About 200 years ago, it was not a life-threatening virus but a restorative political system, including an all-surveilling secret police, that made people flee into privacy.
In October 2020, BURN-IN invites you to the thought-provoking exhibition Herr Biedermeier und Frau Grün (Mr. Biedermeier and Mrs. Green) with Ellen Semen (Austria), showing two series of works that are superficially completely diametrically opposed, but on closer inspection have much in common.
The Hamburg-born artist, who has lived in Vienna for 20 years, has Croatian roots and is a wonderful storyteller. With her socio-critical works, she achieves great socio-political significance and clearly demonstrates with her body of work and in the current exhibition which developments are going wrong globally. She is not afraid to take a stand, to criticize. The positive aura of all works, however, always conveys hope and confidence in a positive change.
Floral
Militancy
The work cycle Floral Militancy was created as early as 2005 and addresses a variety of explosive issues of our time in idyllic-looking settings. Here Semen plays with the multifaceted beauty of nature, with wonderful green, blue and yellow, which completely surprisingly meets militant figures and bodies (atomic mushroom cloud, Manga figures...). In the work Wahrscheinlichkeit 1:3 (Probability 1:3) symbolize countless bright yellow sunflowers, the more than 200,000 victims of the U.S. atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the imposing diptych Uups..., man-eating (Oops ..., man-eating) (200 x 500 cm) Semen was inspired by the visual language and aesthetics of the classic film Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino) inspired and relies on a manga figure, which unmistakably and with full force transports its message.
In the nursery
Biedermeier Reloaded (works from 2016) explores the Austrian artists of the Biedermeier period (Waldmüller, Danhauser, Fendi and Kupelwieser). The new Biedermeier, Faith Popcorn's cocooning of the nineties, is just gaining an enormous renaissance again due to the Corona Pandemic. For many, retreating into a cosy home seems to be the ultimate form of coping with a crisis.
Biedermeier reloaded
But Semen demystifies this romantic notion in many of her works. In Kinderzimmer (In the nursery) (2020 | adapted from Josef Danhauser) inverts present-day optimism into a dystopia, exposing the child to biblical plagues. In Ausflug aufs Meer (Sea excursion) (inspiration Leopold Kupelwieser) Semen aims at the decadence of the fine Viennese society, which is not aware of the seriousness of the precarious situation. A true déjà vu experience that many feel in the current time of crisis and makes them think critically about actors and the political world stage. A GreenART exhibition with absolute depth.
Stranding
#arttransfer
About BURN-IN, Biedermeier, Cocooning, and Leaving the White Cubes
Semen acts artistically sound and sustainable. She calls a spade a spade, dares to talk about even highly sensitive topics and brilliantly manages to show even unpleasant truths. The superficially immaculately beautiful figurative painting always evokes positive associations, despite all profundity. In this way, she appeals above all to profound art collectors and institutions that want to be challenged by contemporary art and use it to make a very special statement to their environment.
BURN-IN also recommends Semen's works especially for corporate collections, art interventions and art branding campaigns. This is because often highlighting problematic structural issues that affect organizations and society can be credibly and authentically communicated and managed through a strategic artistic intervention. The Return on Culture as a sustainable gain in terms of internal and external communication. Many organizations are increasingly becoming "the" new art venues, democratizing art and thus creating art for the many and not just for the few. The art market, which is in a state of flux, is fuelling this development, and high-class art is increasingly being shown outside the classic white cubes (museums, galleries, art fairs). Since 2009, BURN-IN has been working successfully at this interface with art branding and presenting completely new approaches alongside the traditional white cubes, thus creating added value for society, companies and artists. BURN-IN thus spins an exclusive cocoon for organizations, in the spirit of Biedermeier and cocooning (Faith Popcorn, late 1980s), which is experiencing an incredible renaissance in Corona times.
BURN-IN is very pleased to represent Ellen Semen starting in August 2020. This marks another significant upgrade to BURN-IN's international portfolio.
