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Art critics often address the practice of Kerstin Brätsch and DAS INSTITUT (Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder) in the ongoing debate on the expanded painterly practices of a young generation of artists. Even if, in their joint works, Brätsch and Röder take up painterly practices in a deconstructive or expansive way, the reference to this specific discourse on painting is merely one of many made in their working method. Equally decisive is to observe their playful dealing with contemporary image cultures and exploitation economies, as well as their experiments with corporate design and authorships.

The project »BLACKY Blocked Radiants Sunbathed« at the Halle für Kunst is part of a series of performances, exhibitions and projects that DAS INSTITUT is realising in varying constellations with UNITED BROTHERS – consisting of artist Ei Arakawa and his brother Tomoo Arakawa, who operates the Blacky Iwaki tanning studio in Fukushima – and fashion designer Nhu Duong. By means of formal, authorial and institutional chains of reference, the collective working methods in and between the individual venues are differentiated, whereby the individual components – artists and exhibition events – are no longer autonomous, but appear on an equal footing in their reciprocal references.

The series started in 2011 with Ei Arakawa’s performative participation in the »Reconstruction Festival« in Iwaki, Fukushima. On November 11, the show »Vorahnung [United Brothers and Sisters]« opened at the Kunsthalle Zürich, with the title prophesying subsequent events. Further parts of the series in 2012 include a project at The Art Institute of Chicago Museum / Society of Contemporary Art and a »quasi-fashion store« in Milan.

A performance by UNITED BROTHERS, DAS INSTITUT and students of the HfBK Hamburg will take place on the occasion of the opening.

If you are interested in our education programme, feel free to contact us: info@halle-fuer-kunst.de

An edition will be published in conjunction with the show.

With generous support by Land Niedersachsen, Stiftung Niedersachsen, Lüneburgischer Landschaftsverband, Hansestadt Lüneburg and Lüneburger Bürgerstiftung. Our special thanks to Magdalene Schulthes' "Gardinenstudio", Lüneburg.