We are very pleased to announce the two exhibitions of Hanne Darboven und Claudia Wieser!

Hanne Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich and lives and works in Hamburg/Harburg. As an internationally famous artist she represented Germany at the Biennale in Venice (1982), participated several times in documenta (5, 6, 7, 11) and her works make part of the collections of the most important museums in the world and also of private collections. She has been awarded several art prices and was conferred a Honorary Professorship at the the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.

Installation view, Ein Jahrhundert 00-99, 1971-73, right wall.

With 'Ein Jahrhundert 00/99' by Hanne Darboven, we are happy to present a very early work of this important artist who has been associated with the gallery for over 20 years. 'Ein Jahrhundert 00/99' includes 112 folio/DIN A4. Twelve sheet contain the index, the century is listed on the remaining 100 sheets. On each sheet of paper the checksum of the first and the last day of a year is written down – above with u-curves in ink, below typed in words.
"I write, therefore I am" is an often quoted maxim by Hanne Darboven. At the same time she sets a high value on not being descriptive in her work. The depiction of spanning structures has shaped her work since the sixties. She discovered the number as a concrete, neutral entity, and systematically formed numerical series and logical permutations. In 1968 she adapted calendar dates as an initial position and started to map spaces of time such as months, years and centuries. Altough time is a central theme, Darboven does not inform on the concept of time - she writes time. (see Schreibzeit, 1979 ). Abstract checksum calculations together with rhythmical mnemonic express the course of time in a continual movement of the writing. Time becomes a visible dimension, which can appear spacial. Darboven’s consequent producing of these demure systems causes a fascinating and – paradoxically – a sensual result.

At the same time we would like to introduce you to the first Swiss solo show of Claudia Wieser entitled 'In der Geometrie gibt es keine Sekten'.

'In der Geometrie gibt es keine Sekten', Installation View, first room

Voltaire (1694-1778) once said, "There are no sects in geometry", meaning essentially that in a mathematical-logical system, there is no place for questions of belief. In Claudia Wieser’s point of view this statement stands in a tense relationship to her own work and she reckons that the sentence requires the opposite of its proposition by the sheer resoluteness of the assertion. Wieser's installations, sculptures and drawings revert to the formal vocabulary of the art of the 20th century, more precisely to the utopia discourse of classical modernity. By using abstract geometrical figures she creates transcendental areas of relevance, which escape from pure rationality. The current exhibition features work in a variety of media. Simple black and white photocopies are coating the wall of the first gallery space and are forming an expanding crystalline architecture, which at the same time offers a surface to concentrated spherical drawings. Across from Hanne Darboven’s century work, a mirror sculpture integrates, fragments and decorates the gallery space. In the third and last gallery space the visitors are confronted with an over-subscription of an old photo print: realistic image and abstract structure as well as two time periods meet one another.

Claudia Wieser, who was born in Germany in 1973, lives and works in Berlin at present. She received her education at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in München where she graduated in 2004.

Denise Frey

'In der Geometrie gibt es keine Sekten', Installation View, third room