Christian Helwing
Kunsthalle
09.09 – 28.10.2007

Under the title “Kunsthalle,” the Kunstverein Bremerhaven presents works by Christian Helwing that were created in situ. It is the first institutional solo exhibition by the Bremen-based artist. His works oscillate between art and architecture, are neither one nor the other, move at the interface between these fields, and explore their boundaries. The ambivalence inherent in his works highlights the central questions: When does an architectural intervention become art, and when does an aesthetic
intervention become architecture? In this context, Christian Helwing speaks of plastic installations. Installations that seek architectural integration and at the same time emphasize sculptural independence. The structural changes made are by no means based on an architect’s perspective, but rather are an artist’s statements on architecturally defined exhibition spaces. Ambivalences and paradoxes essentially constitute the grammar of his works.

Although his works are related to minimal art in terms of their form and presence, Christian Helwing manages to impressively break away from this. His works reflect architecture as a place of human life and are by no means intended to simply exist and mean nothing. By assigning a function to the sculptural installations, which take the people walking around an exhibition as a natural reference point, Helwing departs from the classic definition of minimalism. This dissolves the identity of form and content.

The spaces to which his works refer are not only considered in terms of their specific architecture. In addition to the architectural conditions, other functions such as social, representative, or historical ones are always of interest. For example, the work “4 Meter 60 nach Hause gehen” (2007) - his contribution to the Bremen Förderpreisausstellung (Bremen Sponsorship Award Exhibition) in the Städtische Galerie. The real space becomes the subject of the work in its various functions: exhibition space and passageway. Or “Wohnung Felix Rehfeld” (2006). Here, too, the various functions of a spatial situation are addressed. These works demonstrate that Helwing has mastered the gap between art and architecture and succeeds in intertwining the various functions of locations.

In Bremerhaven, it is not the separate rooms of the Kunsthalle that serve as the starting point for his sculptural installations, but rather the Kunsthalle as a whole. The functionally distinct rooms of the Kunsthalle as a whole are the subject of his exhibition. Rooms with different functions, rooms of different sizes and heights, with different floors and ceilings. His sculptural installations aim to reveal the functional and social contexts of a specific place: the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven. In this way, he develops an overall concept for the existing rooms with their various functions.

In general, the architect’s floor plans serve as a guide for the exhibiting artist: where are the open spaces, where can pictures be hung, sculptures placed, how do the lighting conditions work? Christian Helwing also uses the architect’s plan as a guide, but thinks in the opposite direction. The Kunsthalle is occupied by itself. The large exhibition hall, graphic cabinet, ticket office, gallery, hallway, walkways, and foyer become the subject of his sculptural intervention.

His works are neither concrete representations of actual spaces nor do they aim to miniaturize real dimensions; they are neither models of something nor models for something. They are architecture and sculpture in equal measure. Aesthetic, architectural, and social functions are condensed in his work. This creates a unique language whose frame of reference lies between art and architecture.

Joachim Kreibohm

Curated by Thomas Trümper.