Photo: © Julia Bornefeld, Courtesy Photology
We are proud to present the first Julia Bornefeld exhibition with Photology, featuring her new photographic project “On fire”. The exhibition includes about 20 large photo works and video, aims to merge the biographical character of the artist with the breaking of the traditional conventions of contemporary western society. The different sections of the show are identified by the evidence of abstract ambiguity and disguise, like in room 1 with “Morphic fields Stella VIII”; a sense of unease continues with the series “Stalla” a metaphor of birth and anxiety and symbol of creation in Catholic culture. The path of religious disintegration is then highlighted with “The Burning supper”, which identifies the systematic end of the icon in art. The exhibition continues with the breaking of family canons with the work “Mama” and the patriarchal system with “Crown”. The exhibition also touches symbolically the escape of the artist from the educational and marriage obligations with the diptych and the video “Final Play”. Even the work “Ring” represents the end of the game in childhood, now replaced by the “digital media circus”. A world in smoke that celebrates itself with the triptych “Fumo” admirable abstract work printed in ink on paper.
On Fire _ shows photographic sequences, photographic objects, a video clip of the performative actions of the multimedia artist Julia Bornefeld. In her work cycles from 2011 – 2019, she awakens associations with sexuality, birth and death. The iconographic productions play with fire, smoke, light and darkness and refer to works and contents of art, – and cultural history. The artist also provocatively breaks with traditional conventions and patriarchal, christian-influenced imagery from a feminist point of view. The work “Destiny of Vanity” shows women’s legs covered with plastic film and leaves behind associations with old master paintings, in which the birth of Christ mutates into a crime scene in the dust of a stable, framed in a baroque heavy gold frame. The body of a woman lying on the ground is covered in the shadow play of a grid window that falls on her body. Depicted in the photographic work “Luxury of Shade”, similar to “Cage of Vanity”, a woman’s body is squeezed between bed rails, a reference to the history of the female body tied for centuries without self-determination over sexuality, conception, birth and death. Julia Bornefeld’s photographic work was dedicated to the recoding of historical works of art in the technique of baroque light-dark painting and combines transience, vanita’s symbolism paired with sensuality. Fire plays an elementary role in her performative productions. Does her burning photo installation, “The Burning Supper” depict a sacrament taken on an icy lake on the path of religious decay, or does the burning sacrament stand for a burning question and contemporary search for religiosity ? In many cultures, the transitions between life and death as well as healing ceremonies and the associated transformations are staged and celebrated in cultic rituals through fire rituals. In connection with death, apotropaic acts have a special meaning and create a connection to the supernatural. In the work “Mama”, a steel, straw-wrapped lettering made from the letters of the word Mama, which burns ablaze, represents a performative rite for the mother’s final farewell. The flaming piano from the series of works in the video film of the same name, “Final Play”, also marks the end of the era of classical educational instruments for the piano. The burning image, and thus the smoke associated with the fire, as in the series “Fumo I -III”, describe the containment and elimination of fire, which was not only a technical achievement in the early industrial age, but also a psychological one. The end of the age of fire was made as a cultural achievement and exclusion of the wild and indomitable and thus mostly disappeared in contemporary painting and appears everyday in the evening movies of the domestic television screen.
The german multi media artist Julia Bornefeld was born 1963 in Kiel lives and works in Berlin and Bruneck. From 1984-1989 she studied painting at the Fachhochschule für Gestaltung Kiel And from 1986-1987 she was a visiting student at the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Venezia with Emilio Vedova and at the Akademija Likovna Umjetnost, Ljubljana. 1990 she became the Joe and Xaver Fuhr Prize and a sponsorship award from the state of Schleswig-Holstein. 1991 she was honored with the Gottfried Brockmann Prize of the City of Kiel And 2006 she was the ICONA, 2006 of the Art Fair Verona and also 2017 she got the Premio OTTELLA for GAM, seconda edizione del Premio Arte Contemporanea per la Galleria d’Arte Moderna Achille Forti Verona.
PHOTOLOGY ONLINE GALLERY
One trait which may characterize Photology in its 31 years of activity is the ability to evolve and keep up with the times. An adaptability allowing the Photology organization to open more than 350 photo-art exhibitions worldwide, collaborating with international artists, archives, foundations, galleries, curators, collectors, Museums and Universities. The Photology logo towered over various self owned galleries worldwide: Milan Via Moscova (1992- 2015); Cortina Corso Italia (1992- 1995); London Covent Garden (1997-2000); Bologna Villa Impero (2000-2003); Paris Hotel de Ville (2007); Pueblo Garzón, Uruguay (2015-2020); Noto Tenuta Busulmone (2013-ON). With the creation of Photology® Online Gallery, we have now chosen a new exhibiting concept, actualizing the traditional physical gallery space to a 3D virtual experience. Since September 2020 commercial exhibitions produced by Photology are entirely and uniquely visible on-line. Therefore allowing a broader range of international viewers to enter our exhibition space h24 and to have the opportunity to purchase photographic works directly through our website www.photology.com. This 3D platform has been developed with an innovative system permitting users to navigate within a virtual space which is totally realistic. Extensive textual references are highlighted in our exhibition context, which also includes videos, catalogues and other useful information. In case of sale, works will be delivered worldwide in close collaboration with our logistic partner Art Defender Bologna. Private viewings for clients of actual works may be organized upon request.
INFOS
Photology Online Gallery
4 December 2023 – 3 March 2024
Direttore responsabile di No#News Magazine.
