The Galerie alexander levy is pleased to present new works of Sinta Werner with the exhibit The Operation of Displacement.
In the exhibit, Werner presents collages and pictorial objects dealing with the perception of architecture and thus with our urban environment.

In the process, Werner breaks new ground, for example, with the photographs of The Scenic Denouement, in which the centre of the Kreuzberg district in Berlin is staged in an unusual form. Sinta Werner has realised a part of the centre of Kreuzberg in a model that is placed in front of the camera on a tripod. The camera and the model are aligned in such a way that the model supplements or conceals a part of the real building in the background. The triggering of the camera produces a photo, a collage of reproduction in the form of the model and reality. The starting point for this work was her interest in a staged reality, in which the boundaries between real space and backdrop blur. When viewing the photographs of the series The Scenic Denouement, one first thinks one is looking at a classic collage. At second glance, however, the outlines of the model become visible, the staging becomes apparent and the “making of” moment becomes decisive.

Other variations of Werner’s collages are found in two works; two pictorial objects that dominate the space. In Off on a Tangent, which has a photo laminated onto an aluminium composite panel showing the Haus der Statistik (statistics building) and the Haus der Gesundheit (health building) as its starting point, human perception of large, powerful architecture is experimented with.

Two curve segments with different curvatures have been cut out of the photograph, which results in a curvature of the surface in the process of reconstructing both main elements.
The separation of the photo into two parts initially appears brutal and in opposition to the logic of the straight and tapered perspective lines of the motif extending upwards. However, in a way this curvature seems familiar and coherent. Perhaps it corresponds to the overload we experience when attempting to comprehend a tall building as a whole from up close. One ultimately comprehends the building by orienting oneself to prominent lines and feeling one’s way along with the eyes.

Sinta Werner enables us to place our perception in question and reconsider already established habits.

In the middle of the gallery space one finds a work that is more abstract in comparison to the others. The Measure of Static Indeterminateness can be compared with a screen in terms of its nature. The two-sided surface of the work shows details of lead sheeting like one finds on socialist department stores, thus giving it an ornamental character. However, something isn’t right. Sinta Werner has reconstructed the facade as a model and photographed it with strong shadows. The photograph laminated onto aluminium composite panel was then sliced and folded in keeping with the facade structure.

This results in a doubling; reality is reproduced twice. The consequence is that ruptures, errors and dislocations in perspective occur. Shadows are doubled; one is real, the other is part of the reproduction. With this work, Sinta Werner combines her interest in geometric structures and the theme of architecture facades, the perception of reality and reproduction.

The collage series provides the title of the exhibit.
Illustrations from the catalogue of the Baumeister der Revolution (master builders of the revolution) exhibit provide the raw material. While in the exhibit it was primarily the photographs of Richard Pare, who has documented the present condition of the Russian avant garde architecture of the 1920s and 1930s, that were placed in a context together with the works of constructivist architecture, during her visit to the exhibit, Sinta Werner was particularly inspired by the small architecture photos from the archive of the Schusev State Museum of Architecture in Moscow. The architecture is monumental and characterised by constructivism. The structures are stripped of their monumentality and severity by processing in the collage. They seem light and playful, not as if someone were playing a trick, but instead they appear lively, as if they weren’t taking themselves so seriously. Sometimes a tire is woven into the facade, then stripes unfurl like Policeman’s Helmet.

Sinta Werner (*1977 in Hattingen) studied at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and at Goldsmithʼs College London. She lives and works in Berlin.

Her works can currently be seen in the Metaphysics of Discipline exhibit at the Tschechisches Zentrum (Czech centre) in Berlin and Sinta Werner will open her exhibit in the o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst in Lucerne on September 21.