CONSTANTIN HARTENSTEIN

Solo is an expanding exhibition initiated by Johanna Landscheidt & Lola Göller and using the window cases of closed shops during the covid-19 lockdown. Display provided its showcase for “CARAPACE I & II” by Constantin Hartenstein part of the chapter 3: buttocks. And we wrote a few thoughts to accompany the work “Polymere Entspannung” by Jeschkelanger at Café Luzia in Berlin and part of chapter 2: #stayathome. The featured projects are installed in vitrines and intended for the neighbourhood, for passers-by to look on the way to, from outside and online: www.solo-solo.eu. 

chapter 3: buttocks
There we sit and our butts flat with bumblebees in the ass. What to do? Sports! Fitness in front of the mirror, in front of the camera, Zumba with friends in Brazil on the Internet, jogging on the canal with a safe distance in the zigzag run. We strengthen ourselves and steel our body and brain. There we stand and soap and spray, hands dangerous, mouths even more, vulnerable across classes. We then sit fragile and our asses flat and smile into the worldwideweb: please send nudes to please me. (text by solo)

Constantin Hartenstein is an artist based in Berlin. He studied at University of the Arts Berlin and Braunschweig University of Art with Professor Candice Breitz. In 2011, he worked as a film producer for the German Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale. Since 2019, Hartenstein is an Artistic Associate at the UdK Film Institute Berlin. He received grants and prizes including German Films, AG Kurzfilm, LOOP Barcelona, IFA Künstlerkontakte, VISIO European Program on Artists’ Moving Images, Goethe Institut China, Kraft Prize for New Media, Stichting Stokroos, Kunststiftung NRW and Karl Hofer Gesellschaft grant.  Hartenstein participated in several artist in residency programs such as Triangle Arts Association New York, Calle Mayor 54, Grand Central Art Center Santa Ana, Flux Factory New York and Künstlerdorf Schöppingen. His works are included in public and private collections; and have been exhibited and screened at international institutions. Recent exhibitions include Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien Berlin, Galerie im Turm Berlin, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, WRO Media Art Biennale Wroclaw, Berlinische Galerie, Anthology Film Archives New York, Goethe Institute Beijing, Spring/Break Art Fair New York, Museum of the Moving Image New York (USA), Times Museum Guangzhou (CN), Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, German Consulate New York, Goethe Institute New York and transmediale Berlin. www.constantinhartenstein.com

Photo by Anne Braun