Referenzen Archiv - Antonia Wetzel

Daily Fun

Upcoming show: 21. 09. 2023, 6pm

‘Daily Fun’ is a collaborative exhibition between Antonia Wetzel (Germany) and Sandile Radebe (South Africa) taking place in Berlin, Germany and Cape Town, South Africa. The two artists utilise the tabloid South African newspaper ‘Daily Sun’ as a conduit to investigate the malleability in the reading of archival materials, dissemination of knowledge, and the construction of the historical record. The two artists collaborate to develop a method that operates beyond the archive repository from its presupposed objectivity and hegemonic role by interweaving various ways of disseminating information in the public realm towards new outcomes.

From isiZulu cultural practices, guerilla advertising, installation art, painting and print media, the duo offers a new lens into reading, imagining and engaging with knowledge and its framing in a way that opens for multiple interpretations of what is. By merging their disparate epistemic bases towards one objective, the artists find a method of disentangling from the ramifications presented by a singular lens of the world to develop new imaginaries and speculate on future trajectories in knowledge production.

The inaugural presentation of this exhibition opens at Salon am Moritzplatz in Berlin on 21 September 2023. Subsequently, the second itera1on of the show is at Circa, Cape Town, opening on 23 November 2023. Notably, this show is made possible by the generous support of IFA, Salon am Moritzplatz and Everard Read Galleries.

the sun, the grid and the glory hole

The sun, the grid and the glory hole

I am such a romantic, you know, and I think about death all the time, but that makes corny artwork, so I throw in a butthole sometimes.

Everything under the sun shall burn

„The graphic novel ‚everything under the sun shall burn‘ was self-published in Cape Town in collaboration with Dream Press risograph publishing. The story encompasses the journey of the artist from the onset of the pandemic in South Africa in 2020 until their return to Berlin and their struggle with the falling apart of a relationship, which mirrors the breaking apart of known structures in the world during the pandemic.“ – Cape Town 2022.

There is only one button on the top floor

Photos shot by Tommy Knipsfinger, Leipzig, 2022.

@tommy_knipsfinger

„The artist creates an immersive mural to draw you into their memories of 6 months in South Africa. A story told in fragments and thoughts, inviting you to put the pieces together yourself. A wild ride of sex, drugs, Jiu-Jitsu, friendship, South African wine, dying pot plants, sun over clouded mountains and overall busy life as an artist living far from home.“ – Helmut Gallery, Leipzig 2022.

Facing the sun

Facing the sun is an artwork that captures vulnerability and human intimacy. As with all of my work the process of making every single step of the artwork myself was crucial to the book.

Images merge into each other as the story unfolds, creating the notion of timelessness and interchangeability of people and places. Memory is not linear and logic. Remembering rather feels like one fluid, mingling of scraps and pieces of a whole and we are just desperate to make sense of it.
The book offers images that invite wonder and irritation.
Every person who reads the book, will have their own story to it.

Pilotenkueche International Art Program

Artist spotlight

Antonia Wetzel is a storyteller. The floor of her Pilotenkueche studio is covered with huge sheets of paper, and each of them bears a narrative. Some of them are written statements with bold, black letters covering a whole page, while the others are mainly large scale comics. Although they are all separate and conclusive in themselves, as a whole they build a cohesive braiding of sentiments and stories.

read full interview here