Künstlerhaus Bethanien presents DISSONANCE: Platform Germany

July 22–September 11, 2022

Opening: July 21, 7pm

Post-reunification International painting has found Germany to be a crucial venue. The generation of artists who were born in the 1970s and 1980s avoids conformity with societal trends and rejects distinctly identifiable influences. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, their art has precisely captured the cultural and sociological shifts and divergences that have occurred.

Platform Germany, a book curated by Mark Gisbourne and Christoph Tannert and released by DCV, examines 81 artistic stances in Germany’s painting scene. Following the book’s release, Künstlerhaus Bethanien is now exhibiting a first collection of 40 carefully chosen works:

Tom Anholt, Mona Ardeleanu, Inna Artemova, Emmanuel Bornstein, Fritz Bornstück, Mona Broschár, Claudia Chaseling, David Czupryn, Ivana de Vivanco, Annedore Dietze, Rao Fu, Philipp Fürhofer, Nicholas Grafia, Lennart Grau, Philip Grözinger, Oska Gutheil, Dominik Halmer, Roey Victoria Heifetz, Uwe Henneken, Gregor Hildebrandt, Franziska Holstein, Igor Hosnedl / Klaus Jörres, Hortensia Mi Kafchin, Yongchul Kim, Kanta Kimura, Markus Matthias Krüger, Tegene Kunbi, Katsuhiko Matsubara, Justine Otto, Grit Richter, Adam Saks, René Schoemakers, Sebastian Schrader, Sebastian Tröger, Steve Viezens, Marc von der Hocht, Ruprecht von Kaufmann, Paul Wesenberg, and Sahar Zukerman

It is frequently stated that any choice of artists must adhere to a previously established discourse in order to be relevant, similar to how cities and municipalities select the recipients of their tombs of honour. The editors Mark Gisbourne and Christoph Tannert’s selection procedure was continually informed by the historical turning point in 1972, but it was also interested in voices that are still relatively unknown to the general public and, in one or two cases, even to the professional audience. The editors of DISSONANCE: Platform Germany are unafraid to express their opinions, point out the unexpected, and seek the added value of visually arresting performances of programmatic plurality, some of which are still investigating the pertinent meanings they can bolster to the practice of painting. This publication will have lived up to its claim if it is interpreted as a crime scene or an unpaid bill of exchange for upcoming events.