PRESS RELEASE

ftc. in Berlin -

summer group show

june 26 – september 19, 2009

Throughout the summer of 2009 ftc. will present fourteen artists in the first-ever group show at our new gallery in the heart of Berlin. With this show, we are laying a kind of foundation in the capital city. Each artist will be represented by one piece, and the works will range from painting to photography and video.

Artists:

Lars Arrhenius | Sonja Braas | Frank Breuer | Dunja Evers |

Hiroshi Sugimoto | Markus Weggenmann | Beat Zoderer

In October 2008 the gallery moved from Cologne to Berlin. Three solo exhibitions, featuring Beat Zoderer, Keller & Wittwer, and Dionisio González respectively, preceded the opening of our group show. “Moving was a sensible, worthwhile step for us,” says gallerist Thomas Taubert. “When our international clients come to Germany, they tend to visit only the new metropolis, Berlin. We’re very pleased to have found the ideal space in the Galerienhaus Lindenstrasse.” ftc. regards itself as an innovative gallery space, showing not only works by renowned artists from both Germany and abroad, but also those by young artists who are just starting out on their careers.

Contact: Dr. Christina Rosnersky | Tel. +4930 25294095 | rosnersky@ft-contemporary.com

Gallery Program: An overview of the artists

Lars Arrhenius | Sonja Braas | Frank Breuer | Dunja Evers |

Hiroshi Sugimoto | Markus Weggenmann | Beat Zoderer

With his video work „The Big Store“, Lars Arrhenius criticizes consumer society while concretely referring to the last minutes in the life of the former Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anna Lindh, who was the victim of a deadly attack in a department store.

Sonja Braas builds models for her photography that represent reality, as can be seen in „The Quiet of Dissolution“. Her topics are catastrophes that have either been initiated by nature itself or by people.

Frank Breuer uses an objective view to approach architectural constructs such as truck trailers, industrial halls and other buildings mostly in urban landscapes and brings them together in groups of work.

Dunja Evers’ works unify three forms of media: Super 8 film, photography and painting. Works from the boxer group of work are shown that make the intensity of the fight tangible.

Claus Goedicke’s precise depiction of everyday objects offers the viewer an incentive to newly reflect upon things and encounter them with awareness.

Dionisio González focuses in his new group of work on the Halong Bay in North Vietnam, which ftc. comprehensively introduced in June. Using Photoshop, the pictures show the contrast between an atmospheric landscape of the soul and the everyday life of the inhabitants that has been marked by the struggle to survive.

Nanna Hänninens’ motives are mostly abstract but nevertheless anchored in reality. The observer will ponder the question as to what is concealed behind them or if it is even irrelevant to know this. Hänninens tool is a large-format camera that she usually uses without a tripod.

In their new photographic group of works, Keller & Wittwer use simple means to juxtapose the reality created in the world of advertising, represented by newspaper advertisements, with our true state of being. The unagitated depiction opens the view for the fragility of our existence.

For Markus Linnenbrink color is the main object of his sculpturally appearing pictures. Among the different groups of work, ftc. opted this time for a new floor sculpture and a so-called drill.

Heidi Specker avows herself to digital photography and Photoshop editing since their existence. She abstracts the surface of architectures to rasterized patterns. Her formal thought lies in putting detailed excerpts out of focus and flattening contrasts, allowing for a completely new encounter with chosen subjects.

Hiroshi Sugimoto extracts the actual form of buildings in the photographs of his architecture series, free of distracting details and always dedicated to the selected object.

Markus Weggenmann uses sketches originating from straight-forward geometric as well as floral forms as paintbrush drawing. He then enables them to interpenetrate each other. The image is finalized on computer and is then compiled onto an aluminum image carrier.

Beat Zoderer, whose expansive installations filled the rooms at the opening of the ftc. in Berlin, prefers so-called poor materials, such as wood, wool and paper to build his large-format pictures. For him there are no waste products. His assembled works are often found in public spaces.