FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Regen Projects
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
tel: (310) 276-5424 fax: (310) 276-7430
www.regenprojects.com
Christian Jankowski: "Say It Together"
November 19 – December 21, 2005
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 19th, 6 – 8pm
"Say you, say me; say it together - Naturally" -- Lionel Ritchie
Regen Projects is pleased to announce "Say It Together," the first solo exhibition in Los Angeles by Berlin-based artist, Christian Jankowski. Jankowski's videos and films often depict humorous and pointed commentaries on the relationship between art and commerce, art and the public, and art and popular culture.
This exhibition will feature a 35mm film titled "16mm Mystery," and a 16mm film , "What Remains." For "16mm Mystery," Jankowski collaborated with Hollywood special effects wizards, the Brothers Strause, to explore the idea that an image has the power to physically transform its environment. This work developed from Jankowski 's interest in a Spanish Baroque painting, "Retrato milagroso de San Francisco de Paula," by Lucas Valdés. This painting depicts a religious procession in which a canvas, visible only from behind, is carried through the streets of a village causing destruction in its wake. The viewer can only witness the power of the image that remains unseen. In "16mm Mystery," Jankowski himself is seen walking through the streets of downtown Los Angeles carrying a film projector and film screen. He makes his way to the roof of a building where he is surrounded by skyscrapers. He sets up the projector and screen with its back to the viewer. He loads the film, runs the projector, and walks out of the frame. Then as the film plays, destruction ensues.
In "What Remains," Jankowski interviews a series of moviegoers as they emerge from a darkened cinema. Jankowski asks each person to describe the thoughts and emotions they experienced while watching the film they have just seen. He asks that they describe their cinematic experience in the present tense without desribing the narrative or revealing the film's title. One man says he enjoyed the film because the music reminded him of his youth, a young girl giggles hysterically, and another woman states the film she saw made her feel patriotic.
Many of Jankowski's works deal with the idea of transformation or the mystical in art. For example, in an earlier work titled, "My Life as a Dove," Jankowski hired a magician who appeared at the opening of his exhibition and seemingly transformed him into a dove. For the duration of the show, the artist/dove occupied a cage in the gallery and was fed and photographed by visitors. In another work, "Telemistica," Jankowski called television psychics to ask questions about the future form and success of a new artwork he was making. The psychics' televised answers assuring Jankowski that his art would be "good," became the work itself.
Christian Jankowski was born in 1968 in Gottingen, Germany. He has exhibited widely throughout Europe and the U.S. He has recently had solo exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO) in Rome, and a survey at the Museum fur Gegenwartskunst in Basel. A traveling solo exhibition has been organized by the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, and is now on view at The MIT List Visual Arts Center in Boston. In 2006, the exhibition will travel to The Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool.
The opening reception for Christian Jankowski will take place on Saturday, November 19th from 6-8pm. For further information please contact Shaun Caley Regen or Lisa Overduin.
A concurrent exhibition of Christian Jankowski's work will be on view at MC in Los Angeles from November 19th through December 21st.
Regen Projects
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
tel: (310) 276-5424 fax: (310) 276-7430
www.regenprojects.com
Christian Jankowski: "Say It Together"
November 19 – December 21, 2005
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 19th, 6 – 8pm
"Say you, say me; say it together - Naturally" -- Lionel Ritchie
Regen Projects is pleased to announce "Say It Together," the first solo exhibition in Los Angeles by Berlin-based artist, Christian Jankowski. Jankowski's videos and films often depict humorous and pointed commentaries on the relationship between art and commerce, art and the public, and art and popular culture.
This exhibition will feature a 35mm film titled "16mm Mystery," and a 16mm film , "What Remains." For "16mm Mystery," Jankowski collaborated with Hollywood special effects wizards, the Brothers Strause, to explore the idea that an image has the power to physically transform its environment. This work developed from Jankowski 's interest in a Spanish Baroque painting, "Retrato milagroso de San Francisco de Paula," by Lucas Valdés. This painting depicts a religious procession in which a canvas, visible only from behind, is carried through the streets of a village causing destruction in its wake. The viewer can only witness the power of the image that remains unseen. In "16mm Mystery," Jankowski himself is seen walking through the streets of downtown Los Angeles carrying a film projector and film screen. He makes his way to the roof of a building where he is surrounded by skyscrapers. He sets up the projector and screen with its back to the viewer. He loads the film, runs the projector, and walks out of the frame. Then as the film plays, destruction ensues.
In "What Remains," Jankowski interviews a series of moviegoers as they emerge from a darkened cinema. Jankowski asks each person to describe the thoughts and emotions they experienced while watching the film they have just seen. He asks that they describe their cinematic experience in the present tense without desribing the narrative or revealing the film's title. One man says he enjoyed the film because the music reminded him of his youth, a young girl giggles hysterically, and another woman states the film she saw made her feel patriotic.
Many of Jankowski's works deal with the idea of transformation or the mystical in art. For example, in an earlier work titled, "My Life as a Dove," Jankowski hired a magician who appeared at the opening of his exhibition and seemingly transformed him into a dove. For the duration of the show, the artist/dove occupied a cage in the gallery and was fed and photographed by visitors. In another work, "Telemistica," Jankowski called television psychics to ask questions about the future form and success of a new artwork he was making. The psychics' televised answers assuring Jankowski that his art would be "good," became the work itself.
Christian Jankowski was born in 1968 in Gottingen, Germany. He has exhibited widely throughout Europe and the U.S. He has recently had solo exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO) in Rome, and a survey at the Museum fur Gegenwartskunst in Basel. A traveling solo exhibition has been organized by the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, and is now on view at The MIT List Visual Arts Center in Boston. In 2006, the exhibition will travel to The Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool.
The opening reception for Christian Jankowski will take place on Saturday, November 19th from 6-8pm. For further information please contact Shaun Caley Regen or Lisa Overduin.
A concurrent exhibition of Christian Jankowski's work will be on view at MC in Los Angeles from November 19th through December 21st.