SHELTER – Love in Tough Times is the current project by artist-couple Asef-Burckhardt consisting of multimedia works that will be exhibited at “HAUNT/Frontviews“ (Berlin, G), “Kunstverein Göttingen” (Göttingen, G.), “MOS“ (Gorzow, Pl), and “Wild Palms” (Düsseldorf, G.) in 2024 and ‘25.
“SHELTER-BONE (To Anna and Lawrence Halprin at The Sea Ranch)”, Asef-Burckhardt, video installation, 4K, stereo, 5 drawings, 28:02 min, 2024
Their works ask: What does “shelter” mean today? Emotional shelters are essential for survival, especially in times of crisis. How do society, nature, the body and emotional health interact with utopia-critical questions against the backdrop of global climate change and its economic and political consequences? This project shows that it is not isolationism but communal refuge that generates resilience, respect and resistance. Shelter and love are therefore among the most important political factors for action in the future.
The works were created during two research trips to the historic site of “The Sea Ranch” in California. Built in the 1960s, The Sea Ranch continues to set international standards for the interplay of architecture and nature – in other words, “shelter“ and “environment“. But what remains of its utopia (“to live lightly on the land“) and the idealism of a sensitive approach to the environment?
Asef-Burckhardt visited The Sea Ranch in 2018 and 2023 and were fascinated by its ambivalence: the clear lines of the houses in soft wooden tones stand at the breathtaking Pacific coast with crashing waves and forests of redwood trees. Yet the beautiful coastal paths are only officially accessible to a privileged audience of homeowners. Many homes are made up of redwoods that have been logged to a minimum. These same houses are threatened by wildfires every year due to climate change. Nearby towns, like “Paradise”, were razed to the ground in 2018. Climate change, privatization and privilege collide with utopia here. These contradictions are exemplary of global crises and will be artistically highlighted in the exhibition.
Walk-through the exhibition at HAUNT/Frontviews by the artists (3:48 min):
https://vimeo.com/953065778
VIDEO INSTALLATION
The video “SHELTER-BONE (To Anna and Lawrence Halprin at The Sea Ranch)”
is a series of 5 drawings and a 28-minute one-shot video at the rough Pacific coast. It is a dialog of movement between Asef behind the camera and Burckhardt in front, both navigating dense fog and heavy wind, between attraction and resistance. Asef-Burckhardt search for a sensitive language with and within landscape and become part of it: as mimicry with land, wind and plants in constant motion.
Asef-Burckhardt‘s video work was inspired by the couple Anna and Lawrence Halprin, who worked at The Sea Ranch: He as a landscape architect and she as a dancer with a focus on “embodied healing“. Interestingly, Mario Asef studied architecture before studying art (where he first heard about The Sea Ranch) and Kirstin Burckhardt is both a performer and a psychologist. The artist couple Halprin made a strong commitment to their surroundings through their joint artistic activities. Not to isolate themselves as a „duo of lovers“, but to strengthen each other in order to work together for community building and ecology, is also the inspiration for Asef-Burckhardt‘s present project.
Link to video:
https://vimeo.com/917928299
Please contact the authors for password
SHELTER-BONE
Duo-exhibition by Mario Asef and Kirstin Burckhardt
Guest artists Dania Burger and Peder K. Bugge
ARTIST TALK moderated by Gabriele Brandstetter
Show at HAUNT/frontviews
DOCUMENTATION
Mario Asef 