Beatrice Moumdjian - 2015 Curatorial: Erzgebirgisches Laseratomkraftwerk mit Pigmentfenster

I invited four artists to make a group show with me at Spinner und Weber. Subjects of the exhibition were the uranium deposit in Japan and the Ore Mountains, family, borders, work and identity. On the eight exhibition dates I guided the audience members through the exhibition with a lecture performance.

Participants were Afra Eisma (NL), Holger Heissmeyer (DE), Saori Kaneko (JP/DE), Richard Welz (DE), Beatrice Schuett Moumdjian (BG/DE)

Saori Kaneko and Richard Welz presented a part of their ongoing graduation project made by us, 2015. It is about the occurance of radioactivity in Germany, and the Ore Mountains.

Afra Eisma made a site-specific and temporary artwork called Residu, as well as a mural, using blue pigment. She brought a sculpture from The Hague to Berlin and left an imprint of it, the meaning of Sky, Sun and Heaven, the elements and spirituality, on the floor.

Holger Heissmeyer installed his site-specific interactive artwork Das Unsichtbare Quadrat (The invisible square), 2015.

I will add more information on all the art works in time.

My contributions to the exhibition were Family Pyramid , Miner with Timber Frame on Top of Head, a mural and two Timber Frame Reading Plinths for my Zines about family, occupation, identity and the private sphere, all 2015.

The family pyramid is a derivate from the ones that many families in the Ore Mountains have built and added to over the generations, and as is custom, it depicts my family members and myself. I filled the levels of the family pyramid with my own family members: two absent "fathers" in the shape of two mystery boxes; my narcisstic opera grandmother; my abused and abusive mother, and me, all dressed like dark haired 'Rauschgoldengel' (a typical German christmas figure that represents a cross between the Christkind, a Jesus representation, and an blond angel).
The act of lighting a candle to animate the family pyramid intentionally underlies an act of lighting a candle for me and my family's healing transformation. This was part of the associative narrative of the fanzines I made and exhibited in the space.

Holger and I were present on each date of the exhibition.

I narrated the experience of the exhibition to the visitors using my person and the official exhibition zine.

We turned on the film projector for the fluorescent painting by Saori, Holger's sound and laser system and when somebody inquired I unlocked the door to Afra's and mine room, and handed out the exhibition zine along with a matchbox.

Individual visitors were let into the room, and were invited to light the candles on the pyramid, so the levels move animated by the warm air that ascends to move the vanes.

All the while, Holger sat in an audiobooth with a microphone and a sound system, in front of him a PC screen with numbers and a counter. Each time an He proclaimed the number that appeared on his screen each time one of the lasers he had placed in the project space was crossed. The laser was constructed in a square shape. Each time an unwitting visitor walked through the laser barrier, Holger commented on the particular square, listing its attributes or proclaiming the number of times the invisible square had been crossed.

Before the exhibition we were in communication about our vision for our individual projects. Afra's writing and floor work influenced my work on the Zines. To mark the visual continuation from one room to the next I painted the wall in Room 2 and made a plinth for Saori's and Richard's work.

Lars Preisser from the project space Spinner und Weber helped redesigning elements of the project space. For the event of the opening I also made window decorations in the style of christmas. The shapes in the windows were the Fukushima Daiichi power plant floor plan, and typical Christmas symbols abstracted and stylized by me.

More information on my long term artistic project on the traditions in the Ore Mountains and elsewhere among others, here.

Brief documentation of the exhibition experience by Holger Heissmeyer, with footage by Holger Heissmeyer and Lars Preisser: