KÖNIG GALLERY - ST. AGNES BERLIN
ONE MILLION - BRUTALISM PORCELAIN
Since June 13, 2022
Location: König Gallery, Alexandrinenstraße 118-121, 10969 Berlin
Since 2014 I have been creating chronologically numbered ONE MILLION porcelain vessels. Each one is a memory of the encounters with a person, an organization or an institution who contacted me. Every vessel is part of a permanently and uncontrollably expanding whole. Each of the vessels is shown at its respective location on a digital world map - www.eine-million.com/en/map. All owners of the vessels become part of this global narrative. All porcelain vessels are made by my hands. My own body does the physical work, turning the porcelain on the wheel as a kind of reward. The result is a digital iceberg with a tip made of porcelain, floating around globally, hybrid and connecting, out of control and autonomous. Each of the vessels has a 500-year guarantee; damaged vessels are exchanged for new ones, when sent back to me. A slow and self-enriching archive of never left or returned porcelain is created. My body is the geographic point zero of ONE MILLION. From here, like equal white dots, the vessels scatter over the whole world. Porcelain is a political material, it is my storage medium.
I make heavy, long-lasting forms for everyday human use from a mineral compound similar to cement, namely, porcelain: jugs, bowls, cups and bottles. The vessel shapes are derived from Werner Düttmann’s architectural plans. March 6, 2021, marked the centenary of the Berlin architect and urban planner Werner Düttmann (1921-1983). With his buildings, which are emblematic of the post-war period, Düttmann played a key role in shaping and influencing Berlin and its residents. The dishes of the BRUTALISM PORCELAIN are an attempt to create a connection between the body and the qualities of brutalist architecture. The vessels are numbered chronologically and are part of my art project ONE MILLION, an undertaking meant to last throughout my life.
BECOME ONE IN ONE MILLION
Cover Photo Antje Peters
Design STUDIO RIETHMÜLLER