Der Arbeiter tanzt nicht, der Arbeiter arbeitet
About this activity.
Der Arbeiter tanzt nicht, der Arbeiter arbeitet.
Kowalski | sentence from the song Der Arbeiter | 1983
For her exhibition at KEIK, Rolina Nell chose paintings and drawings from her Die Arbeiterin series. Working women. Women doing hard work: welding, carrying buckets of water, binding sheaves and gathering potatoes painted in egg tempera on linen. Women in work aprons ('kittel schürzen') with pencil on paper, small intimate drawings in which she zooms in on the designs, buttons and folds. Life-size back views of elderly women with a scythe, drawn with charcoal on paper, as a personification of time. And finally two prints on recycled fabric of an original life-size charcoal drawing, hanging in the window. Mother and daughter hanging out the laundry. The washing line where the transferred habit reveals itself.
The works were created intermittently in various artist residencies. In Leipzig, in the former Baumwollspinnerei, in Aschersleben, in a former paper products factory and in the old Flemish barn on the de Moeren estate at Van Gogh AiR in Zundert. At locations where Rolina was inspired by the history of the place where she worked as an artist-in-residence and the relationship it has with women today.
Based on her own womanhood, women and girls are central to her work. Rolina observes women in their comings and goings, collects images, looks at photo archives and takes photos with models from the area. These images and stories form the starting point for her drawings, paintings and installations. In her work, identity remains mysterious and the past palpable; she paints and draws them almost whispering in the present, or takes shape in collages, murals and installations.
KEIK is located in a former shop building that has been transformed into a business complex on the Boterdiep in Groningen. Appropriate to show this work 'on the work floor' on the varied, sometimes somewhat raw walls of KEIK. In an environment that also invites you to think. Der Arbeiter tanzt nicht, der Arbeiter arbeitet can be visited during working hours from Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
AAS.
architectenbureau
Location.
KEIK
Boterdiep 63
9712 LK Groningen
tel 0503123737
aasgroningen.nl/