Egill Sæbjörnsson – The Egg or the Hen, Us or Them

22 July – 9 October 2011
Opening: 22 July 2011, 7.30 p.m.

Welcoming speech: Claudia Christoffel, member of the board
Introduction: Stefanie Böttcher, artistic director

STONES - in his latest work Egill Sæbjörnsson takes a very different view of this lifeless mass of rocks. He enables it to lead a life of its own, thereby enabling us to become observers of their peculiar little world. The exhibition space is densely populated with talking and singing stones. They engage in dialogue and exchange views about their essence, their desires and their dreams. In doing so they exhibit altogether human features, and finally join together in song. Nothing is as expected in this fantastic universe. Yet is it not perhaps a kind of projection of our ideas of things that differs from the usual projection? Here, art candidly exposes itself as a tool for exploring and enriching the world. Play and experiment, humour and earnestness melt together and a new microcosm opens up.

Egill Sæbjörnsson (*1973) lives in Berlin and Reykjavík. He is known not only as an artist, but also as a musician, and has released several albums. He consistently joins together with actors of related branches for his works. For The Egg or the Hen, Us or Them it was the composer Jeremy Woodruff he produced the sound with. His most recent exhibitions and performance projects have taken him to the Kunstvereine in Frankfurt and Göttingen, the Biennale for International Light Art, the Watermill Center, New York and the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.

PROGRAM

1 September 2011, 7 p.m. Lecture by Dr. Jürgen Pätzold, Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Universität Bremen
22 September 2011, 7 p.m. Performance by Egill Sæbjörnsson, followed by an artist talk with Holger Kube Ventura and Stefanie Böttcher

Guided tours: 4 August 2011; 18 August 2011, 7 p.m.