Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

We cordially invite you to the opening of the dazzling exhibition ‘ The originality of the avant-garde and other modernist myths (former Central Post Office Rotterdam)’ by Susanne Kriemann on Saturday 7 June . There will be a reception for the artist from 5:00 till 7:00 pm.

The exhibition runs until July 12. The gallery is open Thursday – Saturdays from 1-6 pm or by appointment. For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery; office@wilfriedlentz.com or +31 (0)10 – 4126459.
The former Central Post Office in Rotterdam, built in 1959, is currently under construction to become an office building. Before all the post-sorting machines were removed, Susanne Kriemann photographed the building’s interior. The color-scheme of the building’s interior is a spectacular statement of a functionalistic design. The commissioner of this scheme was the former state company PTT, who aimed to improve the working conditions for the post employees by commissioning designers and artists to design the space in relation to PTT’s ideology.

The photos document a time in urban development that is significant for the re-organization of the public and the private sector. The composition and colors of the photos refer also to modern form language, the title emphasizes on the link, a quotation by Rosalind Krauss. In itself the photographs open a dialogue between the former and the future, a moment that does not exactly match a time frame. It is not only a document of time between construction and demolition, but as well an image of the industrial age, the age of post sorting machines for millions of letters, the information age… it revisits a modern dream and at the same time communicates an ambiguity as to whether this dream is past or futuristic. (SK)

The main subjects in Kriemann’s art are buildings and monuments from recent history, which have a symbolic significance in society. Her interest in these monuments lies in the role they possess, their representation of a past ideology and how their meanings can evolve throughout time. Besides taking photographs, Kriemann collects historical documents: old and recent newspaper articles, vintage photography and other artefacts. These documents are reactivated when placed alongside her photographs, and are shown together in separate artist editions and artist books. In doing this, her art evokes different stories that refer to these monuments and how society represents itself through the buildings it creates.

‘Susanne Kriemann’s photographs are often charged with ambiguity, their suggestive titles evoking ideas from beyond the usual realm of photography. She depicts what art historian D. Vanessa Joan Muller has called the ‘ephemeral moments of our historically-amnesiac present day’, displaying an interest in the way that recent history is narrated and understood through collections of documents. The process of montage or juxtaposition plays a key role in her work, although her photographs are never manipulated. By reassembling facts and fictions in a non-linear fashion, Kriemann hopes to alter perspectives on pre-established images, opening up space for interpretative readings and for the play of the imagination.’ (Nicolaus Schafhausen in Pilot 3, 2007)

Kriemann’s project 12.650.000 is currently on show at the Berlin Biennale 5. A special artist-book of 12.650.000 has recently been presented at Gamec in Bergamo, Italy. A solo-exhibition is scheduled for January next year at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. Susanne Kriemann (D, 1972) lives and works in Rotterdam and Berlin.
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