2023 : FeWo – a dialogue
FeWo – a dialogue /
exhibition-project architecture : sculpture
Estate Gut Summt, Dammsmühler Str. 4 C-D, 16567 Mühlenbeck
Opening: Friday, 9/15/2003, 4 – 8 pm
Duration of the exhibition: bis 9/17/2023, open during Art Week Berlin 2 – 6 pm
FeWo is a short-term exhibition project. It was born from the long-standing friendship between us, the architect Martin Janekovic and the painter and sculptor Matthias Zinn. We are inspired by each other's working methods and discuss the connections and differences between our respective fields of work. With this exhibition we want to continue our dialogue. Through the development of the architectural project Gut Summt, the opportunity arises to juxtapose the sculptural works and the architecture that has been created so far. The estate ensemble at the Summter See in the north of Berlin has been architecturally processed by Martin Janekovic for several years. Currently, the former estate manager’s house has been completed.
In the shell of the former estate manager’s house Martin Janekovic places a vacation home, into this vacation home Matthias Zinn places his steel sculpture series of 2023 with its working title Heads.
Martin Janekovic's architectural solution for the redesign of the former estate manager’s house is consistently based on the theme of inside / outside. He retains the ruin of the shell as the frame and location for the actual residential building. In this way, the interior becomes the content of the playing field bounded by the exterior.
The old brick walls, littered with traces of the past, become the basis of this game. They are stabilized and covered by a new roof construction. Protected by these walls, a box is created that, on the one hand, radically demarcates itself aesthetically from these outer walls, but at the same time is constantly in conversation with its limitation. The box contains two almost identical living units. The ground floor is the open area, the upper floor the closed one. In the lower area, the entire space can be opened almost completely by sliding glass doors, so that the space between the shell and the box can be integrated into the living area. In this way, Janekovic succeeds in realizing a structure that allows for a lively situation that can be rearranged by the residents at any time according to their individual needs. This multifaceted exploration of various spaces is supported and extended by existing, differently proportioned openings in the outer shell. They are conceptually integrated to incorporate the building's surroundings, nature itself, into the spatial play through diverse visual axes. The result is a place that, like a sculpture, allows multiple perceptions and spatial experiences.
Matthias Zinn describes his sculptural work as an exploration of the appearance of the individual. That holistic appearance that goes beyond the conventional physical and psychological aspects. His sculptural work is closely interwoven with his painterly approach and addresses the complex forces and energies of an individual that are palpable in everyday life. Zinn's aim is to explore the ways in which forces such as aggression, restraint or a gaze can be translated into sculptural forms. He is interested in inventing equivalents for the way something appears:
in this sense, a gaze can materialize just the same way as an arm or a foot, a head can be trapped in itself or expand explosively like the splintering of a grenade. Sculptural inventions are created in which forms can project into space, seem to push us viewers away, or even try to capture us. At the same time, outer shells seem to protect and conceal an interior. The structures try to assert themselves, or hold on to the pedestal assigned to them. They interact with us as we try to experience them, but never fully reveal their intentions, in other words, they are alive.
Martin Janekovic has been developing radical architectural solutions for more than 20 years, based on a central idea related to the project and producing an unconventional architecture.
Matthias Zinn lives and works as a painter and sculptor in Berlin and Kremmen, Brandenburg. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad and are represented in renowned international collections.
Studio view with steel work in progress, 2023