Transit
Zilberman | Berlin is delighted to announce the opening of its new space in Berlin鈥檚 Schl眉terstra脽e 45 with the exhibition Transit. Curated by Lotte Laub and Susanne Wei脽, Transit brings together works by Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanoska, Antje Engelmann, Memed Erdener, Hanna Frenzel, Itamar Gov, Fato艧 陌rwen, 陌z 脰ztat & Zi艧an & BA脟OY KOOP, Judith Raum, Sim Chi Yin, and Annette Weisser.
鈥淥 imperial City,鈥� I cried out, 鈥淐ity fortified, City of the great king, tabernacle of the most High, praise and song of his servants and beloved refuge for strangers, queen of the queens of cities, song of songs and splendor of splendors, and the rarest vision of the rare wonders of the world, who is it that has torn us away from thee like darling children from their adoring mother? What shall become of us?鈥�
With these lines, the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates in 1204 bewailed the devastating conquest and plundering of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. He himself would not live to see Istanbul later, under the Ottoman Empire, grow yet more fully into its role as a sanctuary for strangers from all over the world鈥攗ntil the tides turned once again in the 20th century. With the founding of Turkey as a nation-state, major demographic upheavals were brought about forcibly through violent mass displacements. REFUGE OF ALL STRANGERS is the title of an installation by Itamar Gov, which we exhibit in Transit. Those words are displayed in a neon sign mounted on scaffolding, recalling the signs mounted on the roofs of old hotels that offered both orientation and promise to passers-by. Gov鈥檚 neon sign remains ambivalent: it points to the chasm between the promise of a sanctuary for all strangers and the condition of being a stranger in exile (on the run from what was home). It can, however, also be understood as an invitation to view art as the place of refuge where what has been lost, forgotten, or passed over in silence can be preserved for the generations that follow.
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Zilberman | Berlin is delighted to announce the opening of its new space in Berlin鈥檚 Schl眉terstra脽e 45 with the exhibition Transit. Curated by Lotte Laub and Susanne Wei脽, Transit brings together works by Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanoska, Antje Engelmann, Memed Erdener, Hanna Frenzel, Itamar Gov, Fato艧 陌rwen, 陌z 脰ztat & Zi艧an & BA脟OY KOOP, Judith Raum, Sim Chi Yin, and Annette Weisser.
鈥淥 imperial City,鈥� I cried out, 鈥淐ity fortified, City of the great king, tabernacle of the most High, praise and song of his servants and beloved refuge for strangers, queen of the queens of cities, song of songs and splendor of splendors, and the rarest vision of the rare wonders of the world, who is it that has torn us away from thee like darling children from their adoring mother? What shall become of us?鈥�
With these lines, the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates in 1204 bewailed the devastating conquest and plundering of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. He himself would not live to see Istanbul later, under the Ottoman Empire, grow yet more fully into its role as a sanctuary for strangers from all over the world鈥攗ntil the tides turned once again in the 20th century. With the founding of Turkey as a nation-state, major demographic upheavals were brought about forcibly through violent mass displacements. REFUGE OF ALL STRANGERS is the title of an installation by Itamar Gov, which we exhibit in Transit. Those words are displayed in a neon sign mounted on scaffolding, recalling the signs mounted on the roofs of old hotels that offered both orientation and promise to passers-by. Gov鈥檚 neon sign remains ambivalent: it points to the chasm between the promise of a sanctuary for all strangers and the condition of being a stranger in exile (on the run from what was home). It can, however, also be understood as an invitation to view art as the place of refuge where what has been lost, forgotten, or passed over in silence can be preserved for the generations that follow.
