Conflicting Tales:

Subjectivity (Quadrilogy, Part 1)

The Burger Collection opens its quadrilogy of exhibitions and events in Berlin in 2009. Conflicting Tales : Subjectivity (Quadrilogy, Part 1) is the inaugural exhibition of a four-part project of temporary exhibitions in four different cities worldwide to be held in the upcoming years. Conflicting Tales : Subjectivity (Quadrilogy, Part 1) interweaves the physical presence of works by more than 35 artists including two outdoor projects with an editorially ambitious catalog and events such as roundtables, artist talks and a workshop.

Scenes of conflict and antagonism, scenes of disagreement and discord are motifs for the opening exhibition. With this premise, the exhibition engages with subjectivity, not an interior view, but an engagement with the field of tension that opens between the individual and society. Consciousness is posited as a problematic : how does the individual deal with societal ideas, rules, and models ? Through what decisions does the individual arrive at the position that he or she ultimately takes vis-à-vis the others? In Conflicting Tales : Subjectivity (Quadrilogy, Part 1), art is not subjected to sociology, but becomes meaningful to the extent that it allows the viewer to observe how subjectivity is formed, influenced, challenged, and perhaps generated within aesthetic processes or phenomena.

In the upcoming parts of the quadrilogy, Burger Collection will approach the collection from different discursive perspectives dealing with the aesthetic key terms of narration, history, and language.

Artists of Conflicting Tales

Jaishri Abichandani, Adam Adach, Monika Baer, Fiona Banner, Norbert Bisky, Fernando Bryce, Rafal Bujnowski, Verne Dawson, Wim Delvoye, Atul Dodiya, Urs Fischer, Tim Gardner, Gwon Osang, Sabine Hornig, Hubbard / Birchler, Bharti Kher, Douglas Kolk, Lee Dongwook, Nalini Malani, Hugo Markl, Olaf Metzel, Muntean / Rosenblum, Hans Op de Beeck, Grayson Perry, Jaume Plensa, Damien Roach, Julian Rosefeldt, Charles Sandison, Vittorio Santoro, Dennis Scholl, Collier Schorr, Steven Shearer, Fiete Stolte, Mathilde ter Heijne, Paul Winstanley, Zhang Dali.

10–09–09, 7 pm [ English ]

Artist Talk with Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler and Guest

11–09–09, 7 pm [ English ]

Artist Talk with Damien Roach and Guest

12–09–09, 2 pm [ German ]

Exhibition Tour with Daniel Kurjaković, Curator / Head of Program

29–10–09, 7 pm [ German ]

Artist Talk with Fiete Stolte and Guest

30–10–09, 7 pm [ English ]

Artist Talk with Jaume Plensa and Guest

31–10–09, 7 pm [ German ]

Artist Talk with Mathilde ter Heijne and Guest

13–11–09, 7 pm [ German ]

Live speakers: Guided tours with students of Freie Universität Berlin (direction Jürgen Dehm)

20–11–09, 7 pm [ German ]

Live speakers: Guided tours with students of Freie Universität Berlin (direction Jürgen Dehm)

27–11–09, 7 pm [ German ]

Live speakers: Guided tours with students of Freie Universität Berlin (direction Jürgen Dehm)

03–12–09, 7 pm

Artist Talk with Fernando Bryce and Guest (German)

04–12–09, 7 pm [ German ]

Exhibition Tour with Daniel Kurjaković, Curator / Head of Program

Dates to be announced for:

• Video screening of new video works by students of the Universität der Künste UDK, Berlin
• Roundtable about contemporary methods of hybridization of theory and practice in the arts (various participants)
• Workshop about the present and future functions of curatorial practices in contemporary art (various participants)

Profile

Burger Collection is a private collection of international contemporary art, which Monique Burger has been building up since the early 1990s. The collection encompasses different media with emphases in European/American and Asian art and currently includes more than 1000 works by approximately 120 artists. Aside from established positions, Burger Collection also includes the work of younger artists. Burger Collection also engages in arts patronage, in recent years making possible the film project House with Pool by the artists Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, the Motion Pictures project by Julian Opie, or Herlinde Koelbl’s work Wille, Macht und Wandel. Currently, Burger Collection is supporting the Venice Biennale exhibition by artist Pak Sheung Chuen, together with Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Burger Collection is also patron of Para/Site Art Space in Hong Kong, KHOJ Alternative Space in New Delhi, Kunsthalle Zürich, and AAA ( Asia Art Archive ) in Hong Kong. In recent years, works from Burger Collection have been lent to numerous institutions such as Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, Guggenheim Museum New York, Centre d’Art Contemporain in Lyon, and the São Paulo Biennial. In the autumn of 2009 Burger Collection will open its quadrilogy of exhibitions in Berlin, with a first exhibition based on subjectivity. In the upcoming years, additional exhibitions linked to additional aesthetic key terms such as history, narration and language are going be realized in different cities around the world.

Web

www.burgercollection.org
www.quadrilogy.org

Biographies

Monique Burger was born and raised in Switzerland. After graduating from KV Zürich Business School, she spent two years in the US. Upon returning to Switzerland she had a successful career in private banking and headhunting. She is married to Max Burger and has a son. In 2005 she and her husband moved to Hong Kong. She began collecting contemporary art in the early 1990s. She created her first website in 2002/03 to publish the growing holdings of Burger Collection, and to make it available to the public.

Daniel Kurjakovic is curator and head of program of Burger Collection. He conceived the concept of the quadrilogy with its four exhibitions about subjectivity, history, narration, and language. In 2009, he co-curated the exhibition We’ll Know Where When We Get There by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo at Cneai Art Center in Paris, The Large Work by p-r-o-x-y at Palais Bleu in Trogen, Reserven by Swiss artist Franziska Koch at Kunsthof Zürich. He teaches at Zurich’s Universität der bildenden Künste and at other universities and art schools across Europe.