Bettina Khano: Galaxie

The gallery Heike Curtze presents the exhibition "Galaxy 1" of the Berliner artist Bettina Khano in her rooms in Mommsenstrasse, Berlin.
For the last three years Khano has dealt intensely with the subject of the resolution of space and the resolution of the body. In the course of this discussion a number of different works have been created, for example a video installation ("Blind to snow"), a photo series ("blind spot", "horizon") and several space installations in which fog played the weight-bearing role ("implosion", "White Cube", "Wide Cube"). Now as a result of these preceding works the subject of the movement of the body through space is the centre for artistic discussion.
On this occasion Khano claims it is not about the resolution of the body in space or space in itself anymore but rather focussing on the search for new ways to position the body in space. For Khano this new cycle is like a trip to a new galaxy; a departure to a new world in which the body moves around searching and orienting itself. Her work is not only about the resolution but equally about finding new positions in unknown space.
For this series of pictures Khano uses several suits made from reflective foil. She herself also wore the suit and danced in the beam of a strong floodlight in the otherwise completely black space. In large-size and compact prints the very illuminated body becomes an abstract moment in space. The shape of the dancer can be seen by the reflections as the moving body surface becomes blurred and thus the body is recognised as something human but also as something abstract as if almost sculptured.
In her preceding work "Blind to snow" and "blind spot" she has worked with an evenly skin-coloured made suit to demonstrate the change of the body shape and dimensions. Nevertheless, this working cycle was determined by a white world. The reflecting suit sketches itself in breaking light, which distributes a firm dimension fluently and yet owns itself in this black environment. Therefore the suit creates a connection between the white faded out world and the dark world.
Now Khano deals with the subject of the galaxy with the reflective body in a black world. It is her personal attempt of a new artistic position. Being displayed are Prints and a video installation as well as an object installation.