DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main
Opening reception with the artist on September 21st, from 3 to 6 pm.
Project #21: Helena Hafemann Mehr...
THE INSTALLATION
Two saddles go round in circles, driven by a shared motor—an eternal race without horses or riders, accompanied only by the slow swinging of the stirrups. A strange carousel? A symbol of recurrence? Of the rhythm of the seasons, the festivals throughout the year – Easter, the wine festival, the Hochheim market, Christmas – that structure life in the city? Perhaps also of everyday life with its routines? Or is it even a critique of capitalism: horse and rider have long since left the race, and yet everything continues to turn – without a destination.
MATERIAL
A Western saddle, an English saddle, the motor from a disco ball, and a few grains of barley. What could be more obvious than to use these items to create a work of art for the Hochheim Project Space? Helena Hafemann found the two saddles at a farmyard flea market in Munich—relics of a broken relationship. In addition to the found objects, the motor is an element that was procured with the idea for the installation in mind. The triangular construction connecting the saddles and motor is also a custom-made piece.
THE ARTIST
Wiesbaden-born artist Helena Hafemann prefers to work with unsettling elements. She calls her approach “recontextualization”: melting plates, a bridge pier converted into a carousel, or model railroad tracks running along walls. Since graduating from the Mainz Academy of Fine Arts in 2023, she has exhibited throughout Europe, including in Berlin with her solo exhibition “Time goes by” and in a group exhibition in Venice. In 2022, she transformed the west exit of Mainz Central Station into a carousel. Most recently, she was featured in the exhibition “All diese Dinge” (All These Things) at the Kunsthalle Mainz until the beginning of September.
PRODUCTION
Hafemann enjoys working with found materials that inspire her, setting them in new contexts. While the objects used were “found,” the construction connecting the saddles and motor was custom-made according to her design. For her, working with “objets trouvés” always begins with an open mind: seeing things, collecting them, and letting herself be inspired. The path from found object to finished work is rarely straightforward. It is the sum of impressions and objects that allows the idea to mature and enables its realization.
INFLUENCE
Horses have been a central motif in art since the earliest cave paintings. We most often encounter them in military or representative works: since Marcus Aurelius, equestrian statues have stood for political power. The Expressionist group “Der Blaue Reiter”, on the other hand, presented horses in a completely new light. However, Hafemann's thoughts on this motif turn primarily to photography: in 1878, British photographer Eadweard Muybridge had a horse gallop past twelve cameras. His proof that horses briefly have all four legs in the air when galloping had a lasting impact on the development of film and photography. The “mechanization” – or rationalization? – from living beings to human-controlled processes forms the common thread that Helena Hafemann takes up again.
THE SPACE
The 20 m² room, in which pens and exercise books were previously sold, is now available to artists from the DavisKlemmGallery as a project space. Instead of regular but limited opening times, the room can be viewed at any time: A large window front makes every project visible. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until November 31st, 2025.
In diesem Zeitraffer sind die ersten 20 Projekte im Projektraum der DavisKlemmGallery in jeweils 10-Sekunden-Abschnitten zu sehen. Der Projektraum startete im Juli 2021 während der Corona-Krise mit dem Ziel, auch in dieser schwierigen Zeit Künstler*innen eine Plattform zu geben. Projekt #20 wurde im August 2025 aufgebaut. Als Ergänzung zu den Ausstellungen in der DavisKlemmGallery hat sich der Projektraum als Ausstellungsort etabliert .
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main Mehr...
Project #20: Petra Scheibe Teplitz
MATERIAL & PRODUCTION
Petra Scheibe Teplitz's works often develop out of the material. It serves as her starting point and inspiration. She often draws on everyday materials - in this case, however, on a special found object: shooting targets for large calibers. These thin sheets of paper, usually only known from police or spy films, cover the top and bottom of the circular objects. Produced for training purposes, here they are fixed to MDF boards - finished with red paint, preserved with varnish and transformed into art. The central rod literally “hits the mark”.
THE ARTIST
Frankfurt artist Petra Scheibe Teplitz (*1953 in Isenhagen) has no interest in hunting or shooting. Instead, she works with found materials, which she removes from their original context. She adopts their aesthetics, but discards their function. Packaging, plastic bags and other disposable products thus become carriers of new meaning. Her works resemble a museum of everyday life - a place for aesthetics that would otherwise go unnoticed. Structure and repetition characterize her works as well as playfulness. Her works can be found in the collection of the Arp Museum Rolandseck and the Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden, among others.
INFLUENCE
Creating art from everyday objects remains surprising - and sometimes provocative - to this day. As early as 1913, Marcel Duchamp posed this question with his first Ready-Made: Is this art? And if so, why? A bicycle wheel on a stool can be irritating, but this is precisely what fuels the art discourse. Art becomes tangible - and artists lose their pedestal. We also encounter Petra Scheibe Teplitz's works without a pedestal, at eye level. And perhaps they not only invite us to reflect, but also to play? This also brings the Surrealists into view as an influence: They too worked with everyday objects - and with playing.
THE INSTALLATION
Like giant spinning tops or wind-blown parasols, the objects lie - or stand? - in the room. Giant children's toys? Relics of a summer at the beach? Or are they precise trajectories that aim straight for the bull's eye? The questions remain unanswered - but that is precisely what starts a flow of thoughts. Could the objects be spun further? What traces would they leave behind? And what if they end up interlocking? These mind games are dedicated to the “homo ludens” - the playful human being who reappears in summer. Perhaps, with playful freedom, questions that previously seemed unsolvable can be solved.
THE SPACE
The 20 m² room, in which pens and exercise books were previously sold, is now available to artists from the DavisKlemmGallery as a project space. Instead of regular but limited opening times, the room can be viewed at any time: A large window front makes every project visible. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until September 14th, 2025.
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main Mehr...
Project #19: Natalia Carstens
THE ARTIST
Natalia Carstens is a Berlin-based photographer - and a craftswoman who knows her trade. She documents art fairs, exhibitions and art objects. She is passionate about space, especially interiors. Anyone who thinks of documenting as sober photography is not familiar with Carstens' eye: she is interested in depth, staging and structure. Her photographs are not emotionally charged, but full of suspense. They keep the gaze moving - not frantically, not indifferently, but concentrated and questioning.
THE MOTIFS
In the project space, she is showing three works from her series “Leerer Raum?!” (engl. "Empty Space?!"), in which she examines movie theaters empty of people. On display are three Berlin arthouse cinemas - not huge multiplexes with 500 seats, but smaller venues with a strong character. No popcorn cinemas with premium seats and 3D glasses, but curated programs driven by a passion for film. The architecture of these cinemas seems almost lavish - and usually remains hidden in the dark. This is precisely why they are suitable for Carsten's question: Empty space? Although they are deserted, they carry history and atmosphere within them.
THE QUESTION
When is a room empty? That is the central question for Natalia Carstens. When there are no people in it? When it is unfurnished? Or when nothing has happened in it yet? Her works play with the idea that the use and meaning of a space always need to be taken into consideration. Other series by the artist show deserted clubs or swimming pools - places that are defined by their use. The presence of people echoes in them. Empty seats evoke the image of spectators. A club without people? A swimming pool without swimmers? A movie theater without an audience? The more a space relies on people, the more clearly their absence is felt.
REALIZATION
Carstens photographs booths at art fair, exhibitions and art objects for a living – documentary photography, but never neutral. She decides on details, perspective, focus, light and color - and thus she brings her own view into the picture. In addition to technical experience, intuition flows into her work. Her sense of space was also decisive in the “Empty space?!” series. She discovered many cinemas during the Corona pandemic - first online, later on location. Photographs were taken in bright light: glaring, revealing, like a spotlight on the last piece of popcorn. Her own position in the empty room - in the middle of the field of vision - also causes irritation. The feeling of being watched is palpable.
INSTALLATION
Three empty rooms in our empty project space. To make the photographs visible from the street, Carstens had them printed on large tarpaulins. Two movie theaters now face each other - like screens for each other. Empty rows of seats look at each other. A showdown between seats? And outside, the audience - the passers-by - stand opposite a movie theater without an audience. A double reflection: of gazes, of emptiness.
THE SPACE
The 20 m² room, in which pens and exercise books were previously sold, is now available to artists from the DavisKlemmGallery as a project space. Instead of regular but limited opening times, the room can be viewed around the clock: the entire room and thus the project can be viewed at all times thanks to the large window front. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until July 7th, 2025.
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main Mehr...
Project #18: Dorothee Wenz
THE ARTIST
Dorothee Wenz (*1968 in Marburg) is a renowned ceramic artist who interprets natural processes artistically. Her works explore the beauty of wind, sand and water in ceramic form. Although the objects shown here have the traditional form of vessels, the artist does not produce them as utilitarian objects, but as objects that are simply “allowed to be” in their aesthetics. Together with two fellow artists, she is part of the Zündholzwerkstätten in Kostheim, where regular group exhibitions show her figurative and vase-like works. Numerous prizes, such as the State Prize for Arts and Crafts Rhineland-Palatinate 2022, underline her work. Her works are represented in important collections (for example in the Grassi Museum Leipzig) and international exhibitions and trade fairs.
MATERIALS
Clay is one of the oldest materials in the world for art objects - some preserved finds are estimated to date back to around 24,000 years BC. Clay occurs naturally and is found in many cultures. Depending on where it is quarried, clay has different colors, but they are not as bright as the colors Dorothee Wenz uses. To obtain these, she not only has to add special pigments, but also porcelain. This in turn does not occur naturally, but is created artificially - according to a recipe that was already known in China 2000 years ago, but was only discovered in Germany in 1708. This white mass enables bright colors such as the radiant red of the vessels.
PRODUCTION
Coloring, layering, cutting, building, sanding, polishing - this is how Dorothee Wenz describes the production of her objects in keywords. All the steps - from mixing the clay with ceramic pigments to making the smooth surface - are done by hand. In addition, many years of experience are incorporated into the production process: how do pigments behave at high firing temperatures? What needs to be considered when building a vessel?
After making clay blocks with different colored layers, she cuts strands from these. Depending on how she cuts and reassembles the strands, she creates different patterns. After this preparatory work, the construction of a vessel begins. Slowly and layer by layer, the work progresses - with pauses so that the layers of clay dry and thus become more stable for further progress. This technique - a kind of mosaic technique - of combining several different colored clay strands is called Nerikomi. The term comes from the Japanese and means “kneading”.
After several firing processes comes the sanding and polishing. The result of the long production process is visually and haptically beautiful objects.
INSTALLATION
Dorothee Wenz always produces her vessels in series that are similar in terms of color or pattern. Nonetheless, they are all different - in shape, color and pattern. Slim and tall, bulbous or with a waist, with more or less inclination - each piece is individual and unique. The artist has arranged them in various constellations in the project space. Whether in small groups, as pairs or as individual figures, they relate both to each other and to the other vessels in the room. The aesthetic interactions between the individual objects come together to form an overall picture.
THE SPACE
The 20 m² room, in which pens and exercise books were previously sold, is now available to artists from the DavisKlemmGallery as a project space. Instead of regular but limited opening times, the room can be viewed around the clock: the entire room and thus the project can be viewed at all times thanks to the large window front. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until March 30th, 2025.
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