2008: Förderpreis des Landes NRW für junge Künstler
2007: Peter Mertes Stipendium, Bonner Kunstverein
2007: Arbeitsstipendium Stiftung Kunstfonds e.V.
2007: EHF Arbeitsstipendium
2006: Kunstpreis Berlin, Förderpreis Bildende Kunst der Akademie der Künste
2005: Arbeitsstipendium der Kunststiftung NRW
Publications (monographic)
2010: Natalie Czech - „Today I wrote Nothing“, 40 Seiten, Hrsg.: GwinZegal
2010: Natalie Czech - Blackpages, Wien
2010: Natalie Czech - Monografie Magazin Art Value / Axa Art, 20 Seiten, Text: Melanie Bono
2009: Natalie Czech - „Time and Timing“, 10 Seiten, Stadt Düsseldorf
2008: Natalie Czech – „without words would“, Hrsg: Bonner Kunstverein, 16 Seiten, 23,5 x 16,5 cm, mit
einem Text von Christina Vegh
2006: Natalie Czech – „Ahoj Ouroboros“ 96 Seiten, 28 x 23 cm, with texts of Franz Xaver Baier, Alexandra Kolossa and Vanessa Joan Müller, Revolver Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt
Publications group exhibitions / Selection
2010: „Landschaft ohne Horizont“, Verlag für moderne Kunst, Hrsg. Museum Schloss Moyland, Texte
u.a. Bettina Paust und Hubertus von Amelunxen, S. 16, 28, 54-59
2009: „Images Recalled“, Kehrer Verlag, Hrsg. Esther Ruelfs u. Tobias Berger, S. 63-65
2007: „Photo Art“: Hrsg: Uta Grosenick / Thomas Seelig, DuMont Verlag Köln
2005: „ReGeneration“ - 50 Photographers of Tomorrow Hrsg. Musee de l‘Elysee, Switzerland, Thames
and Hudson, 2005
2002: „Andere Räume“: Kunstverein in Hamburg mit einem Text von Yilmaz Dziewior, 2002, Revolver