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فير زملر غاليري Sfeir-Semler Gallery

After long weeks of lockdown, we are pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition at our Hamburg gallery. Curated by Ana Siler, the exhibition WHERE THE LEMONS BLOOM… brings together works by Etel Adnan, Moritz Altmann, Yto Barrada, Bettina, William Kentridge, Timo Nasseri, Ania Soliman, Christine Streuli and Akram Zaatari.

Know'st thou the land where the lemon-trees bloom is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that speaks of longing for heavenly distant lands: The South, the sun and light, Mediterranean flora, bright white buildings, marble, music, laughter and joy.

Goethe's romantic contemplation echoes into our present, lending its title to Christine Streuli’s series of drawings based on advertisement billboards she saw during a recent stay in Hawaii.

Beyond Goethe’s poem, the exhibition explores the quest for poetic marriages of shapes and colors. With a variety of media and motifs, it showcases the multi-faceted medium of painting, exploring a wide array of appropriations and treatments.

An alternation of canvases, textile works, and sculptures creates a rhythm that invites visitors to wander amongst the expressive-abstract Warpainting of Christine Streuli, the tapestry of Etel Adnan, the minimalist textile works of Yto Barrada, the large-format radiant yellow drawing of Ania Soliman dedicated to the taxonomy of artificial bamboo plants produced in China, and Barrada's installation Lyautey Unit Blocks consisting of painted wooden blocks assembled into an urban structure across the space.

While the works on the upper floor of the gallery form a colorful assemblage, the ground floor appears almost monochromatic. The abstract, black and white surface of Akram Zaatari's light boxes is in fact close-ups of negatives, that have been damaged by external factors.

The original motifs fade under a multitude of unexpected patterns, formed by bubbles and ridges. Mirrored onto the surfaces of Timo Nasseri's Parsec sculpture, they dialogue with the latter’s monumental canvas that shows geometric and ornamental motifs based on the Razzle-Dazzle camouflage patterns from World War I.