Outset Germany_Switzerland supported a new commission by Judith Hopf for the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, now a permanent installation in the courtyard of KW.
For her solo exhibition 'Stepping Stairs', Judith Hopf (born 1969 in Karlsruhe, DE) conceived KW Institute for Contemporary Art’s façade as a component of the exhibition and consistently incorporated the building’s architectural structure into her work. She repurposed the façade behind Dan Graham’s Café Bravo as her canvas, on which she sketched a mask of architectural elements. Hopf referred here to the American architect and architecture theorist John Hejduk (1929-2000). For Hopf, he functions as a historical point of reference and an inspiration as well as a timeless interlocutor. Following Hejduk’s reflections on large-scale, structural transformation along the site of the former Berlin Wall in southern Friedrichstadt, Hopf graphically implemented parts of his never fully realized designs, entitled Berlin Masque, on the KW façade. He understood Berlin Masque as a kind of contemporary mask comprised of already built, anthropomorphic structures around thewindows and balconies of buildings, which they decorate, distort, and dress. In keeping with Hejduk’s mobilised, geometric architectures, buildings were enabled as sources of material that fold from two-to three-dimensions and back again.
ON VIEW: 10th February – 15th April 2018
