SPORTFREI

In her first gallery show in New York the young Berlin artist, Anna Klamroth will present her film SPORTFREI, 1999. The film documents a group of young German teenagers as they meet each day in the ruins of a swimming stadium in the former East Berlin. The stadium was built in 1951 by the DDR to host the Third World Swimming Championship. The film is spliced with the original footage and soundtrack of earlier international competitions, which is then juxtaposed with images of the kids hanging out, playing hockey with empty tins, smoking, throwing ashtrays and trashing the place even further. The artist records these activities to create a powerful portrait of a place in decay. History resonates through the shell of a nationalistic architecture strewn with garbage and covered in graffiti that is now inhabited by a small group of troubled kids for whom this place was a daily reality. The stadium was torn down five days after the film was shot.

The film was awarded the fop prize for German film at the Oberhausen film festival and was also exhibited in "NEW WORLD" at the Kunstverein in Frankfurt.

Drawings Project

The drawings presented in this part of the exhibition resonate loosely with some of the themes presented in the film and include, collage, charcoal drawing, colored pencil and watercolor. The artists from New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, The Netherlands, and London are Mark Manders, Julie Becker, Manfred Pernice, Rachel Harrison, Teresita Fernández, Adam McEwen, Amelie von Wulffen, Amy Gartrell, Frances Stark, Lily van der Stokker, and Blake Rayne.