Dani Karavan retrospective at Martin-Gropius-Bau

Friday, 28 December 2007 23:45

BERLIN, GERMANY - Martin-Gropius-Bau will present Dani Karavan – Retrospective, on view 14 March – 1 June 2008. This is the first time that a major retrospective has been devoted to the Israeli artist Dani Karavan in Germany . The exhibition was conceived by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art where the show is currently on view.

In Berlin , the exhibition is organized by the Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with the State Museums. The exhibition will be enhanced by important loans and will be readapted for Berlin . The peculiar feature of Dani Karavan’s work as an artist is that it enables us to experience urban and landscape spaces in new and remarkable ways.

Dani Karavan has produced works in many countries: Israel , Italy , France , Germany , Denmark , The Netherlands, Spain , the USA , Korea , Japan , and especially in Germany . Since he took part in documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977 Germany has become one of the most important places for Dani Karavan’s artistic work, for it is here that he created a whole series of works for public spaces. These include “Ma’alot” in Cologne (1979-1986), the “Strasse der Menschenrechte” (Human Rights Street) in Nuremberg (1989-1993), “Mimaamakim” in Gelsenkirchen (1997), and “Grundgesetz 49” in Berlin (2002).

His approach is always determined by the historical associations of the site, and he uses a complex system of signs to develop a multitude of social, historical and political references which impose themselves on the viewer’s awareness through an unusual design of great aesthetic density. He transforms the power of memory to create new, sensuous and communicative spheres of experience.

The exhibition on the first floor of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, spread over 20 rooms, will give a comprehensive overview of Dani Karavan’s work, which has received tremendous international recognition.

The large-scale environments in public places are documented by models, photographs and impressive films. In exciting contrast to this Dani Karavan has developed for the exhibition new installations that illustrate his way of working and how he uses certain materials and metaphors. In keeping with his method of artistically exploring the potential of a site to elicit memories, the artist reacts to Berlin by exploring the traces of its fascist past, the division of the city, and how that division was overcome. At the entrance gate to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, in the immediate vicinity of the former Berlin Wall, a work on this theme is to be installed.

Organizers: Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Nationalgalerie. Exhibition by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Facilitated by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin. With the support of the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie. Curator: Fritz Jacobi, Nationalgalerie, State Musuems Berlin. Visit Martin-Gropius-Bau at : www.berlinerfestspiele.de/gropiusbau/