Diary2

Diary2 is a small group of works that complements and elaborates on diary (2008), composed of drawings, particleboard, Formica, empty cardboard boxes, plastic bag, varnish, metal rods, and wall paint. The drawings—reproductions of now-lost originals—trace the constructive development of the work and make visible its formal considerations. A related photographic series revisits the motifs originally used for the miniature book diary. The exhibition >diary< was guided by an idea of time interweaving, realized through a hexagonal modular system. Events, moments, and their documented traces are combined and recombined, producing a temporally disruptive situation. Distinct moments in time are asserted as simultaneous, merging into a newly constituted present. Pernice used the notion of the diary as the template for his joined-together geometric figure sculptures. Many of time’s complexities can be better understood when the spacequantifying models of geometry are applied to our conception of time. Here, the artist visualizes the relationship between a time-continuum (i.e. the horizontal surface-platform) and individual events in time (i.e. the distinct object-element). At Window, two to three works from the exhibition re-kapito (2018, Anton Kern Gallery) are also presented. Works from two different exhibition contexts are thus shown together in the shop window. This gesture recalls the conditions of an art fair, where the commodity character of the works becomes more directly perceptible. Manfred Pernice was born in 1963 in Hildesheim, Germany. He studied at the Institut für Bildende Kunst in Braunschweig from 1984 to 1987 before moving to Berlin to study at the Universität in 1993. His sculpture and installation borrow from the utilitarian visual language of architecture, shipping containers, and commercial packaging. He juxtaposes these rough forms with text, photography and video to create fully encapsulated visual systems. These sculptures and sight specific interventions elicit the trapping of everyday life, imbuing them with a sense of the absurd and the ambiguous. Often compared to Gordon Matta-Clark, Pernice views his work as the alienation and segmentation of space in an increasingly pre-packaged world. Solo exhibitions of Pernice's work have been organized by Musee d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1998), Portikus in Frankfurt (2000), Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2000), Sprengel Museum Hanover (2001), Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2003), The Modern Institute in Glasgow (2006), and Neues Museum in Nuremberg (2008). His work has also been included in major exhibitions such as Lyon Biennale (1997), Berlin Biennale (1998), Manifesta 3 (2000), Documenta 11 (2001), Venice Biennale (2001 and 2003), Seville Biennale (2006), Skulptur-Projekte Münster (2007), and Carnegie International (2008). Pernice currently teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and lives and works in Berlin.