Christian Haake
SPINS / CIRCLES / ABSTRACTS
15.03. – 03.05.2015
In terms of architectural history, art galleries are a relatively young type of building. If they were built specifically for the presentation of art, the “Palais de beaux art” of the 19th century were mostly neo-baroque, historicizing places of leisure decorated with stucco. Architecturally harmoniously proportioned and richly decorated, they offered the harsh ideal of the spiritual a safe space, a mediating framework against the injustice, banality and crudeness of Manchester capitalism in the globalizing industrial society.
But in the course of modernity, the protective, mediating framework came under criticism. A sincere thought, an idea, an artistic expression had to exist alone in the chaos of the world or perish. There was nothing in between. Ornament became a crime and beauty now arose from the power of truthfulness. Openness and transparency instead of a feigned appearance, appropriate use of materials instead of an eclectic reference to values became the basis of the architecture of a more humane world of equality and participation.
The Bremerhaven Art Gallery of 1964 was also built in this tradition of the history of ideas: transparent thanks to a wraparound window front on the ground floor, functionally structured on the upper floor and truthful inside and out in the visibility of the building materials used.
However, it was not just the architecture of the art galleries that changed. Their use also changed. With conceptual art, reference to the environment became an artistic practice. Things are rarely as they seem at first glance. Questioning certainties has always been a tried and tested means of art and through more or less radical interventions, artists increasingly transformed the exhibition spaces from a supposedly neutral stage for their works to the object of their art itself.
This is also the case with the artist Christian Haake: “Christian Haake’s works are convincing due to their great independence in the medium of the installation and bring together different strands of content in an intelligent and well thought-out way. The space in which he positions his works plays an essential role in this, as its characteristics are absorbed and reflected. The existing space is made usable for his productions. Place and work thus combine to form a backdrop that quotes the language of cinema and, in its unfulfillable announcements, opens up a space of longing and imagination.” (Quoted from the justification for the award of the Bremen Promotion Prize for Fine Art)
Christan Haake, born in Bremerhaven in 1969, initially studied art history and philosophy at the University of Bremen. In 2003 he began studying art at the Bremen University of the Arts. Group and solo exhibitions at home and abroad, as well as a substitute professorship, followed. The artist has received multiple awards for his subtle, precisely crafted transformations and is now presenting a representative selection of his works for the first time in the exhibition SPINS/CIRCLES/ABTRACTS - in the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven.
Curated by Dr. Kai Kähler.