Bursting the Bubble

»Journée d’un G.I.« is Ulrike Ottinger’s third solo exhibition at Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin and features paintings and serigraphs from the 1960s. Ulrike Ottinger’s often multi-part works, or works divided into several pictorial fields, reveal a passion for storytelling that ultimately finds its fulfillment in the medium of film. She became somewhat of a cult star in cineaste circles with her Berlin trilogy »Ticket of No Return« (1979), and particularly with »Freak Orlando« (1981), which would then be followed by »Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press« (1984). In 2019, in the diary »Paris Calligrammes«, she went on to show memories of her formative decade in Paris in a cinematic collection, which brings us right to the heart of the pictorial narratives of »Journée d’un G.I.«. It’s the mid-1960s, Ulrike Ottinger is a painter, when Paris is shaken by images of war and revolution. At home in Nouvelle Figuration, a Parisian form of Pop Art, it is everyday scenes, comics, photography and advertising that determine the narrative style of Ulrike Ottinger’s images. Day-to-day rituals mingle with references to historical figures and literary heroes. While the daily battles rage, Ulrike Ottinger’s heroes are taking a break; Che Guevara as »Le penseur« is lolling on a sofa while sipping a drink; Allen Ginsberg, beat poet of the first hour, has »No more to say and nothing to weep for«. The artist seems to have realized early on that the revolution tends to devours its children.

Exhibition:
CFA Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin, 22/6 – 28/8/2021