BERLIN · there is a pool in the middle of Berlin that has everything a pool needs: a hole, a bar, a wardrobe, a diving boat, a staircase, everything except the water. instead it is filled with art. we’ve visited Stattmarkt – Art Market in the Bath at Stattbad.
Stattmarkt is featuring a total of 15 dedicated project spaces, allowing mostly urban artists & galleries, to exhibit their work in their chosen surroundings. the project is curated by Guillaume Valentin #6236, founder of the Open Walls Gallery. the idea is to individually curate each space, presenting a twist to the traditional art market format and resulting in the most diverse array of artists to be showcased in Stattbad.
the art, being placed among the tiles, into the pool and on the walls where the plaster has come off in patches, fit as if it was placed into their own native environment – the streets. let’s mention just few eye-catchers among many other outstanding works: SP38’s art is as much effective when put in a frame and hanged on a wall, where in the back white bathroom tiles shine to accompany the message: fuck, steal, bomb america.
in much the same way BR1 equally efficiently shows how muslim women are represented in daily life situations, pointing out that they have the same needs and necessities as western women, with only one exception – the veil.
and then Vermibus #6245, whose art works and ‘interventions’ challenge the fashion industry. with "Unmasking Kate", he reveals our mass consumption society down to nothing but the harsh truth: that the most iconic and influential fashion models of the last decade with their photoshoped pictures became more real than the reality itself.
overall the exhibition with its gold, shiny flyer invites you to a place, where you could comfortably bath yourself in a street art experience. but the exhibited street art is all but comforting. by visiting and diving yourself into, you suddenly find yourself very uncomfortably hitting the bottom. and as if that is not enough, you as well get caught into an illuminatus spin, the project by Marcus Mai and Moritz Arnold.
the Staatmarkt is teamed up with Staatlab, their in-house independent print studio, to be releasing a series of affordable limited edition prints that can be purchased directly from the fair and it will be taking place from 1st till 16th of december.
so, let’s stop there and dive ourselves to get a better point of view of what we are living in, to open our eyes, to stay awake when everyone else tells us to fall asleep. let us purchase this and enrich ourselves with some truth.
CONTRIBUTED BY Mica
