Beute_Military_Floß (Bag_Military_Raft) – 2004

Solo show, Galerie Kunstpunkt, Berlin

Room 1: Raft, wood, cans, shredded rubber, 50 x 350 x 500 cm, 2004

Raft, wood, cans, shredded rubber, 50 x 350 x 500 cm, Detail, 2004

Press release for the exhibition:
After her ‘Laufbahn’ show two years ago, Susanne Lorenz’s second solo exhibition at Galerie Kunstpunkt Berlin features new large-scale installations, series of screen prints, and an extensive presentation of projects for outdoor public spaces, for which the artist has received many prizes and awards. The two central works in the show are Beute and Floß (Bag and Raft, both 2004). Beute is a five-part net measuring 4 x 5 metres made of green gauze, which picks up earlier works’ focus on the theme of the (warlike) sport of hunting, as well as displaying similarities with military camouflage. This work is complemented by the two series of screen prints entitled Die Gesellschaftsjagd and Military, which show hunting strategies/ capture patterns and obstacles from military horseracing that recall elements of landscape gardens. As in earlier groups of works, aesthetically appealing forms conceal chains of cruel associations and stories. Floß is a platform measuring 3 x 5 m with a surface of green rubber granules. At its centre, the raft has an integrated pond which only fills up once it is used: a swimming island with its own protected body of water. The main principle here, a separate volume of water surrounded by water, also characterises the Bathing Ship realized in Berlin’s Treptow district this year by the artist in partnership with AMP Arquitectos, Tenerife. But whereas the pool in the raft is filled using the surrounding water, the Bathing Ship is a separate pool filled with fresh water, an island in the unclean River Spree. The Bathing Ship was created as part of a competition and exhibition entitled ‘constructed connections’ and is also documented in the exhibition, together with other outdoor installations