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Douglas Gordon Galerie und Verlag GmbH Lindenstrasse 34 10999 Berlin.Deutschland NIELS T + 49.30.6150 7448 BORCH F + 49.30.6150 7449 [email protected] JENSEN www.berlin-kopenhagen.de The Galerie Niels Borch Jensen, a first-time official participant of Gallery Weekend Berlin, is very pleased to present: DOUGLAS GORDON Douglas Gordon's works often reveal a latent and intrinsic contradiction, a pitting of polar opposites against one another, in metaphor for the selfsame conflict that rages within every human being. Whether it manifests as Good vs. Evil or Light vs. Dark, this theme is conducent to another of Gordon's prevailing themes - the question of self- perception and the perception of one's surroundings, and the paraxodical, even seemingly impossible combinations of contradictions that Gordon percieves ubiquitously. The exhibition centers around "August 12, 1999", 2011, a body of 10 works, each of which depicts a different image of the solar eclipse that took place on that date. Each image was taken from a different print newspaper on the day after the event - and each work contains subtle layers of newsprint text, embeded within and traversing the eclipse. With titles like "Herald", "Guardian", and "Telegraph", Gordon addresses the notion of perception, each work depicting different experiences of this one single event. In taking a solar eclipse as subject, Gordon once again confronts the polarity of Good and Evil via the metaphor of Light and Dark, with the blocking of light by darkness given new weight, the fringed halo-like crown of light escaping the blockade given new signifigance. From time to time Gordon draws elements from the natural world and employs them as metaphor for this conceptual cornerstone. With the solar eclipse in "August 12, 1999", 2011 being the most recent example, Gordon's body of works includes a number of such manifestations. "Looking down with his black, black ee" depicts the Raven, believed to be both a protector and prophet / bringer of death and bad omen; an Indian Elephant in "Play Dead; Real Time" highlights the binary of Free Will vs. Control and, in extension, Life vs. Death; a fly in "Film Noir (Fly)" becomes the embodiment of all of the empathy - and cruelty - inside each one of us. In this exhibition, Gordon annoints the framed works with a studio-installation, featuring, among other things, a wolf - representative of protection, family and filial piety, while at the same time embodying destruction, evil and trickery - and on Gordon's piano, Clara Habercamp - 22 year old up-and-coming pianist/composer and recipient of the Jazzbasilica Prize 2011 - will perform Gordon's interpretation of Prokofiev's “Peter and the Wolf” theme. On this rare occasion, Douglas Gordon creates a solo-exhibition that doesn't include a single video-based work. However, as many of Gordon's video works contain clips (or the entirety) of cinematic films, so the newspaper clippings serve as impetus and material for "August 12, 1999", 2011. Douglas Gordon was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1966. After receiving a B.A. at the Glasgow School of Art (1984-1988), Gordon undertook a post-graduate program at The Slade School of Fine Art in London (1988-1990). Gordon has had major soo-exhibitions at Tate Liverpool (2000). the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (2001), The Hayward Gallery London (2002) and Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (2003). In 2005 he curated The Vanity of Allegory, an exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, and released the film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait. Further solo-exhibitions include Superhumanatural at the National Gallery of Scotland (2007), Between Darkness and Light at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2007), and Timeline at MoMA New York (2006). Recent solo-exhibitions took place at the Lambert Collection and the Palais des Papes in Avignon (2008), DOX in Prague (2009), Galerie Eva Presehuber Zürich (2009), DVIR Gallery Tel Aviv (2009), and Art and The Sublime at the TATE Britain in London (2010), Gagosian Gallery London (2011), Yvon Lambert Paris (2011) and at the MMK in Frankfurt (2011). Gordon's film works have been invited to the Festival de Cannes, the Toronto International FIlm Festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and many others. Gordon was the 1996 recipient of the Turner Prize and the Kunstpreis Niedersachsen at the Kunstverein Hannover. In 1997 he was awarded the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale, and has received the DAAD Stipend in Berlin. In 1998 he was presented with the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the Central Kunstpreis at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne and the Lord Provost's Award by the Glasgow City Council in Scotland. In 2008 he was awarded the Roswitha Haftmann Prize by the Kunsthaus Zürich, and was a juror at the 65th International Venice Film Festival. Gordon lives and works between Berlin and Glasgow. OPENING: GALLERY WEEKEND: FRIDAY, APRIL 27TH, 6-9pm EXHIBITION: APRIL 28TH – JULY 28, 2012 - Opening hours: Tue – Sat 11am - 6 pm .
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