Aleksander Komarov

Weichensteller

August 24 – October 5 2008

The Russian Ural Mountains are full of mineral resources. As well as different kinds of ores, the area is mostly filled with gold and copper. In days long past, mineworkers used to tell themselves different stories and fairy tales to pass the time. The most famous character was the Mistress of Copper Mountain. In Russia, just as the copper places were abandoned, so were also the headquarters of the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt/M empty due to renovation. The perfect timing for Aleksander Komarov (b. 1971 in Grodno, Belarus, lives and works in Rotterdam and Berlin) for his latest work Estate, in which he investigates into different forms of estate; real estate in the cities of Frankfurt and Ekaterinburg, abstract values of the stock exchange and arts collections of German banks. The Deutsche Bank was actually one of the first companies in the 1970s which began to place large scale works of art in offices and conference rooms; in this concept, entitled Art at work by the Deutsche Bank, aesthetic resources of the artworks are not only related to questions of representation and art investment but also become a resource of contemporary fairy tales for the employees. Also in the exhibition are both the video installations On Translation: Transparency/Architecture (2007), which was first shown last year at the Istanbul Biennial, as well as See you in Disneyland (2006).

Oliver Kielmayer