Yutaka Makino at the DAAD Galerie in Berlin: pushing you to the limits

by Manuela Castiglione | Dec 20, 2011 in Nomadic Knowledge, Suggestion | Leave A Comment

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Are you a visual artist?

Or you are a music composer that would like to innovate the conventional character of Berlin´s musical life?

Or you are rather a writer and you want to engage a dialogue between cultures through the verbal mode of communication able to overcome all cultural limitations?

Or you are a filmmaker inspired by the attractive cinematic metropolis of Berlin with its huge network of filmmakers and field of the Berlin International Film Festival?

Well, then you should apply for the Berliner Künstlerprogramm to get a scholarship and come to Berlin for one year.

The programme is like a “meeting point” for artists who want to absorb the phenomena of this city from one hand and from the other they want to set their stamp here. Give and take of skills, knowledge, ideas and inspirations: this is the motto!

Fascinated by this concept, I went last week to see the installation “The conditions of the process” of one artist of the Programme, the Japanese Yutaka Makino at the DAAD Galerie – the art gallery of the institution.

First of all I love Japan and I think that it represents now the real new frontier in creative art. Second I was curios to learn more about the effects of a sound and light installation.

So I got there. I had to wear blue overshoes and in the silence of the gallery I entered in a black corridor coated with soundproof material. When the door closed I was in the full dark. Quite scaring! I didn´t get why that darkness! My first impulse was to go back but I went on and after a couple of turns I entered the exhibition room.

Wow! The installation pushes you directly to your physical and psychological limits. The darkness leaves the way for a flashy, penetrative light interrupted by the outline of fake windows. Your ears get abused by an electronic subtle sound pervading your body, your flesh, your bones. Quite an intense, unpleasant experience that doesn´t leave you untouched!

My first association was with the birthing process. From the darkness to the light. From the perfect silence to the sound. But the poetry of the birth might not fit the feeling… or rather yes. And in this case my question now is: “How does it feel like living in this inhospitable world?”