Mario Asef

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Jobcenter

[ object ] Jobcenter

Arbeitsamt Südwest, Berlin / Materials: one piece of furniture / 05.07.2002 / 11:00 am

[ events ]

a) In a job center in Berlin a temporary ramp had been installed between the first floor and the basement to transport files.

b) While waiting for a work permit I moved part of the ramp to a corridor in the basement.

More images: www.artnews.org/marioasef

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Urban space and its appropriation by the people who use it is the source of Mario Asef’s artistic work. In his videos, photographs, sound installations, and interventions the artist deals with architectonic as well as socio-political discourse and investigates how they are represented spatially. Like a researcher he examines the constructions of public life by working against the dominant order in subtle ways. This occurs by reordering things without notice or by removing elements specific to the location and adapting them to the art context. Accordingly, these urban objects are first apprehended as artworks when they are documented in photographs or written about in texts.

Asef’s group of works Empirien (1998-2006) presents an entire series of interventions documented in this way. For instance, in the work Fragile—handle with care/appropriation (2004), the artist placed cardboard boxes in front of the Covent Garden Theater Museum in London, which were then taken over by individuals and used as sleeping spots. By converting packaging into housing, Asef indirectly draws attention to the negative spaces of the city, which make life (survival) possible, but also to the present absence of the homeless. Like illegal immigrants or street musicians, the homeless also count among the—for the most part—undesirable users of public space. The artist stages this situation like an experiment. That vagrants then make use of it in practical ways undermines the efforts of local authorities.
In and of themselves the unforeseen and the ephemeral are inherent to Mario Asef’s interventions. He never knows how long his rearrangements will last or whether or how passersby will take them over and put them to use. This participation is the trigger for a non-verbal communication outside of cultural institutions. For the most part the users of the locations involved quickly grasp the initiative, deconstruct the intervention, and reestablish the usual “normal order” of things.

Raumprothesen (spatial prosthetics) can be viewed in many respects as a further development of this creative process. In this case, urban phenomena are actually translocated into the art establishment. Here Asef manifests his socio-critical stance by inviting street musicians to play at his opening. The performative evening was consciously designed to provoke interaction between the art-going public and individuals who operate primarily within the urban locations outside of cultural institutions.
In contrast to Empirien, the participation of everyone involved takes place within the exhibition space. As a result of this appropriation beer bottles, cigarette butts, and trash pile up on the floor and imprints from fingers and people sitting are pressed into the sculptural elements—the “Raumprothesen”—that the artist has integrated into the exhibition. “Prothese” (prosthetics) means here, so to speak, the artificial extension of the room that fulfills a specific function. As such the objects don’t even stand out at first. Rather, their white color and inconspicuous positioning on the margins allows them to be seen as a fixed component of the exhibition space.

A central aspect of this work involves returning the purported sculptures to the public locations where the elements that inspired them formally are found. For his work Asef initially pilfers material from the city. In this case polystyrene insulation board for acoustically isolating homes is used. In the context of his exhibition this building material is transformed into sculptures. Through their use (disintegration), mostly by the musicians to whom the sculptural elements were assigned as stages, they are, in turn, viewed as everyday objects. Throughout the entire duration of the show the viewer can observe the process of using the space along with its Prothesen. In addition the brief musical performances have been captured in a documentary video as staged memory, and are continuously on view. Here the quality of the recording plays a secondary role. Asef films more like an anthropologist who attempts to understand the circumstances from a distance. After the presentation in the art context is over, the objects and musicians alike make their way back onto the streets. Once there, people will again use the “Raumprothesen” as seating and eventually dispose of them. With this, a cycle of varying translocations and ascribing of meanings apparently comes to its end.

Whether in urban public space or within the space of an exhibition, the experience of those involved in Mario Asef’s interventions go far beyond the actual participation. Rather, through his subtle interventions, the viewer is sensitized to the processes at work in urban, social surroundings.

Susanne Köhler

Mario Asef

1971 born in Cordoba, Argentina

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education

1990-95 University for Architecture and Urban Development in Córdoba, Argentina. 1998-2000 Academy of Visual Art, Karlsruhe, Germany. 2003 Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. 2000-2004 University of Art Berlin, Master of Art.

Grants

2009 Frankfurter Kunstverein, Deutsche Börse Residency Program, Frankfurt, Germany
2009 Raum Prothesen, project funding Arttransponder, Berlin, Germany
2007 Stiftung-Künstlerdorf, artist in residence program, Schöppingen, Germany
2007 Signal Wave, project funding Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft,
Forschung und Kultur, Berlin
2006 Schinckel Progressive - SSamzie Space, artist in residence program Seoul
2006 EMPIRIEN, catalogue funding Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft,
Forschung und Kultur, Berlin
2006 EMPIRIEN, project funding Kulturamt Pankow, Berlin
2006 Award of the Architektur und Film Festival - Out of Disaster-, Berlin
2004 Scholarship of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Berlin

Solo Exhibitions

2009 Raumprothesen, Arttransponder, Berlin (cat.)
2007 Die Repräsentation als Wirklichkeit, Galerie Metro, Berlin
Signal Wave, Les Voutes, Paris
2006 EMPIRIEN, Brotfabrik Galerie, Berlin (cat.)

Group Exhibitions

2010 Man Son 1969, Villa Merkel, curators: Andreas Baur, Frank Barth,
Dirck Möllmann, Esslingen, Germany (cat.)
10 Years at Kasa, Kasa Gallery, curators: Selim Birsel, Aslı Çetinkaya, Erdağ Aksel, Istanbul (cat.)
Klondike River, Treasure Land, curator: Horst Griese, Achim Bitter, André Korpys and Markus Löffler, Bremen, Germany
Weil’ auf mir, du dunkles Auge, bauer&ewald, with Jeremiah Day, Klara Hobza, Daniel Seiple, and Erik Smith
2009 Man Son 1969, Hamburger Kunsthalle, curators: Frank Barth,
Dirck Möllmann, Hamburg (cat.)
2008 Architektur, Künstlerhaus Bregenz, Austria (cat.)
2007 Capital 2014, curator: Caroline Lund, Lund, Sweden (cat.)
Legal Tender, KASA Gallery, Istanbul
Science Fiction, Galerie Metro, Berlin
have to leave my STUDIO, SSamzie Space,
curator: Hyunjin Shin, Seoul, South Korea (cat.)
PREVIEW 07- The Emerging Art Fair, Video lounge curated by Sabine Schuetze, Berlin
2006 Urbane Legend, SSamzie Space, curator: Soohyun Park
Seoul, South Korea (cat.)

Projects

2010 Port2010 / Soundgate, museum of modern art Kunsten, Aalborg, Denmark
SoundLAB VII , cologne global heritage of digital culture, Cologne, Germany
The Other and The Self, video stream, Voges Gallery, curated by Saul Judd, Frankfurt on the Main
2009 Transmediale 09, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Arte, Salud y Sociedad, Proyecto Circo, curator: Ada Azor
La Havana, Cuba
Bordet, Abandoned Gallery, curator: Anna Norberg, Malmö, Sweden
The Other and The Self, video stream, Voges Gallery, Frankfurt on the Main
Zeppelin 2009 – Sonidos del Poder – Centro de Cultura Contemporania
de Barcelona (CCCB), Barcelona, Spain

2008 Zeppelin 2008 - Sorderas – Centro de Cultura Contemporania
de Barcelona (CCCB), Barcelona, Spain
Les Rencontres Internationales, Madrid, Berlin, Paris
2007 Transmediale 07, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
2006 Architektur und Film Festival - Out of Disaster - Brotfabrik, Berlin
2005 Art in the Age of New Technologies, Armenian Centre of
Contemporary Experimental Art, Armenia (cat.)

Bibliography

10 Years at Kasa, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul – 2010 /
Raumprothesen, catalogue, Berlin – 2009 /
Man Son 1969, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle – 2009 /
Architektur, exhibition catalogue, Bregenz, Austria - 2008 /
Capital 2014, exhibition catalogue, Lund, Sweden – 2007 /
have to lave my STUDIO, studio program catalogue, Seoul, South Korea – 2007 /
EMPIRIEN, catalogue, Berlin – 2006 /
Urbane Legend, exhibition catalogue, Seoul – Berlin – 2006 /
II. European Month of Photography, Berlin – 2006 /
Art in the Age of New Technologies, exhibition catalogue, Armenia – 2005 /
Wo liegt Berlin? exhibition catalogue, Berlin – 2004 /
Guestroom, contemporary art magazine, London – Munich – 2004 /
Der Film entsteht vor Ort, Labor-Sonor-audio-CD, Charhizma Berlin – 2003 /
Zwischen Tür und Engel, exhibition catalogue Zionskirche, Berlin – 2002 /

Links

www.marioasef.net
http://vimeo.com/28361843
http://www.berlinerpool.de/?profiles=Artists&id=38
http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/manson/catalog/catalog.htm
http://www.metro-berlin.net/index.php/exhibition/marioasef
http://www.transmediale.de/de/mario-asef
http://kunstraum.posterous.com/
http://www.pinkgallery.de/Collection/Artists/Asef/Aseftext1.htm
http://www.fkv.de/frontend/archiv_veranstaltungen_detail.php?id=539
http://www.klondike-river.de/
http://www.kunstaspekte.de/index.php?tid=58554&action=termin
http://kasagaleri.sabanciuniv.edu/engresmiparabirimi.html
http://dev.transmediale.de/site07/screenings+M5ca15895c84.html

Mario Asef

10115 Berlin

mario.asef@web.de
www.marioasef.net