There in Spirit

On October 22nd Jasmin Werner and Pádraic E. Moore discuss There in Spirit;  Werner’s second solo exhibition at Damien and The Love Guru, Brussels. This conversation focuses upon Werner’s preoccupation with the two buildings that inform works in this show; The Palast Der Republik and the Burj Khalifa. In addition to discussing the new body of photographs and wall based sculptures the conversation touches upon ideas of labour, aura and economic exchange.

Embedded in Jasmin Werner’s latest suite of works is the sense that part of the picture is missing – or distorted in scale. Propped atop scaffolding models is the series carried away, wall sculptures comprising truncated floor plans of the former GDR building, Palast der Republik, configured in visually pleasing floral symmetries. Both lush and metallic in tone, their bent aluminium outlines are actually derived from cross- sections of Burj Khalifa. Al Satwa Balikbayan leaves even more to the imagination. These small format photographs swim in the centre of framed blank backdrops. Covered in cling film, there is a layer of inaccessibility on offer. Employing various degrees of separation, Werner cleverly excises and covers visual information to show that the whole is never present. There is always a part of the picture that is imperceptible or outside the frame.

-extract from essay by Nadine Khalil