Nouveau système planétaire

in broken English below

Découvert d'un nouveau système planétaire 

Créer des petites planètes n'est pas une chose très difficile, les classer est une autre paire de manches. Lors de ces dernières semaines j'ai passé quelques temps sélectionner, comparer, organiser les différentes planètes que j'avais devant moi.

Le résultat c'est cette sélection, une sorte de journal en images représentant presqu'un an de temps depuis ma dernière exposition à Berlin (Allemagne). On y trouve plusieurs continents, villes, fuseaux horaires, moments, allant de la France au Etats-Unis, l'Allemagne et l'Italie.

Et ce nouveau système planétaire a pour petit nom Little Planets 3 par ce que Little Planets 2 et Little Planets 1 étaient pris. Esprit cartésien quand tu nous tiens...

A post shared by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Oct 15, 2017 at 10:51am PDT

now in Google translate English

Discovery of a new planetary system

The making of little planet isn't so complicated, the sorting of them is another story. During the last few weeks I spent my time selecting, arranging, comparing the little planets I had in front of me.

The result of this selection, a kind of photo journal representing one year of time since my last exhibition in Berlin (Germany). You will find many continents, cities, time zones, moments, spanning location from France, USA, Germany and Italy.

And this new planetary system has for little name Little Planets 3 because Little Planets 1 and Little Planets 2 was already taken. Cartesian minds one day...

Yet another little planet

A few weeks ago I decided to change the platform where to put my visual art-work. I tried etsy but I haven't be very much satisfied with it.

Observing where many of my artist friends had their works available I did switch to SAATCHI ART earlier last week. You can now see my work here Jeremie Gerhardt - SAATCHI ART and purchase some of my items as well. This platform allows to easily highlight your work, sell the originals and provide easily purchases of prints directly from the website.

Studious Saturday

It all started with a cool workshop organised by the people behind wefactory where we had to build our own lamp made of concrete. My first concrete experience with concrete.

And it did continue with the - finally - uploading of the catalogue of my first solo exhibition of little planets. Exhibition that took place in Morlaix in Brittany June to August 2015. Ten of my images have been presented and the link below is re-showing them.


If you are interested by seeing more of my images, you can as well have a look to the catalogue of my latest exhibition that took place in Berlin September 2016.

Vernissage marathon by night

The EMOP or European Month of Photography did start this October. The chance to catch several exhibitions all over Berlin. I only have seen three of them so far but there were each pretty interesting.

Going to Brazil
Being relatively free in my schedule I could join a guided tour of the exhibition called The professor's Journeys - Six Expeditions Through Brazil In The 1930s with the curator. We were only four people, I was the youngest one, the pictures were in black and white and despite the photographer not being a professional the images were very clean and well composed.

Going back in time
Scanning the EMOP website it was difficult to keep in mind something as there are so many installations. But here and there images were catching my eyes, in particularly one from the Landesarchiv in Berlin and their exhibition Architecture on Glass - Photographs by Otto Hagemann. I decided to join the vernissage of this exhibition and to reach the place it felt like going to on an expedition. 

The Landesarchive are far far far away after the Tegel airport. I was basically cycling into the darkness for 12km. I arrived about 30min after the opening, just the time to listen to the last min of the opening speech. Opening speech declaimed in a lovely German administrative tone. It's not that it was in German, but you felt right away that you were not in a art gallery but in an official building, at the archive. 

Once again I was the youngest, the open bar was open and the pictures really interesting. I skip the photo-geek part, it was medium format images printed on glass plates and more important the images were beautiful. Architecture photography have this formal aspect that highlights the beauty in building as only good architecture photographers can do. Sometimes they succeed to go away from their purely archive duty thanks as well to the exhibition curator.

After the In the Off
Each serious festival should have an Off program as well.  So on my way back to civilization I stopped at the Wilmer Brauerei to attend another vernissage the same evening, this time the Monat Der Fotographie Off. 

Different location, typical Berlin style, semi abandoned industrial building with images every where or different sizes and formats. Different population as well. I keep in my minds the images of the desert in New Mexico and those specifically from the Very Large Array radio telescope in the middle of nowhere, probably because I have been there a few years ago and it still feels like images from another planet.

Less than a week left and a lof of photo exhibitions to catch!

Tape Art Convention 2016

Yesterday evening I went shortly to the vernissage of the TAC2016, it took place at the neurotitan galerie, a pretty cool place. And this Sunday I went back to take part into a workshop about tape art. What is it you may ask? It's the art of producing arty stuffs with tapes of various colours and shapes.

My first Tape Art Convention came right at the good time. I always like to play with stickers and coloured tape, but I never spend half a day on a piece of work trying to do something. Last time it was just to put some marks on the floor to guide visitors. This time I used more color. Needless to say it was pretty fun.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Sep 24, 2016 at 8:00am PDT

Workshop
The workshop was conducted by the artist Jay Walker who is also exhibiting his work at the TAC2016, if you have seen the giant heart and skull then you know. It started by a good discussion about his work and was followed by almost 5 hours of works for 5 of us.

My first attempt was - not surprisingly - a big failure as I don't master the technic at all, and by choosing an image - which I thought was simple to reproduce - was way too complicated and a bit frustrating... So I did follow the advices from the instructors: take something a bit easier that you like and try to work on it. I choose the album cover of the Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. Then it became more fun and absorbing. Once I finished this warm up I turn the board we had each participant to work on a bigger scale surface with a white background.

What can I say? It was pretty interesting, good music in the background, I always like to play with lines and geometry so I was served, I wonder how I can create more curved shapes now, but for sure I will continue to explore this thing.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Oct 9, 2016 at 9:37am PDT

Catalogue Little Planets 2 online!

It's about three weeks that my exhibition Little Planets 2 is over.

Right about the time I needed to learn scribus and to create my first catalogue - and not to mentiokn the help of a few friends to be sure that I wasn't written with too many mistake and that visually it was ok-ish.

About 3 hours now that catalogue is visible on issuu.

Project Space Festival 2016 Week 1

Th3rd edition of the Project Spaced Festival, 31 days of organised ramble into the city to discover whatever you want to discover. Actually my approach is very naive when it is matter of art, at least as a first encounter I claim this approach for the pleasure to be surprised. I usually read the description of the event without too many expectation, wait and see. But after of course I like to get the feedback from connoisseurs in case I miss something.

day1
It's started at the ebullient space apartment project. Project space that I visited three years ago to interview Selda together with a friend Natalia. At this time Natalia had the idea to follow the festival program and to conduct interviews of each people behind the project spaces involved into the program, the result was pretty cool, all articles are here. Three years later the artists in residence at apartment-project have changed and the place is still full of energy.

day2
Sadly I couldn't join.

day3
This Wednesday it's the turn for insitu to be the art stage of the day. There is a tiny Tour de France spirit in this festival continuously traveling in the city. The event started at and in front of insitu and the people attending the event were shuttling between the space and the späti on the other side of the street. At some point the crowd slightly moved a few street numbers away to attend and be part of a group meditation. The weather was clement enough to not rain during the outdoor performance...

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Aug 3, 2016 at 11:20am PDT

day4
In the program this year they are galleries, spaces from and outside Berlin. Tonight it's Köln and the people behind bruch und dallas. Having no physical place in town, their participation was the take over of a kind of no man's land located nearby the Gemäldergalerie.

The work presented reminds me signs left by aliens on the ground when they come to visit us, as many people I guess I almost walk onto the piece... The weather was so shitty that you couldn't distinguish really between the grey sky and the dark ground or the other way around.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Aug 4, 2016 at 9:34am PDT

day5
Arriving a bit in advance I used my time to get lost in the streets around the today's place Display. I usually don't stop around Yorckstrasse, just cross the area on my bike, now I know I should stop more often. That's also the pleasure for me with that festival, rediscovering Berlin by the mean of detours.

I enter the space, video installation in the first room and music instrument on the floor announcing later performance. People are slowly arriving. During the time I'm watching the video I can see people going to the back of the space, thinking they go to the bar, I also observe they are not coming back, so I went.

If the front room is full of natural light and toward the street the back is the complete opposite. One room with open door and people queuing to get in. A narrow room, lighted with candles, a bathtub and two women naked conversing while taking a bath and eating cheese, there is a big cheese wooden deck between them.

The spectators are watching the performance, there is something special with performances, it's not theatre, something between 3D cinema and live voyeurism and pure augmented reality or PAR not be confused with AR or VR... A down to the rabbit hole feeling, a visit into a parallel world for a short time, a strong contrast of atmosphere between the two rooms. Pretty cool.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Aug 5, 2016 at 9:36am PDT

day6
the shortest event ever. It started at 20:00 and finished at 20:05. I was one minute too late, could not get in but could see the people rushing to get in and out.

day7
a big part of my day was spent on my sofa reading. At some point I used the event of the day to leave early before meeting friends for a late Sunday drink in Kreuzberg. On the program a new place to visit for me called labor neunzehn. A slight touch of N.K. for the building and location of this project space, also music and before video projection. I only stayed for the video, pretty interesting even so almost nothing happen on screen, trucks working, glimpse of a people conversation, what I understood as a Californian environment judging the colors, like sitting on bench and watching, another PAR experience, qui a dit que le réel pouvait être ennuyeux?

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Aug 7, 2016 at 11:14am PDT

Valerian agent spatio temporel épisode 2016

Ca commence de facon classique, des connaissances artistiques italiennes en résidence à Berlin m'informe d'une performance quelques jours auparavant. La performance aura lieu à Flutgraben dans le cadre d'un festival appelé Space/Time. Le samedi arrive, le rdv est pris et je retrouve un ami artiste musicien, entre autre, résident à Berlin et ailleurs.

7:12pm
dans la queue j'attends mon acolyte, les gens arrivent doucement, le programme a déjà commencé et nous attendons. Le lieu est situé juste après le club des visionnaires, dans un bâtiment relativement industriel.

Comme on n'est pas très doué on réussit à manquer toutes les performances successives à force déambuler dans le bâtiment, regarder de l'autre côté du canal et observer la foule d'IPSE d'où la musique résonne. La discussion nous ramène à Berlin quelques années avant, au Mexique, en Argentine, au Japon..

A video posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Apr 16, 2016 at 10:48am PDT

9:33pm
la faim arrive, nous sortons, nous dirigeons vers Schlechises Tor, récupérons un trio italo suédois indonésien pour finalement choisir un restaurant géorgien. L'international tout ca. New faces, new food, nice people, que demander de plus?

11:22pm
le temps de retourner au Flutgraben où des connaissances vont clore le programme avec leur performance. Pour une fois on essaye d'arriver avant la fin. Les gens s'agitent pour reconfigurer l'espace, ambiance club, dj aux platines, atmosphère enfumée, c'est parti.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Apr 21, 2016 at 3:28am PDT

2:01am
Puis c'est le retour vers la montagne en vélo, enfin Prenzlauerberg, une soirée classique des plus internationale à nouveau, 5 personnes, 4 nationalité, 10 langues...

New Little Planets

After the color version in square format I worked on black and white version of some of my little planets.  One example is the image below, it was taken in Amsterdam about in October 2014. One print is available on my Etsy shop here in size 40x80cm and it's beautiful.

Somewhere in Amsterdam with many spotters around me, October 2014

Voir des oeuvres d'art ou voir des gens regardant des oeuvres d'art?

La bonne question me direz vous. Ayant fini ma journée tôt - car elle avait elle même débuté très tôt - je décidais d'occuper mes trois heures de libre avant d'aller diner chez des amis en début de soirée par un mini opening-marathon-challenge. Challenge qui s'est aussi transformé en une course contre la montre et un jeu de piste avec l'orage qui tourbillonnait et se rapprochait de Berlin en fin d'après-midi.

18:40 direction la Loock Galerie sur la Postdamer Straße. A mi-chemin je fais une mini-pause Côtes du Rhône aux autres Galeries, par mini-pause j'entends "achat d'un bouteille et non dégustation". Je poursuis, traverse Potsdamer Platz, slalome entre les touristes, passe la Philharmonie et arrive dans le quartier des galeries. Trois voir quatre galeries sont ouvertes, du monde dedans et du monde dehors. J'aime bien cet endroit, les bâtiments sont propices à héberger des lieux d'exposition, suffisamment neutres et modulables et parfois des belles images.

Des belles images donc, en grand, en noir&blanc, de lieux et gens aux Etats-Unis. Rien de très nouveau mais je me répète, des belles images, bien composées, propres, pour des vues presque figées, on ne sent pas vraiment l'instantané, mais au moins ca me parle. En bonus la bière du vernissage est une Flensburger, un gage de gout de de qualité. La population est assez anglophone, américaine dirais-je et je glane quelques bouts de conversation où chacun y va de son anecdote géographique pour montrer qu'on voyage.

Environ douze minutes après avoir averti FourSquare de ma présence je file. J'ai encore au programme trois lieux et un diner dans moins de trois heures. Dehors le vent souffle et le gros nuage gris foncé tonne et des éclaires sont visible.

19.46 je pénètre dans la WeGalery. Le temps de souffler je crée le lieu sur FourSquare et commence à regarder autour de moi. Nous sommes dans le bas de Friedrichstrasse vers la Mehringplatz. La rue est un mélange de vieux bâtiment assez beaux et d'autre reconstruits assez laids. Il n'y a pas grand monde et le vernissage a débuté il y a déjà une heure. Dehors c'est l'apocalypse, les gens arriveront plus tard ou mouillé ou les deux.

Une exposition groupée, des artistes italiens, d'ailleurs la population est majoritairement italienne, habillée classe sobre avec gout à l'italienne. Le stagiaire ou l'assistant de la galerie est en panique et commence à courir partout et en prenant des photos avec son téléphone pommé. On doit être une vingtaine, probablement le record du jour et il veut en garder des preuves! Dans son rush il shoote du pied un bout d'une des oeuvres d'art exposée, au moins ils se passent des choses. Les oeuvres sont à l'image des visiteurs, propres, ca brille d'argent mais pas d'or, les formes sont plaisantes à l'oeil, déjà vu mais harmonieux, penchant parfois vers le design. Une connaissance arrive mais je dois filer, de plus la tempête fait une pause et je me dois d'en profiter! De plus mauvais choix de bière.

20:14 changement de lieu et de décor pour le Kunstquartier Bethanien et une autre exposition vernissage appelée hate10 - Kongress der Moglichkeiten ou le congrès des possibles? Ca se passe dans une partie uniquement du bâtiment où ils  passent parfois des choses intéressantes en particulier dans les ateliers et autres workshops. Mais pas cette fois. C'est hipster à souhait, tout parait bricolé, pas fini, bancal, cheap. Ca contraste pas mal avec ce que je viens de quitter. Population assez jeune avec au milieu un ou deux vieux artistes habillés jeunes essayent de communiquer. Tout ca pour dire que je ne reste pas longtemps. Un gros cliché que cet évènement.

Les jours de vernissages sont comme du pain béni pour nos amis outre-quiévrains sociologues ou anthropologistes. Le moment parfait pour observer des tribus, pas forcément pour voir des oeuvres d'art... Les vêtements changent mais les rapports de force restent les mêmes. Il faudra sans doute revenir une autre fois pour revoir quelque unes des images et installations aperçues ce soir.

20:58 je me rapproche de la Zion Kirche, en traversant Berlin j'ai pu voir barricades prêtes pour aujourd'hui, les colonnes de voiture Polizei prêtes, le gros de l'orage est passé mais comme chaque 30 avril au soir la ville s'attend au pire pour le lendemain. Mal sehen comme on dit.

Puis le dîner eu lieu, la dégustation de vin aussi et la soirée fût très agréable. Pour nos amis statisticiens, quatre personnes, trois nationalités - française, espagnole et anglaise - avec au menu un plat italien, tout ca dans une ville allemande.

Run forest, run and don't forget to drink water

10:33am wake up with the feeling maybe you drunk one or two beers too much yesterday evening, this despite the good evening. Without a good evening the morning would have been terrible. It was a classic international Friday: meet the spotters from Berlin plus the spotters bosses from Amsterdam plus a visiting spotter from Vilnius and later re-meeting for the first time in 14 years a fellow from Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal and Polyscope. All and all a blast :-)

Some statistic for Friday evening: talked with 10 people, 8 different nationalities. Take that morons.

3:33pm getting some rest in order to give to my body the time to reload before the run. I register for the airport night run in Berlin. They do it regularly and after some years I finally did register, not for the 10km but for the half-marathon.

7:01pm  in night run there is night. The half-marathon group starts now and the 10km group one hour later. The feeling you have for this run is pretty cool. The new airport BER is there but empty and you are running on the landing area and tarmac. Two loops to do of 11km something and 10km and the first line is toward the East, the sun is going down, there is nothing miles around you, just some clouds, look to the North and you can see the top of the tv tower and you keep running.

Passing the sign 7km is nice, a third of the run is down! The group is now stretched, I'm running alone, my time after 5km is in my range (below 25min), but sadly I'n not fast enough to keep the same speed of the few jogging babes... my first attempt to drink water without stopping is a big failure as I only manage to spread water in my face.

8:00pm First loop done, meaning for me 11km something in less than an hour, I'm in my time track. As we reach 8:00pm the second group of runners is launched and soon two speed groups are mixing. It's a bit like in zombies movie when a crowd of zombies are all running in the same direction. If you have seen War Z and remember the scene with airplanes chased then it's the same, except there are no planes as the airport is still not open...

8:55pm I'm crossing the arrival line. I'm relieved, less than two hours as I was planning/hoping to do! The temperature is freaking cold, near 4 degrees Celsius only, so fast changing clothes and I leave.

11:04pm S-Bahn, tramway and bike later and I enter the Studios-ID in the middle of Alt-Hohenschönhausen. It's their open studio evening event where I know some the artists (check the website of Kyle Fitzpatrick).

I'm a bit destroyed but I managed to stand on my legs. I talk with many people, once again it's über international, Americans from Miami and Chicago, Russian, German, Portuguese and many more. English, French and German in the same conversation, after my legs it's my brain which is working. And at the question so you are an artist too the response is always or becomes complicated. Well I say, I'm working with color, I'm a color and imaging scientist bla bla bla... but it's usually a good start.

1:04am time to go home, I jump on my bike, 7km to do to reach my bed. The night is fresh but the stars visible. Another full day full of new images in my head.