BERLIN.- E-WERK Luckenwalde announced details of the 2023 artistic programme - The Material Revolution. E-WERK will bring UK based artist Kira Freije to Luckenwalde for her first German institutional exhibition, screen a series of films in collaboration with CIRCA by legendary land artist Agnes Denes, pioneer of the ecological art movement, alongside a special performance and sound installation by the German musician FM Einheit (Founding member of Einstürzende Neubauten) in collaboration with Vinzenz Schwab.

The Material Revolution is a devotion to the political agency and silent power of materials to ignite systemic change. The programme will pay tribute to artists who refuse ingrained materialistic laws in order to reclaim meaning - from the subversive potential of metal in feminist discourse to the physical and radical reclamation of urbanised territories with abolished agriculture and the building of instruments from industrial waste to produce new sonic territories.

The opening preview will take place on Saturday 29 April (12:00-18:00) with a preview for media on Friday 28 April (14:00-17:00) to coincide with Berlin Gallery Weekend. The public preview on Saturday 29 April will include a performance by FM Einheit at 16:00.

Exhibition programme includes:

The Throat is a Threaded Melody
Kira Freije
29.04.2023 (PREVIEW DAY) - 16.07.2023

The Throat is a Threaded Melody by Kira Freije presents a collection of new figurative metal sculptures by the artist, made specifically for E-WERK’s Turbine Hall. Meandering pathways formed within the space host cinematic interjections of human archetypes. Themes of power and powerlessness jostle with the prosaic infrastructures of the street and interior. Beacons stream past to momentarily reveal the bustle and frequency within the human relationships at play. Throughout the exhibition lies contradictory energy between material production and emotional rigour. Employing cold forming metal working with sand casting to formulate figures in various states of action or contemplation, Freije warps traditional and light industrial metalworking techniques. The figures on view are both emotionally and industrially constructed into reflective beings with a surreal possession of the cadence of daily ritual.

Another Confrontation
Agnes Denes
29.04.2023 (PREVIEW DAY) - 16.07.2023

E-WERK in collaboration with CIRCA presents Another Confrontation – a series of videos created by pioneering environmental artist Agnes Denes who has worked at the intersection of land-art, eco-feminism, mathematics and philosophy for over fifty years. Another Confrontation traverses over 1000 years of humanity (1982 – 3022) to highlight Denes’ focus on ecology, her fear of our present environment’s decay and hope for future survival. Through three acts from the past, present and future including: Wheatfield–A Confrontation (1982), Tree Mountain–A Living Time Capsule and 2022 Questionnaire and Time Capsule, the video works comment on the mismanagement of world hunger, food and energy; highlights the importance of collective global action; and culminates in a global survey about humanity, the responses of which have been buried in a time capsule to be opened in the year 3022, a thousand years from now. Another Confrontation originally premiered on the CIRCA global platform of digital billboards in 2022 to mark the 40th anniversary of the moment Denes first sowed the seeds of her prophetic public artwork, Wheatfield–A Confrontation in May 1982.

FM Einheit and Vinzenz Schwab
29.04.2023 (PREVIEW DAY) - 16.07.2023

The sound and material researcher FM Einheit was a founding member of the legendary experimental music group Einstürzenden Neubauten. Founded in West Berlin in 1980 the group is synonymous with the refusal of musical tradition and laws. FM Einheit’s self-made instruments are created out of industrial waste which, through skilled, affectionate and respectful handling, become portals to new musical worlds and sounds. By instrumentalising the urban and natural landscape, Einheit harnesses the sound of stone, metal, sand, water, flesh, cities, forests and oceans, to create radically visceral new compositions. Vinzenz Schwab’s work moves between the fields of electroacoustic composition, live electronics, film music and sound design. Within the framework of The Material Revolution, Einheit and Schwab have composed a sound installation for E-WERK Luckenwalde that combines sonic samples from the industrial landscape of E-WERK, such as the 1913 mechanical conveyor belt, self-engineered wood chip machine and clanking engine room with a real-time instrumentalisation of the building - making the historic brown coal power station reverberate with sound.

Swing in - Swinging out
FM Einheit, Siegfried Zielinski, Rica Blunck, Saskia von Klitzing and Volker Kamp
Performance
Saturday 29 April 16:00

Einheit will perform live alongside collaborators Siegfried Zielinski, Rica Blunck, Saskia von Klitzing and Volker Kamp in the Turbine Hall.

Artists:

Agnes Denes

Agnes Denes was born in Budapest, raised in Sweden, and educated throughout the United States. She has participated in more than 600 exhibitions at galleries and museums internationally. A primary figure among the concept-based artists who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, Agnes Denes is internationally known for works created in a wide range of mediums and widely regarded as a pioneer of environmental and land art. Her solo shows have been presented at venues including Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1979) and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1974), among retrospective surveys at Firstsite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2013); The Living Pyramid, Socrates Sculpture Park (2015); Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2008); Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA (2003); and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (1992) and a major, critically acclaimed solo exhibition at The Shed, New York (2019-2020).

FM Einheit

Dortmund born FM Einheit (FM Strauß) is an industrial and electronic musician, composer for film, radio, exhibitions and actor, primarily known for his percussion and compositional work with Einstürzende Neubauten, notably on the classic albums: "Kollaps", "Halber Mensch", "Haus Der Luege", "Tabula Rasa“. He played the lead role in the 1984 feature film Klaus Maeck's "Decoder". He has also collaborated with musicians such as: Diamanda Galás, Eraldo Bernocchi, Mona Mur, Rio Reiser, Marianne Rosenberg, PanSonic and many more. He is also known for his radio work with Andreas Ammer and received the prestigious „Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden“ twice. His latest works are podcasts FM Modul @muiscaeterna.org, l'exposition d'un rêve @fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris and the soundtrack for the film Der Goldene Handschuh by Fatih Akin.

Vinzenz Schwab

Vinzenz Schwab (*1981, Eastern Styria) Schwab’s work moves between the fields of electroacoustic composition, live electronics, film music and sound design. He deals with material matter as sound material and explores its transformation possibilities. He has released three albums and several online releases of his work to date, in which he also explores other sound systems - especially the 'Lucy Harrison scale'. His live set-up consists of specially programmed 'patches' for intuitive sound manipulation on the computer by means of various control units. Fifteen of his multi-channel pieces have been performed so far (concert or installation). These works were composed with the software Vasp & Amp, whereby complex operations can be performed in different domains - holistic ('giant') or granular - as well as algorithmic compositions with a time-free, multidimensional sequencer with an unlimited number of controllable parameters and any number of tracks (multitrack application) can be performed. Schwab has performed internationally at events including Wien Modern, Musikprotokoll, Realdeal Festival, Insomnia Festival, Fourier Festival, Diagonale, Viennale, Polyfokt, Insideout Festival, Temple of Sound.

Kira Freije

Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Arts (2016) Freije has developed an original vocabulary of sculpture using metal, fabric, silkscreened images and found materials. Freije’s work fluctuates between figuration and abstraction, drawing on the history of sculpture to create a unique body of work that touches on the surreal.