Greber Umspannwerk +5 Grad, 2024
The Art Walk
Umspannwerk +5 Grad, 2024
In my work, I explore the increasing decontextualization brought about by technological development and the associated effects on our understanding of reality. I consider this decontextualization and the resulting loss of visibility of all social processes and connections to be an essential characteristic of our time and try to make the phenomenon visible through sculptural means. To this end, I am continuously working on 6 cycles, the starting point of which is each time a representational sculpture made of cardboard; over the years, this sculpture has been successively dismantled and archived in vitrine-like „screens“ and frame-like „presentation architectures“.
EDUCATION
Grants, awards, recognition
2024 Kallmann Prize, Ismaningen
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A Closer Look at the Work
At the entrance to the closed-down factory premises of Ardelt Kranbau GmbH in Eberswalde (later Thyssen Rothe Erde), there is an electromechanical temperature display that presumably remained at +5 °C on the day of the shutdown when the power was switched off.
Parallel to the work on Substation THE GREAT AFTER In Luxembourg, Greber began the artistic exploration of this site. Behind the work are brick barracks, built during the Second World War to house „about 1,000 forced laborers,“ mostly women from the Warsaw Ghetto. In the adjacent industrial complex, they had to manufacture ammunition. This was an outpost of the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
A glance from the barracks towards the former factory grounds leads through the open housing of the temperature display, making the inscription „+5°“ appear in mirrored letters. This axis of view becomes the last visible trace of the NS history of the place. Today, the left youth center EXIL is located in the barracks; it is intensively engaged in the history of the place and carries out commemorative work.
The temperature mark also indicates the time of the standstill, but possibly also the impending heating of the Earth.
The idea that a planet uninhabitable due to climate catastrophes will show no visible traces of its causes in a hundred years is a central idea of this work. Perhaps only overgrown wall remnants will remain. The connection between the steel industry, the Nazi past, and the climate issue forms a multifaceted tension that Greber artistically processes.
About the Artist
The artist Ben Greber (*1979 in Halle) has been working in Eberswalde and Berlin since 2010. A progressive de-subjectification that characterizes Greber’s work has been the theme of his international solo exhibitions, such as in 2022 at 515 Bendix in Los Angeles (USA) and in 2023 at the Kunsthalle Esch in Luxembourg. In addition to artist fellowships, he won the Kallmann Prize in 2024, followed by the exhibition „Fall and Present“ at the Kallmann Museum in Ismaning.
Photos: © Stefan Gröpper Photography
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