2024 was the 65th of anniversary the Dresden twinning with Coventry and Wroclaw. Dresden City Council proposed an exhibition with its lively exchange artists with three artists from each city. The exhibition titled ‘3×65’ was in the 2nd floor gallery in Dresden City Hall, 15 March to 15 May. A venue Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange showed in during 2014.
During the Palias Sommer festival in Dresden 25 July, on International Friendship Day John Yeadon was a recipient of the Fama Award for Lifetime Achievement along with Dresden artist Max Uhlig. Both artists exhibited paintings on the festival grounds at Neumarkt in front of the Frauenkirke. The award is sponsored by the Mayor of Dresden, the Fauenkirche Foundation, the New Saxon Art Association and the KFA Culture for all gGmbH. The award itself is a bronze sculpture based on the Golden Fama, Goddess of Fame on the ‘lemon squeezer’ dome of the Dresden Academy for the Fine Arts.
Also to mark the 65th anniversary Spires Music from Coventry, conducted by Jack Lovell-Huckle; the Neue Chor Dresden conducted by Axel Langmann; and organist from Wroclaw presented a lively and program that builds bridges. Grant Us Peace: European Concert at the Fraunkirche in Dresden was the reciprocal event from when Neue Chor came to Coventry to mark the 60th anniversary in Coventry Cathedral. Professor Helmut Hienz was in attendance and a sculpture of his and George Wagstaffe’s sculpture ‘Redemption’ were on exhibition at the Frauenkirche.
Ashley Spindler was the Coventry artist in residence in Dresden as a guest in Karen Koschnik’s studio at Zentralwerk in Dresden for a month in June. Ashley has taken part in previous Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange exhibitions since 2013. Born in Colchester Essex in 1967, Ashley was a graduate of Coventry University Fine Art in 2001–04 and had several exhibitions in the Midlands. He also composes and performs music under the name ‘Prole Position’.
Announcement from 3.6.2024 – Gallery 2. Floor: 3 x 65 = Art from Wroclaw, Coventry and Dresden
Exhibition for the 65th Birthday of both town twinning opens on the 14 March
© State capital Dresden
On Thursday, 14. March 2024, the exhibition “3 x 65 = Art from Wroclaw, Coventry and Dresden” will open at 6 p.m. The art historian Katharina Arlt speaks the introduction words. The Dresden artist Falk Töpfer moderates and performs for the vernissage.
The exhibition on the occasion of the 65th Birthday of the Dresden city twinning with Wroclaw and Coventry brings together three artistic positions from the three partner cities. On display are works by Ioannis Anastasiou (Wreslau), Sharon Baker (Coventry), Majka Dokudowicz (Wroclaw), Jack Foster (Coventry), Karen Koschnick (Dresden), Vinicius Libardoni (Wroslau), Christian Manss (Dresden), Falk Töpfer (Dresden) and John Yeadon (Coventry). All exhibiting artists are present for the vernissage.
Graphics and painting can be seen in different techniques and formats. All results of the lively artist exchange between the partner cities with work stays and exhibition projects. While the artist exchange with Wroclaw runs primarily through the cultural offices of both cities, a private artist initiative, the Friends of Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange, founded in 2011, is active in Coventry. Both artist exchange programs are supported by the state capital Dresden.
The fate of the cities of Dresden, Coventry and Wroclaw in the Second World War and their desire for reconciliation were the foundation for both town twinnings. The city partnership with Coventry was the first to enter into Dresden in February 1959. In May, the city partnership with Wroclaw followed. Today – 65 years after their foundation – these partnerships invite people more than ever to meetings and joint projects. This has included a lively exchange of artists for years. What could be more obvious than celebrating the anniversary with an inspiring art exhibition.
Lord Mayor Dirk Hilbert
To the individual artistic positions:
Printographic methods such as line and surface etching, screen printing and photography, form the basis of the artists Ioannis Anastasiou, Majka Dokudowicz and Vinicius Libardoni, who work in Wroclaw. While Anastasiou tracks our cognitive and perception processes in complex image drawing systems, Dokudowicz deconstructs and fragments human physiognomy. Librardoni’s architectural representations seek to deal with the disregarded and lost building fabric of Polish post-war modernism.
The works of the British artist Sharon Baker show seemingly familiar interiors and garden views. Details and chromatic changes in their photographically inspired gravures and lithographs refer to the living environments and experiences of the British population during the pre- and post-war period. John Yeadon‘s painting and drawing also resorts to photographic viewing habits. His scenes address the instinct-guided existence of dogs and see themselves as a humorous and at the same time critical replica of the anthropomorphizing tradition of animal representations since the 19th century. Century. In Jack Foster’s paintings, pieces of old master painting, details of contemporary architecture and film art meet. The artist, who comes from Coventry, works with elements of collage, interference and visual disturbances that challenge our perception.
In linocut and mezzo-tinto eding, the Dresden artist Karen Koschnick processes architectural impressions of her scholarship stay in Wroclaw in 2023. The imaginary landscapes and painting by Christian Manss reminiscent of autonomous organic structures is developed by the artist working in Dresden in monumental panoramas. Here, graphically moving compositions contrast with closed painterly gold and color backgrounds. The artist and performer Falk Töpfer irritates and counteracts conventional expectations of linear and central perspective modes of representation. In the media screen printing and painting, he achieves this through a reduced chromatics and the renunciation of appearance colour. In addition, his stylization of the pictorial objects reinforces a conscious flattening and displacement of the spatial structure.
(The exhibition ran 15 March to 15 May 2024 in Gallery 2. floor in the New Town Hall, Dr.-Külz-Ring 19.)
