The nucleus of all art fairs is starting in Cologne for the 55th time. 190 galleries will be present at Art Cologne starting tomorrow. ntv.de met three up-and-coming artists - Ambra Durante, Ivana de Vivanco and Faisal Habibi - in advance.
It was invented here in Cologne: the art fair. The Cologne gallery owner Rudolf Zwirner opened the marketplace for art for the first time in 1967. At that time, art was something exclusive, not a commodity and reserved for a small circle. With Art Cologne, Zwirner democratized art and made it accessible to everyone. His idea was so revolutionary that it was copied all over the world. The 55th edition starts on November 16 with an international cast and 190 galleries. There are lots of exciting things to discover. ntv.de presents three "artists to watch".
Ambra Durante
Ambra Durante is probably the youngest artist represented at this art fair. Her Berlin gallery owner Klaus Gerrit Friese is showing the Italian-born artist at his stand for the second time. He discovered Durante thanks to an interview in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". She did this together with bestselling author Daniel Kehlmann because of her graphic novel "Black Box Blues". In it she deals with desperation, fear and deep melancholy and how these stupid monsters can be tamed. With her pictures and words, the 22-year-old touches many people who feel the same way.
The partly autobiographical book was intended as a personal sketchbook. "I started it because I had the urge to visualize what moves me," she says. How did the book come into being? "At some point my mother saw what I was doing and took care of everything else. I thought nobody was interested." Gallery owner Friese was so enthusiastic about the drawings "that he contacted me via Instagram. We met in the gallery and although I only had a few works with me, I was able to convince him." Since then she has been working with the gallery. The federal government bought her work for the collection of contemporary art, and in July she won the Art Karlsruhe Prize. In addition, "Black Box Blues" can now be seen as a play at the "Thalia Theater" in Hamburg.
Your streams of thoughts become hidden object pictures in which humor certainly shines through. She draws on pieces of paper, fragments of glass or fabric, and on S-Bahn tickets. They gather friends for her. "I particularly like the idea that people think of you when they pick up the BVG tickets. It's psychologically and mentally important," she tells ntv.de. By drawing, she finds balance in situations that are difficult for her. It can also be in bars or at parties, it's easier for them then. In her delicate drawings, she also addresses the pressure to perform, which she is currently not feeling. "I'm aware that I'm lucky and that it's not everyday."
Faisal Happy
The Indonesian Faisal Habibi makes completely different art. He uses wooden panels, plexiglass or metal tubes from the hardware store and thus creates unmistakable pictorial objects. When Kristian Jarmuschek, his Berlin gallery owner, visited him in his studio on a trip to Indonesia, he was immediately fascinated by Habibi's translation of painting: "I had this wow thought. You stand in front of your work and think you could press a button here , pull a lever there. It makes them sensual and emotional, even though they're abstract." The artist works with surfaces, structures, edges and overlays. He uses colors like peach, beige and off-white as representatives for skin tones, "some of so many. The other colors have no deeper meaning, I use them because they bring me joy ", says Faisal Habibi.
He lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia, where he is supported by a large workshop. In 2014 he was in Europe for the first time and took part in an artist residency at the Center for Art and Urbanism in Berlin. That lifted his view of the world and things into another dimension, he reveals to ntv.de. The 36-year-old now has a special relationship with Germany, after all he has been married to a German woman since 2019.
Last year he had his first exhibition at Jarmuschek's gallery. "It wasn't without hurdles, we had the first delay due to Corona. Then the tanker stood across the Suez Canal and we had to switch to air freight," says the gallery owner. "The three-dimensional painting by Faisal Habibi was very well received. Two works were purchased for the collection of contemporary art in the Federal Republic of Germany. They are currently on display in the art collections in Chemnitz as part of the 'Present Perfect' exhibition," he says, delighted with the success of his artist.
Ivana deVivanco
Ivana de Vivanco also knows that success cannot be taken for granted: "After ten years in Germany, as a South American woman, it is an enormous honor for me to be at Art Cologne and to be supported," she says. The Peruvian-Chilean artist will be using one of 23 booths at the fair in the "New Positions" section for the Beckers galleries in Frankfurt and Kornfeld in Berlin. Ivana de Vivanco sometimes transforms her paintings into sculptures. Suddenly two chains with bronze feet dangle from a portrait. She loves making art out of the ordinary. Her expressive works radiate an enormous tension. They are violent and at the same time always have something tender and comforting: "I try very hard to capture this double character and deliberately don't balance it."
She teaches painting at the Leipzig Academy for Graphics and Book Art in Leipzig, lives and works in Berlin. Their colors reinforce the emotional roller coaster ride. "The audience is attracted by the colorful, cheerful and then confronted with a blatant statement," explains the 33-year-old ntv.de. So also in Cologne. She wants to break the "white cube situation": the floor will glow orange and the column in the middle of the room will be transformed into a kind of totem pole. Everything revolves around the "Midas Syndrome". She wants to create a change of perspective, "everything that doesn't fit the European canon is usually described as exotic or primitive," she says. And with her art, she ties in with current oppressive social structures.
She always explores colonial themes. "In Europe, people are talking about climate goals and electric cars. At the same time, the desert in Chile is being destroyed in order to produce the batteries that are needed. The European world is washing itself clean and in Latin America, women are in the front row at protests. They have a lot to do lose, because their environment will be destroyed." For de Vivanco, the focus is wrong: "We destroy nature in order to have prosperity and a comfortable life. In doing so, we destroy others and ourselves." Just like the legendary king Midas, who has to realize that gold cannot be eaten.
Art Cologne, November 16th to 20th, Messeplatz 1, Cologne, Hall 11, South Entrance. Tickets are only available online
Ambra Durante, Gallery Friese, Hall 11.2 - Stand B 314
Faisal Habibi, Jarmuschek , Halle 11.1 - Stand C 319
Ivana de Vivanco, Beckers/Kornfeld, Hall 11.1 – Stand C 311
Present Perfect, until February 12 in the Chemnitz Art Collections, Am Theaterplatz 1, 09111 Chemnitz
