Of Basque and German origin, Ekaitz presents a new project which he began working on three years ago when he moved to Berlin. Hinterhof, which means courtyard in German, is a work in progress formed by installation, photography and video, and which explores concepts of time, space and perception.
NoguerasBlanchard is pleased to announce its first exhibition of Paul Ekaitz (Barcelona, 1977). Of Basque and German origin, Ekaitz presents a new project which he began working on three years ago when he moved to Berlin. Hinterhof, which means courtyard in German, is a work in progress formed by installation, photography and video, and which explores concepts of time, space and perception.
The central piece of Hinterhof is a large scale model placed directly on the gallery floor. This impossible architectural construction is formed by 21 modules which represent the interiors of houses of friends
of the artist in Berlin. The artist draws the plans from memory and personalizes the colour of the walls with intense colours. Hinterhof emerges from a daily process of observation, interaction and union and
almost as an answer to absorb a new urban entity such as Berlin. The chaos visualized in the structure reflects for instance the local codes imposed by a new culture, which are read through a series of filters
rather than instinctively.
The photographs in the exhibition are an invitation to enter those intimate spaces, now emtpy and uninhabited, that suggest something that is absent or a memory of past events. A journey through winding rooms and corridors bathed with a natural light where the abscence of that which happened between the walls is revealed more explicitely than the spaces themselves.
The wallpaper covering the back wall of the gallery depicts a room with a spectacular panoramic mountain view covering one of the walls. The work is titled Möseler, which is the artist´s father´s surname and also the name of a mountain in Germany. The artist leans on a walking stick and looks towards the horizon, recalling the romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich or the realist Gustave Coubet.
Hinterhof explores the basis of our relationship with oursurroundings. Through a dialectical approach to interior/exterior, Ekaitz seeks to illustrate a metaphor for the vital experience or social structre or any circumstance.