Uwe Henneken & Stefan Rinck
Vicerunt Viderunt Venerunt
September 8, 2007–October 6, 2007The Breeder Projects at ReMap KM
THE BREEEDER is pleased to announce the opening of its new project space at Leonidou 11 Str., in Metaxourgio, Athens. The Breeder projects inaugurates with the upcoming exhibition of German artists Uwe Henneken & Stefan Rinck, titled “vicerunt viderunt venerunt”.
In this double show, the artists will present their work in two consecutive rooms. The concept is based on the idea that two “troops” come out of a wooden owl and alludes both to the saying “carry owls to Athens”, (a phrase that expresses the idea of ‘giving someone something he does not need’), as well as to the devise of the Trojan Horse. The owl itself will be presented in two halfs, leaning on one side of each room. As the sculpture of the owl is divided by the wall, it becomes a whole only through a certain viewpoint from the hallway or just in the visitor’s imagination. Small doors and ladders are located next to the owl where the “troops” come out. The “troops” are represented by sculptures that stand in the two rooms and then unite into the third room that materializes in the form of headquarters, with a desk, flags and a map on the wall. The balcony will be the place where the chiefs chill during battle, a setting with deckchairs and drinks, a pool and girls, while a cannon in the corner will round up the scenery…
Uwe Henneken’s allegorical connotations are manifest in several small sculptures placed on pedestals, where bronze vanguards hide inside small chests or cases. The vanguards he presented in his show at THE BREEEDER in 2006, are funny caricatures that he inserts in found paintings of northern European landscapes, snooping over the horizon. These figures represent a state of the human being in his search for knowledge and materialize here in sculptures that often maintain the garish, vibrant colours and the grotesque, sometimes demonic nature of the painted figures.
Stefan Rinck presents animal-like sculptures made of sandstone with characteristics that appear to come from the medieval era, at a time when people were intimidated by the menacing forces of animals. Today, Stefan Rinck places them on pedestals or on the floor positioning them in military formations alongside humanoid generals and re-endues them with their demonic potentials, which have been suppressed under the modern condition. As true swindlers, the animals always strive for more than their origin allows them, as a metaphor for the evolution of man. In possession of a self-conscious mind, just like humans, they have been expelled from paradise. The swindling animals are eager to adopt intellectual symbols: pointed hats as regalia of scholarship or alchemy, the cross as a symbol of morality, the robe as a sign of profane power and have a vision to defeat man using his very own means.
Uwe Henneken’s recent exhibitions include:
2007 Imperirum Schemihilium Frans-Hals-Museum/ Museum deHallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands
2006 „Somewhere In Europe They Wait”, The Breeder, Athens
Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin
Giselaa Capitain, Cologne
Andrew Kreps, New York
2005 “36 x 27 x 10”, White Cube Berlin in the former Palast der Republik, Berlin
“Wunderwelten/ Ideal Worlds”, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
“Das neue Schwarz”, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich (with T. Zipp, U. Henneken)
Stefan Rinck’s recent exhibitions include:
2007 Portrait des Philosophen Pierre Bayle, Goethe Institut Rotterdam, Rotterdam
2006 Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich
2006 Portal of Glory, Vilma Gold, London
