Stefan Doepner and KiBela at PREVIEW BERLIN 2009 - The Emerging Art Fair

Between 25 and 27 September 2009 Preview Berlin – the Emerging Art Fair took place in the main hall of the historical Berlin Tempelhof Airport (Platz der Luftbrücke 5, D–12101 Berlin), which closed down last year. The fifth edition of Preview Berlin fair, this time taking up the strategy of a curated sale exhibition, featured 47 selected galleries from around the world, with Kibela presenting the work Robot Partner 0.2 - Automated Table Modification by Stefan Doepner, who lives and works in Slovenia and Germany. The work of art was exhibited as part of his solo exhibition in KiBela last May.

The internationally renowned PREVIEW BERLIN 2009 – THE EMERGING ART FAIR in its fifth edition, alongside the major Berlin fair Art Forum Berlin, presents the most important Berlin fair event, traditionally excelling at the freshness of galleries and similar institutions, such as spaces for art, project spaces and alike, and particularly at selected artists and their works to be presented at the fair. Having the subtitle of LESS REGRESS – MORE CONGRESS, this year the fair taking up a new presentation strategy, disposing of the fair architecture, thus bringing the event closer to a curated exhibition. An exhaustive presentation of the fair is available at its webpage: http://www.previewberlin.de/

The work Robot Partner 0.2 - Automated Table Modification is part of a wider project Robot Partner, integrating art, science, humanities and technology. The most recent series deals conceptually with the complex idea of partnership in general as well as partnership between people and machines. Works of this series confront the visitors with contemporary ideals, ideas and images of development in an investigative, poetic, humorous and absurd way.

The work selected for Preview Berlin is an interactive computer-controlled installation, in which office and kitchen items move around a “table” permanently. The intention of the artist is to show possibilities of automatising various services that we face in our everyday life, the main focus being on the absurd result, as well as to concentrate on the poetic component that arises from this absurd act (of the work of art). Visitors are thus offered the possibility of reflection on their own position.

Stefan Doepner studied fine arts and experimental film at the Fine Arts Academy in Bremen (1991/1996). He has been working as an intermedia artist since mid 1980's, being the cofounder of f18 Institute for Art, Information and Technology in Hamburg (1996) and of the interdisciplinary station Cirkulacija 2 in Ljubljana (2007). The scope of his activity focuses on technologically aided art, robotics and sound art.

More on the project and author in Kibla's archive: http://www.kibla.org/dejavnosti/kibela/arhiv/kibela-arhiv/2009/stefan-doepner/?0=

KiBela project curator and manager for Preview Berlin: Maja Škerbot
maja.skerbot@kibla.org
0049 (0)179 822 0777