elimination of dialogue Thu 27. Jun 2002 - Fri 02. Aug 2002 Press Release In his first solo show at Johann König in Berlin, Johannes Wohnseifer presents under the title elimination of dialogue new paintings and sculpture. The sculptures as white cubes refer to the gallery space in which they are presented. Climbing handles are attached to the surface of the cubes whereby they provide the potential for possible interaction by the viewer. As such they can be seen as a conversion of earlier sculptures where Wohnseifer covered cubes with camouflage nets and thereby worked explicitly against the interaction between subject and object. The new paintings reintroduce the theme of Stealth-Fighters, which Wohnseifer has been dealing with since 1998. These works are motivated by his fascination with this type of aircraft which through their specific form are invisible by their opponents radar. At the same time they result in the artists rejection of the political views that are normally insinuated by this subject matter. In this case, Wohnseifer also works with the principle of conversion: whereas in earlier paintings he used images of operating Stealth-Fighters, now he takes the picture of a crashed aircraft – basing on a photograph of the crashed Stealth-Fighter in Budjanovci, 45 km west of Belgrad, during the NATO air strikes on March 27, 1999. The exhibition also contains abstract paintings, which are painted with the reflective paint Scotchlite® which is generally used for the improvement of visibility in the dark when hit with bright car lights. In this way the paintings are connected with Wohnseifers sculptures of traffic pylons which are used for marking street construction work or marking sensitive areas. In the exhibition, the abstract paintings serve as barriers which work against a dialogical approach. The SA-6 Kub ("Cube") - "grandfather" of today's SAMs, entered service in 1967. Pentagon convinced American public that the F-117 is "invisible" to radar. Evidently, Pentagon forgot to mention that to Yugoslav SAM operators. We call ourselves N*E*R*D because we have a different view of life. A nerd is someone who wants to be cool to everybody but it's not his fault he's witty and smart and his social skills aren't the best. If you ever listen to a nerd speak about their experiences in high school, they tell an ill story. They have an ill perspective because of the shit they've been through. You ask the average person, the kind of people that would tease nerds in high school, you ask them what their life is like and they'll give this bullshit, lame boring ass story you'll snore to. I don't mind being called a nerd. We are the people who are proud of being smart, being witty and being clever when everyone else doesn't understand. That's what we do, that's the flag we're raising and waving. People's energies are made of their souls. When you die, that energy may disperse but it isn't destroyed. Energy cannot be destroyed. It can manifest in a different way but even then it's like their souls are going somewhere. If it's going to heaven or hell or even if it's going into a fog or somewhere in the atmosphere to lurk unbeknownst to itself, it's going somewhere. Pressetext In seiner ersten Einzelausstellung bei Johann König in Berlin zeigt Johannes Wohnseifer unter dem Titel elimination of dialogue neue Bilder und Skulpturen. Wohnseifers Skulpturen nehmen als offene white cubes die Innenarchitektur der Galerie auf und verweisen auf den Raum, in dem sie präsentiert werden. Sie sind mit Klettergriffen versehen und scheinen somit zu parodieren, was man sich landläufig unter moderner Skulptur vorstellt. Gleichzeitig besitzen sie dadurch ein Potential für mögliche Aktionen, die jedoch nicht stattfinden. Außerdem können diese Werke auch als Umkehrungen früherer Skulpturen des Künstlers gesehen werden, bei denen er weiße Würfel mit Tarnnetzen verhüllt und somit eine Interaktion explizit verweigert hat. Die ausgestellten Bilder greifen das Thema des Stealth-Fighters wieder auf, mit dem sich Johannes Wohnseifer seit 1998 beschäftigt. Motiviert sind diese Arbeiten durch Wohnseifers Faszination für Flugzeuge, die durch ihre Formgebung für das gegnerische Radar unsichtbar werden, und seine gleichzeitige Ablehnung der Politik, die damit durchgesetzt werden soll. Auch hier arbeitet Wohnseifer mit dem Prinzip der Umkehrung. Hat er in früheren Arbeiten das funktionierende Stealth-Prinzip thematisiert, setzt er nun abgeschossene Flugzeug als Material für Malerei ein und nimmt als Vorlage Aufnahmen vom Absturz eines Stealth-Jagdflugzeugs in Budjanovci, 45 km westlich von Belgrad, während der NATOLuftangriffe am 27.März 1999. Ein weiteres Element der Ausstellung sind abstrakte Bilder, die mit der selbstreflektierenden Farbe Scotchlite ® gemalt wurden. Die Zielsetzung dieser Farbe ist die Verbesserung von Sichtbarkeit bei Dämmerung und Dunkelheit, indem sie im Scheinwerferlicht grell aufleuchtet. Darüber hinaus stehen diese Arbeiten im Zusammenhang mit Skulpturen von Verkehrspylonen, deren Vorbilder ebenfalls für Markierungsarbeiten verwendet werden oder aber einen sensiblen Bereich kennzeichnen bzw. absperren. In der Ausstellung werden die abstrakten Bilder als Barrieren eingesetzt und einen möglichen Dialog verhindern. The SA-6 Kub ("Cube") - "grandfather" of today's SAMs, entered service in 1967. Pentagon convinced American public that the F-117 is "invisible" to radar. Evidently, Pentagon forgot to mention that to Yugoslav SAM operators. We call ourselves N*E*R*D because we have a different view of life. A nerd is someone who wants to be cool to everybody but it's not his fault he's witty and smart and his social skills aren't the best. If you ever listen to a nerd speak about their experiences in high school, they tell an ill story. They have an ill perspective because of the shit they've been through. You ask the average person, the kind of people that would tease nerds in high school, you ask them what their life is like and they'll give this bullshit, lame boring ass story you'll snore to. I don't mind being called a nerd. We are the people who are proud of being smart, being witty and being clever when everyone else doesn't understand. That's what we do, that's the flag we're raising and waving. People's energies are made of their souls. When you die, that energy may disperse but it isn't destroyed. Energy cannot be destroyed. It can manifest in a different way but even then it's like their souls are going somewhere. If it's going to heaven or hell or even if it's going into a fog or somewhere in the atmosphere to lurk unbeknownst to itself, it's going somewhere.