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Dies ater (Teknopod), 2012

Abacus, aluminium blinds, brass, flying insect annihilator, glow lamp, lacquers, lead, military cookware, neon light, plastics, socket-outlets, soil thermometer, steel, telescope mirror 185 x 88 x 53 cm Courtesy the artist and Galerie Bernd Kugler, Photo: Stephan Klonk Copyright VG Bild-Kunst

Ad Fontes (Teknopod), 2012 From left to right Dies ater (Teknopod), Auminium blinds, brass, cotton, 2012 lacquers, leather, magnifying lens, military cookware, molleton, neon Abacus, aluminium blinds, brass, lights, plastics, plumb sinkers, sand, flying insect annihilator, glow lamp, socket-outlets, steel, thermometers, lacquers, lead, military cookware, Verni mou cylinder neon light, plastics, socket-outlets, 311 x 103 x 131 cm soil thermometer, steel, telescope Courtesy the artist and Hezi Cohen mirror Gallery, 185 x 88 x 53 cm Photo: Stephan Klonk Copyright VG Bild-Kunst Kupplungsschrein / Dies ater (Elektromanile), 2012

Brass, lacquers, neon light, night light, pigeon spikes, plastics, socket-outlets, steel 130 x 85 x 42 cm

Dies ater, 2012

Abacus, aluminium blinds, brass, comb, flying insect annihilator, glow lamp, lacquers, leather, military cookware, mirror, neon lights, plastics, rubber foam, socket-outlets, soil thermometer, steel 230 x 106 x 98 cm Courtesy Galerie Bernd Kugler, Innsbruck Photo: Stephan Klonk Madeleine Copyright VG Bild-Kunst

Boschan shown in a former bunker for Pershing missiles and Ad Fontes translates as “to the sources”, a she is currently working on for an exhibition in in Montabaur, incorporated a fly trap as symbol Humanist slogan used by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Innsbruck. Here, she explains, she will be dis- of death. “This is just another way of measuring Boschan belongs to a young generation of playing a ceiling installation for the first time, The rise of the machines in time,” Boschan notes, bemused. While the abstract sculptors working with found following the principle of Lacan’s “klein a” – the Manilen – their title refers to Medieval water objects and assemblage. Her preferred materials object which though sought, remains perpetu- , in Friedrichshain vessels – are ducked, open forms held in white, include blinds, rods and counting devices such ally beyond our grasp, intimating a sense of loss. their counterparts, the Teknopodes, tower into as abacuses and hourglasses. She combines flea- “I work in modular components which are space and achieve humanoid dimensions. market finds with objects recovered from the assembled into one piece. This component is Her appear as man-machines, a new Friedrichshain streets (one of her pieces features supposed to be a type of reservoir, which can be portrait — Maxime Ballesteros breed of cybernetic organism. Traces of Boschan’s a discarded clothes airer) and industrial materi- moved between the modules,” she says, experi- private passions are incorporated in the work: als such as neon light fixtures. These she as- mentally slotting a light-wand into a receptacle body, movement, tribal totems, symbolism; one sembles through an experimental process to the on one of the Teknopodes. “Does it look like of her key references is African sculpture, which finished sculpture, using cable ties and temporary something is missing or absent?” she asks me. she has been collecting for 14 years. She bindings until she is satisfied with the final as- “The main theme will be that there will be a Madeleine Boschan’s career as a sculptor began agents for the enumeration of death, hovering The 33-year-old’s practice bears elements of nonchalantly explains that she used to train as a semblage. sense of loss, a missing piece, and we won’t accidentally. Unwilling to submit a photographic between anthropomorphic machines and ab- serialism: her ensembles are comprised of two competitive gymnast, and indeed, traces of a Boschan, a former Braunschweiger who stud- quite know what it is, but we’ll know it’s not 3 self-portrait for her first Berlin group show, she stract sculpture. Her debt to Anthony Caro and recurring elements, “Elektromanilen” and gymnast’s supple agility are retained in her works. ied under the painter John Armleder, works from there.” 3 Sleek Sleek 7 created one of her now-characteristic anthropoid Minimal Art’s preoccupation with light and an “Teknopodes”. These have a symbiotic relation- Meanwhile, she is as much guided by formal a former factory in Friedrichshain, a surrounding Adjusting another element, she stands back, 7 sculptures. industrial aesthetic is clear. However, unlike ship, with the Elektromanilen acting as energy concerns as by narrative and the series bear befitting her post-industrial aesthetic. Those firmly in control of the surreal, almost life-like Strongly symbolic, her practice appears as a her forebears, the light is not utilised to delin- distribution points for the Teknopodes, the key Latin titles referring to their compositional ele- blinds, cables, clothes airers and dismembered anthropoids populating her studio. JF post-apocalyptic amalgam of energy flows, mea- eate space, but to illustrate measurement and actants. The teknopodes often reference their ments. Dies ater (literally “The Black Day”) is boards hang from the walls in neat stacks. The surement devices, light sources and macabre energy flows. exhibition sites. Thus, the “Dies ater Teknopode”, an expression for an inauspicious calendar day, main floor space is given over to an ensemble www.madeleine-boschan.de