Thomas Behling

Thomas Behling: "Jetzt geht es Dir besser." – "You're feeling better now.", 2023, 18 x 24 cm
Inscription: "It's the environmentalists' fault that we're destroying the planet!"

"Katzenwäsche" – "Wash my fur, but don’t make me wet."

The majority of society wants climate protection, but does not want to change. It becomes nervous, susceptible to fossil lobby campaigns, superstitions and right-wing influences. People are in favor of doing something about man-made global warming, but they still want to fly on vacation. You deny your own fossil addiction. The other countries, the politicians, should take action against the climate crisis. People do not want to see their own responsibility, as voters of political parties and polluters of CO₂ emissions as consumers of flights, cars and goods. Of course, something should change, just not in your own life. Science calls this behavior cognitive dissonance.

artists:
Tom Albrecht, Thomas Behling, Anna Orlikowska, Benna Gaean Maris, Susanna Giese, Stephan Groß, Danny Hermann, Ines Hock, Jens Insensee (Tobias Bilgeri & Jens Isensee), Maria Korporal, Joana Lucas, John Maibohm, Annegret Müller, Froso Papadimitriou, Lita Poliakova, Susa Ramsthaler, Alexander Rommel (aerroscape), Rosa Schmidt, Daniel Theiler, Anja Witt, Alla Zhyvotova

The exhibition will take place both in the gallery (duration May 3rd - June 14th) and in the park (duration May 3rd, from 3 p.m. to Saturday, May 4th, until 3 p.m.).


Program 3.5. – 14.6.2024
Gallery Fridays and Tuesdays 5-8 p.m., in the park Fri. 3.5. from 3 p.m. to Sat. 4.5. 3 p.m.

Opening Fri., 3.5.2024
Park am Engelbecken by the Waldemarbrücke 3 p.m.: Welcome by Tom Albrecht and introduction to the works exhibited there (Installations LAGE EGAL by Stephan Groß and Be(e) here by Ines Hock)
Vernissage 7 pm in the gallery: Welcome: Tom Albrecht, Introduction to the exhibition: Katja Hock, Performance prima klima: Susa Ramsthaler

Artist:Interior talk with performance Fri., 24.5., 7 pm: Artists of the exhibition talk with guests about their works. Performance: WRINGEN/FUR Rosa Schmidt

Lecture with discussion 31.5., 7 pm: “Acting for the climate. Why humans are not doing enough to combat the climate crisis despite knowing better. How do we get moving?” Katharina Simons, Psychologists for Future, Berlin

Finissage Fri, 14.6., 7 pm: Performance: Tom Albrecht sings Verdrängung, guitar Philip Müller-Hohenstein

GG3 – Group Global 3000 e.V.
Leuschnerdamm 19
10999 Berlin
Germany

Gallery opening times: Tuesdays & Fridays: 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m (Duration until June 14, 2024)
Park: May 3rd, from 3 p.m. to Saturday, May 4th, until 3 p.m
free admission

Thomas Behling: "Unser Bild der Erde" – "Our picture of the earth", 2019, 85 x 71 x 15 cm

"Anthroposzenische Landschaften"

Classical romantic landscapes are often untouched landscapes. In the paintings of the American Hudson River School of Painters or in many of Caspar David Friedrich's paintings, nature is the main motif and man is not present, or only marginally. Man is only a tiny part of the universe - and of the painting - and nature is an immeasurable force to which man must submit. For an American artist in the 19th century, the amount of untouched and unexplored nature was indeed immeasurable, and even 19th-century European artists could wander through beautiful and mostly empty forests and mountainous regions. The romantic dream of nature is still very much alive. However, the landscapes we mostly travel to and live in are cities and rural areas that are almost entirely shaped by human activity. In the so-called Anthropocene, nature is no longer omnipotent, and man has become the main player and disruptive force on the planet. When we read a magazine like National Geographic, most of us are still fascinated by the perfectly rendered photos of natural landscapes in distant parts of the world, but those who actually want to visit these areas have to spend many hours on a plane, only to realize upon arrival that they are not the only ones. However, the landscapes we mostly travel to and live in are cities and rural areas that are almost entirely shaped by human activity. In the so-called Anthropocene, nature is no longer omnipotent and humans have become the main actor and disruptive force on the planet.

Opening on Friday May 24th. at 8 p.m
Duration 24.05. - June 21, 2024

participating artists:
Gleb Bas, Norbert Bauer, Thomas Behling, Roland Boden, Gunnar Borbe, Margit Busch, Andreas Helfer, Ruppe Koselleck, Patricia Lambertus, Anna Lerchbaumer, Julia Münstermann, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Nicole Schuck, Zuzanna Skiba, Anna Staffel, Annette Stemmann, Frans van Tartwijk, Ralf Tekaat, Philip Topolovac, Florian Tuercke, Michael Wendt, Sabine Wewer

GaDeWe – Galerie des Westens
Reuterstraße 9-17
28217 Bremen
Germany

Opening hours:
Wednesday 3 - 7 p.m
Thursday 3 - 9 p.m
Friday 3 - 7 p.m
Closed on public holidays
free admission

"Autofahren" – "Driving", 2022, 51 x 37 x 19 cm

"Uff – Well-being through aggressive pseudo-solution of cognitive dissonance as hegemonic dominant culture"

In the course of climate change, we are on the verge of passing several tipping points, triggering chain reactions that will mean unstoppable further warming of the planet for centuries - with severe climatic changes, extreme weather, crop failures, famine and flight on an apocalyptic scale. Yes, really: if we believe the science, we are talking about the loss of human habitat on a continental scale. Everything else is superstition.

The thought of it is very unpleasant, especially if your own behaviour contributes to the fact that the disaster can no longer be averted. There are various strategies for dealing with these very unpleasant feelings. One very successful strategy is to fight those who are responsible for our unpleasant feelings, such as scientists or other climate terrorists. This can be combined at will with various other strategies, such as various forms of superstition or board head. Many things are very popular, such as the idiocy of trying to play the economy off against environmental protection or putting the freedom of unlimited consumption above human life and elevating it to a non-negotiable achievement of humanity or using symbolic gestures to clear one's conscience.

We are facing what is probably the most serious cultural crisis in human history: the entire human development of the last 10,000 years is in question. Do we really have to throw it all in the bin and let ourselves be starved back to the Palaeolithic Age - the darkest times of all, mind you, and in this gloom until the end of human existence altogether (in the last comparable climate catastrophes, the planet needed around 10 million years each time to fully recover ecologically).
Or can we, at the last second (i.e. now), still dare to make a huge transformation, in which we can save the really beautiful achievements of our culture without it becoming a major disaster?

Uff.

Thomas Behling's work deals with the question of how art can still be made in this situation. With his current works, he wants to contribute to a reflection on the situation. In order to understand the extent of the situation, we need a perspective that gives us a greater distance: His objects, often modelled on historical finds, pave the way for insight into the unmasking of appearance, deception and transfiguration. He uses traditional pictorial aesthetics because they conceal much more of our current world view and thinking than we realise and are entitled to. Using supposed remnants of an earlier time, he leads us into the crises and conflict zones of the present, so that what we have already lived through has not been in vain. In his works, he conceals much of what we would like to see and shows how we want to see.

Opening: Friday 31 May 2024, 7 pm
31.5. - 8.6.2024

Open Saturday 1 June & Sunday 2 June from 15:00 to 18:00
and from 3.6. to 8.6. by telephone appointment
Free admission


Freienwalder Str. 31
13359 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: 0179 859 37 44
U8 Pankstr. / S Bornholmer Str.
https://koloniewedding.de/projektraeume/spor-kluebue/

Thomas Behling: "Ich wollte schon immer nicht wissen, wie sehr ich mich selbst verarschen kann." – "I always didn't want to know how much I could take the piss out of myself." III, 2022, one fake and nine real swastika stamps, paper, pencil, glass, frame, 22 x 28 cm

"Schrift-Bild" – "Scripture image"

The artist Carlfriedrich Claus (1930-1998), who is regarded as a co-founder of visual poetry, worked in Annaberg-Buchholz in complete seclusion and only communicated with the world through lively correspondence. In his language sheets, he explored the connection between language, thought and society.
In addition to works by Carlfriedrich Claus, the exhibition shows artistic positions with different strategies in which writing is an elementary component of the image.

Participating artists:
Thomas Behling, Joseph Beuys, Micha Brendel, Carlfriedrich Claus, mykola dzhychka, Niels Engler, Lutz Fleischer, Frank Herrmann, Karl Herrmann, Hans Hess, Christian Hussel, Matthias Jackisch, Christian Jacob, Sonia Jakuschewa, Birger Jesch, Gabriele Jesch, Anna Kasten, Ralf Langer, Jacqueline Merz, Jörn Michael, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Osmar Osten, Thomas Ranft, Dagmar Ranft-Schinke, Ursél Ritter, Sabine Sachs, Gabriela Schlenz, Fritz Schönfelder, Andreas Schüller, Detlef Schweiger, Jörg Seifert, Holger Wendland

Opening on 15.06.2024 at 5 pm
Duration: 15.06.2024 - 15.09.2024

A catalogue will be published for the exhibition

Art cellar Annaberg
Wilischstraße 11
09456 Annaberg-Buchholz
Germany

Open daily by appointment: Tel.: 03733/42001
Free admission