February 4, 2023 – February 15, 2023
Berlin-based artist Kasia Fudakowski (London, 1985) presentsGallery Power LTD, an exhibition exploring the relationship between power, energy, and culturethrough real and artificial limits. Represented by ChertLüdde since 2011, thisexhibition will be Fudakowski’s fifth solo show at the gallery.
The sculptures on display will include motors and lights, which visitors canchoose to turn on and off to activate them in various ways. There will, however,be a limit on the total amount of electricity the visitors are permitted to use withinthe exhibition’s two-month duration. The remaining power will be displayedas a countdown timer in hours, minutes and seconds on an e-ink screen at theentrance/exit of the gallery. Once the energy limit has been reached, the sculptureswill remain permanently off.
The sculptures’ ability to ‘work’ is dependent on the energy provided by thegallery, along with the visitor’s attendance and engagement. The more visitorsengage, the more energy is consumed – leaving later visitors with less. They willnot, however, have total control. One particular work includes a powerful spotlightwhich, besides consuming the largest percentage of energy, is also controlled byan external mechanism. This element throws into question who really has controlin a cultural space as it pits personal autonomy against corporate, political, andhistorical decision-making bodies, ultimately critiquing the mechanisms whichenable the circumstances of art making itself.
The exhibition – as well as the gallery – is powered by Kunststrom. Foundedby artist Pablo Wendel in 2012, Kunststrom is a not-for-profit CO2 negative energysupplier that generates energy through art. It is produced on site at E-WERKLuckenwalde, the world’s first contemporary art institution to be powered bymeans of its own production. The programming and hardware for the exhibition’senergy monitoring system was done in collaboration with Lucas Maia.
Photo: Portrait of Kasia Fudakowski; Still fromAPT audit of Künstlerhaus Bremen 2022,2022; Video with audio, 11’00’’, courtesy of ChertLüdde, Berlin and Kasia Fudakowski, Berlin