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MARIECHEN DANZ
Ore Oral Orientation at Wentrup, Berlin
www.blouinartinfo.com

20.07.2018

At its Berlin venue, Wentrup is hosting the debut solo exhibition by Mariechen Danz at the gallery with an exhibition titled “Ore Oral Orientation.”

“”In Ore Orientation,” Danz employs industrial metal panels — the latest development of her cooperation with Genghis Khan Fabrication Co. which began in 2013 — as a carrier of an infinitely expandable recording system. As the proverbial ‘ore,’ the material aluminum is ultimately processed soil, made flat and milled to become thin, punched, and finally coded. The pre-existing templates are punching dies of various sockets, plug systems and ventilation slots from the sector of electronic information and data transmission, all enable data transfer — just as punctuation marks aid in the communication of the written word,” the gallery says.

With sculptures, drawings, costumes and installations, Danz examines the history of knowledge transfer, placing the body and language at the center of her process-based practice.

“The individual metal panels and the organ sculptures writhing from the walls are all autonomously functioning elements of a cartography that in its sum results in an alternative overall form. Strengthened by their root-like attachment, the organs mark and embody their location within it,” the gallery adds.

The artist derives these learning organs from medical teaching models: brains, hearts, livers, lungs and digestive systems. Like soil samples, these organs are created from a wide range of materials such as sand, soil, shells and trash; others are made of transparent resin in which semi-precious stones and organic materials are embedded.

The costume “Cloud / Vessel / Vein,” made from silk and plastic, is printed with world maps, meteorological hurricane imagery and historical anatomical illustrations.

The gallery adds that with Danz’ simultaneous evocation of cartography and anatomy, she demonstrates how both have emerged directly from human bodies. Anatomy, biology, geology, cartography and astronomy are all conflated in order to place them with, through, and in the body itself.

Mariechen Danz lives and works in Berlin. Her works have been featured in institutions such as MAK Wien, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz; New Museum, New York; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; GAK-Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen; and CAN Centre d’Art Neuchatel, France. Currently she’s part of the group shows “Blind the Faith: Between the Visceral and the Cognitive in Contemporary Art” at Haus der Kunst in Munich and “Agora” at High Line in New York. In 2017, she participated in the 57th La Biennale di Venezia Viva Arte Viva curated by Christine Macel.