Gerd Rohling⎟SWEETART (Rosinen für München)

Gerd Rohling’s exhibition „SWEETART (Rosinen für München)“ reflects on a complex dialogue between the poetry of Romanticism and the accelerating globalization of the world, replacing Eurocentrism. Having exhibited already at Harald Szeemann’s Venice Biennale, the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin or Museo arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Rohling explores in his works for the exhibition in Munich the phenomenon of human memory. Central to his exhibition is the tension between Novalis’ maxim of not presenting the world „as it is, but as it could be and must be“ and the kaleidoscopic face of reality as a recurring motif. While the series "Momenti Colorati" depicts moments of enlightening insight and intense experience, culminating in "Peggys Party" as the central work, it can also be seen as a metaphor for Rohling's devotion to revolutionary Romanticism and its contemporary 21st-century framework. In an interplay between non-compliance and attack, with the work "4 farbiges Wunder ohne Erklärung" Rohling explores the vital theme of a progressive collapse of all divisions in private and public realms. The contemporary individual is increasingly forfeiting the spaces for personal withdrawal and to an ever greater extend finds his own viewpoint disappearing in the tide of the media. Extending our image of the world, Gerd Rohling started in New York his ongoing series of paintings under the title "Sweet 'n'sour". The artist incorporates the strange constellation of dots on the pavement, remains of chewing gum, into a new image of our imagination, challenging our memory.

Image: Gerd Rohling
"PEGGYS PARTY 2001“, 2016
Transparent lacquer, plexiglass, steel frame,
tin hood with lamp and bottles with colored ink.
Image dimensions 162 x 171 cm
Bar dimensions 84 x 66 x 39 cm