Tamás Kaszás, David Rabinowitch

Galerie Albrecht is pleased to present two internationally renowned artists in Berlin: the exhibition ‘Constructions’ features works by Tamas Kaszas and David Rabinowitch.

Taking Vladimir Tatlin’s ‘Monument to the Third International 010’ (designed in 1917), the so-called Tatlin’s Tower, as his point of departure, Tamas Kaszas built in the gallery his utopia of a better life. Tatlin’s Tower was designed after the Russian October Revolution and stands for the departure into a new age. It was intended as a symbol of a new society. Never actually realised and built in 1919 only as a model, which is lost, the tower was planned to reach 400 metres, a construction of iron, steel, and glass. High towers embody economic power and a striving for growth, they are emblems of capitalism. Kaszas Tamas, however, is pursuing the utopia of a life beyond capitalism, and he explores paths that might lead there. One important source are the traditions and records of peoples that transmit knowledge that will be helpful for survival. How to preserve food, how to ignite fire with the aid of the sun, which plants are edible, and what effect they have. All this he wants to know and grasp anew. The Shanty Tower which he built in the gallery, is a tower with branches and ramifications, and on the branches, huts and houses have settled, built out of simple materials – not perfect or cool, but viable. When the skyscrapers collapse, people can still build houses.

David Rabinowitch persues different goals, but he also explores elementary human skills. The series entitled Construction of Vision (1972-75) consists of drawings that are reduced to the most elementary level. Lines and circles are arranged on the paper in such a way that they describe a space which the beholder must construct and imagine as he views the works. Seeing is also recognising and creating: this can be experienced concretely in looking at these drawings. Three works from this series are shown in this exhibition.

Tamas Kaszas was born in 1976 in Dunaujvaros, Hungary; he lives and works near Budapest. He has been exhibiting throughout the world in numerous gallery and museum exhibitions. In 2011 he participated in the 12th Istanbul Biennial, and this year in the 19th Biennale of Sidney.

David Rabinowitch was born in 1943 in Toronto, Canada; he now lives and works in New York. He has exhibited his works in gallery and museum shows in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the US, Pland, and the Czech Republic. In 1984, he was appointed as professor for sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and in 1987 he participated in Documenta 8.