BERLIN, Germany — London artist/ceramic historian Edmund de Waal had three separate installations at three separate Max Hetzler Galleries in Berlin last year. Irrkunst (Berlin, July 16 – September 10, 2016) offered guests three different views on de Waal’s work, inspired by the writings of Walter Benjamin. From the gallery:
Installation views. Photographs courtesy of Max Hetzler Galleries. Click to see a larger image.
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Recognised for his delicate porcelain vessels meticulously arranged in carefully composed groups displayed in vitrines or shelves, Edmund de Waal creates his own dialogue between tradition and modernity, blank spaces and opulence, minimalism and architecture. His unique ceramic objects, coloured in subtle nuances and irregularly shaped, form the base of his installations and combine ideas of repetition, rhythm and composition with references to literature and music.
De Waal first came to know the city of Berlin through the writings of Walter Benjamin, particularly his autobiographical fragments in A Berlin Childhood around 1900. The exhibition title, Irrkunst, has been taken from Benjamin’s concept of the art of getting lost, the art of noticing what has been disregarded.
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In the Bleibtreustrasse gallery, offering a room with a view on Walter Benjamin’s former school, the artist will show works that reflect Benjamin’s childhood, his passion for gathering objects and the idea of collecting as memory work. Here, amongst others, de Waal will present a major new series of vitrines. Furthermore, a selection of original notes and manuscripts from the Walter Benjamin Archive, Akademie der Künste, Berlin will be on view at Bleibtreustrasse and illustrate Benjamin’s own way of working as well as de Waal’s deep fascination with the œuvre of this thinker.
In the second venue at Goethestrasse – a former post office – de Waal will explore ideas of departure and loss through one large-scale installation in wood and porcelain, a response to the space being for things gone astray, the undeliverable. Moreover, Goethestrasse will include a temporary library of writings by and about Walter Benjamin, where visitors will be able to read and reflect.
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Edmund de Waal. Click to see a larger image.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue published by Holzwarth Publications.
About the Artist
Edmund de Waal was born in 1964 in Nottingham, he currently lives and works in London. De Waal’s work was presented in several solo and group exhibitions at important institutions, such as Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (2016); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; Royal Academy, London; Barbican Art gallery, London (all 2015); Theseus Tempel, Vienna; Turner Contemporary, Margate (both 2014); National Gallery, London (2013); Alison Richard Building, Cambridge (2012); Tate Britain, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London (both 2009); Tate Liverpool (2004) and LACMA, Los Angeles (2000), among others.
Also known for his writings, Edmund de Waal won several literary prizes with his bestseller The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010). His new book The White Road, a narrative history of porcelain, will be published in German in fall 2016 by Hanser Verlag.
Text (edited) and images courtesy of the gallery.
Do you love or loathe these works of contemporary ceramic art? Let us know in the comments.
Edmund De Waal
first and foremost is a a brilliant thrower, he has paid his dues as a potter ,he is an authentic artist.His high energy persistent quest is stimulating to observe.
Thats before he even picks up a pen !
The Big black edifice in “Irrkunst” has comparitively few diminutive and deferential low walled pots and shards, the sparsely populated cells overwhelming the” inmates”
The ebony stained ply mimics a monolith .Is it tomb of schist from the valley of the kings or a Manhattan office block,its tenants cowering in the shadows ?