NinaJohnson

Empfangshalle: The Benjamin Project

March 14th - April 4th, 2009

Gallery Diet is pleased to announce the latest exhibition in its invitational series, The Benjamin Project by German collaborative, Empfangshalle and Thomas Adebahr. The artists, whose work has been exhibited globally at prestigious events and institutions such as the 52nd Venice Biennial and Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, will be exhibiting for the first time in Miami, Florida. The Benjamin Project, which consists of a series of large oil paintings, and one documentary video, is rooted in the critique and exploration of what is and what can be considered “original.”
In Dafen, China, the world’s capital city for copying works of art, Empfangshalle has commissioned artists to make paintings derived from every double page of Walter Benjamin’s essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 38 paintings in total where every letter, the fine structure of the paper, the way the lines shimmer through on the other side, the fold and other details, are recorded by the Chinese artists – each in his or her own way. Every
work is created by a different workshop, a different painter, every painting marked with the painter’s unique signature.

Also on view, an excerpt from the documentary film chronicling this process. Empfangshalle is comprised of two artists, Corbinian Böhm and Michael Gruber, who for this project worked alongside German filmmaker Thomas Adebahr.