The Material Revolution is the creative program for 2023 at E-WERK Luckenwalde.
E-WERK will bring the UK-based artist Kira Freije to Luckenwalde for her first German institutional exhibition, as well as a series of films by legendary land artist Agnes Denes, a pioneer of the ecological art movement, as well as special performances and sound installation by FM Einheit, a founding member of Einstürzende Neubauten. Melanie Jame Wolf and Lauryn Youden, the original artists to participate in E-WERK invitations, will present new performance projects at E-WERK in the autumn.
The Material Revolution is a dedication to materials’ political agency and silent capacity to spark systemic transformation. The program will honor artists who defy ingrained materialistic laws in order to reclaim meaning, ranging from the subversive potential of metal in feminist discourse to the physical and radical reclamation of urbanised territories with abolished agriculture, and the construction of instruments from industrial waste to create new sonic territories. The exhibition program will coincide with the announcement of an ambitious new action-oriented residency program in early 2023.
Exhibition programme
Kira Freije: The Throat is a Threaded Melody
April 29 (preview day)–July 1, 2023
Luckenwalde’s E-WERK will be revealed. Kira Freije’s The Throat is a Threaded Melody is an exhibition of new figurative sculptures created exclusively for E-Turbine WERK’s Hall. Power and powerlessness clash with the mundane infrastructures of the street and inside. Headlights flash by, revealing the bustle and frequency of the human relationships at work. The ephemeral but ubiquitous glow of transportation is a result of E-near WERK’s proximity to the train tracks that run behind it. The lamps that appear repeatedly throughout Freije’s work serve as markers of geography and time. Throughout the exhibition, there is a tension between material creation and emotional rigour. Freije warps conventional and light industrial metalworking processes by cold forming metal works with sand casting to create figures in various stages of motion or contemplation. The figures on display are emotionally and industrially created into reflected entities with a bizarre possession of daily ritual cadence.
Agnes Denes: Wheatfield, Tree Mountain and The Living Pyramid
April 29 (preview day)–July 1, 2023
E-WERK will show the three films Wheatfield, Tree Mountain, and The Living Pyramid by the famed ecological land artist Agnes Denes alongside Kira Freije. For almost fifty years, nonagenarian Denes has worked at the crossroads of land art, ecofeminism, mathematics, and philosophy. Wheatfield – A Confrontation, in which she planted a two-acre amber field of grain beneath the Twin Towers and Wall Street in 1982, and Tree Mountain, in which Denes planted 11,000 trees as a land reclamation project, are more relevant than ever as the climate emergency worsens and the global wealth and poverty divide becomes increasingly exaggerated.
FM Einheit
April 29 (preview day: performance and sound installation)–July 1, 2023
FM Einheit, the sound and material researcher, is synonymous with the rejection of established musical thinking and laws. His instruments are industrial society’s detritus, transformed into a portal to other musical worlds through compassionate and respectful management. FM Einheit has created the project “the living Archiv” in response to dwindling support for the arts during the pandemic. FM Modul broadcasts a series of podcasts that take a stand on pressing topics of the day, with the cooperation of Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis, ZKM Karlsruhe, media theorist Prof. Siegfried Zielinski, and media archaeologist Dr. David Link. Within the framework of the exhibition, the material becomes the source for a three-part performance with Siegfried Zielinski, Rica Blunck, Saskia von Klitzing and Volker Kamp, taking place in the TURBINENHALLE (FM Modul), TRAFO (the ear cooks, the eye eats) and FLUXDOME (sound machines).
E-WERK Invites…Lauryn Youden and Melanie Jame Wolf
Autumn 2023
E-WERK Invites is a satellite program that allows practitioners to bring their projects to life in and around E-locations. WERK’s Artists, Curators, Scientists, and Architects, among others, are asked to submit ideas for workshops, exhibitions, conferences, laboratories, and other events to be held on the 10,000m2 space provided by EW. Lauryn Youden and Melanie Jame Wolf will unveil new projects in the autumn of 2023, with specifics to be disclosed in the spring of 2023.
A concurrent programme of residencies, symposiums and events will also be announced in 2023.
Supported by
The Approach, London
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects New York
Landkreis Teltow-Fläming
Henry Moore Foundation
E-WERK Luckenwalde
Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße 73
14943 Luckenwalde
Germany
