FERTILITY
2011-09-26Fertility, in all its literal or metaphoric meanings, is cyclic and timeless. At its most basic, to be fertile is to bear fruit-whether humans making children or the land producing crops. In a broader sense, fertility speaks to inventiveness, abundance, possibilities, ideas. Involved in the show are works from Marina Abramovic, Jonathan Borofsky, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Mueller, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Andres Serrano and Daniel Spoerri.
Grouping works dating from the late 19th century to the contemporary moment by eleven artists, the show looks at its theme from many angles – factual and symbolic, erotic and tender, visceral and humorous. The contemporary artist Marina Abramovic immediately commands attention with the assertiveness of her female imagery. Abramovic’s 2005 chromogenic print “Women in Rain #2,” taken from her video piece “Balkan Erotic Epic,” shows traditionally dressed village women in a field lifting their skirts and thrusting their exposed vaginas to the heavens. In equal parts startling and comic, the image is part of Abramovic’s exploration of ancient Balkan beliefs in the power of human genitalia to ensure the fertility of the land.
Opposite – Louise Bourgeois, Pregnant Woman, 2008
Exhibition runs through to October 29th, 2011
Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet GmbH
Potsdamerstrasse 81b
10785 Berlin
