Chasm in time Sept 9th - Oct 31st 2015

GODsDOGs – sculpture TIMES painting

GODsDOGs is an artist collective run by Britta and Ron Helbig. With their background in dance and physical theatre they bring a choreographic approach to the visual arts, incorporating different disciplines and techniques as with the post-media condition: installation, painting, performance, photography, dance, sculptures, collage and new media. Their work uses aspects of time as both subject matter and a means for perceiving the work, often making the viewer part of a choreographed staging. Hence, performance - a 'time-based art' - is necessarily entangled with the sculptural work of GODsDOGs. The boundaries between disciplines dissolve to create a "Gesamtkunstwerk”, from which various artefacts can be extracted.

A Chasm in Time

Ten years ago Britta and Ron Helbig breathed life into the dilapidated Weisse Villa with their former group, ‘Artists Anonymous’, with one of the BIORAMA-Projekts early exhibitions, 'Summer Show 2005'. Now the duo returns as the art collective, GODsDOGs, for the first exhibition in Joachimsthal's “Weisse Villa“ since its extensive refurbishment. Amongst hanging objects and walk-in artworks stands the 6 metre-high installation, “Vortex”: an upward spiralling sculpture piece combining smashed furniture, books, and lost belongings which come together to imply that time has stopped. Other streams of the great “Vortex” are made up of cubist cardboard forms, organic coloured fabrics, and miniature architectural fragments. “We can live without architecture, worship our God without her, but without her we could not remember” - John Ruskin, 1849. The pictorial and graphic elements of the installation open up new levels of meaning: personal stories are torn from context, reminiscences of past decisions are brought forth, precipices are illuminated, and we see the beauty of the terrible. It is as if time, colour, and shape entwine and intersperse to form gateways to parallel worlds.

“We are so pleased to be able to show the work of GODsDOGs in the Weisse Villa”, commented Richard Hurding (BIORAMA-Projekt). “The size and scale of their installations, as well as the structural aspects of the artworks, are a perfect compliment to the raw spaces of the refurbished Villa”.

‘Weisse Villa’ Joachimsthal

The BIORAMA-Projekt, founded in 2003 by the British couple Sarah Phillips and Richard Hurding, is a forum that combines the environment, art, design, and science with the motto ‘sustainability interpreted through culture’. The site is known for its now world famous water tower with viewing platform on the roof but also contains the remains of a late 19th century country Villa. The so-called "Weisse Villa" was built in 1897 by the Joachimsthal entrepreneur and philanthropist, Rudolf Protz. Phillips and Hurding decided to renovate the ruined Villa from their own funds and began gutting the property in 2014 with the aim of revamping the space.
From the original seventeen rooms, four impressive 10-12m high exhibition spaces have been created. The goal is to bring international artists to the region of Barnim, Brandenburg. The focus of the works exhibited is to demonstrate a connection to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin, the history of the site, and its surrounding environment. This ethos is reflected in the new design of the Villa with its eastern wall featuring a unique mirror mosaic made of stainless steel.

From the original seventeen rooms, four impressive 10-12m high exhibition spaces have been created. The goal is to bring international artists to the region of Barnim, Brandenburg. The focus of the works exhibited is to demonstrate a connection to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin, the history of the site, and its surrounding environment. This ethos is reflected in the new design of the Villa with its eastern wall featuring a unique mirror mosaic made of stainless steel.