ENRICO Friday - Through the Darkness -
Opening: Saturday the 01. October 2011, 6pm at Chivalrous Cantaloup Commune, Shan Yin Road No.132, 200081 Shanghai, China - Duration: 05.October 2011
Enrico Friday, born 1981 in Arnstadt(Germany), studied fine arts at the Bauhaus-University, Weimar and is an artist of Gallery Eigenheim (Weimar, Germany) since 2006.
Small sizes are a recurring feature in Freitag’s oeuvre. In these formats, he compresses stories and feelings about grand gestures as well as playful mind games. The selection shown here has a certain dark, mysterious imagery, while leaving room for interpersonal closeness and confidence.
Enrico Freitag´s works are illustrations of a long process which dwells on the subject and content. However, his subjects are broad. This exhibition title, “Through the Darkness” seeks to underline these references. The darkness can be understood as a metaphor for the process of learning and exploring witnessed throughout the refurbishment of German-European history up until its present day condition. The pictures “Urteil, Judgement”, or “Demonstration Effect” are severe and include failure as part of the experience with a gain in the narrative. Others have very clear references to European historical paintings. In this connection Freitag is working systematically and builds contemporary interpretations of historical motifs in his paintings. Thus, for example, “Looking Down II,” is a direct homage to ” Das Angelusgebet / The Angelus” by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875). The protagonist’s hands are no longer folded to pray, as in the image of 1858, but gradually fade away, idly tucked into the subject’s pockets wile he looks down to the ground. This seems like a visualization of our current time and tells a story of our generation in which abundance of information and opportunities are struggling to understand the world. It seems difficult to gain clarity about what is fought for and against. Darkness as something incomprehensible, Large, as part of world politics can be found in “Das große Rätsel”. The black cube in the middle of the conference table surrounded by politicians could be seen as a metaphor concerning the mystery surrounding political events.

All of this is ultimately the responsibility of our imagination and deals again with the dark side.
All this looks like a great depression. Maybe it is ultimately the question of what makes us generally happy in life, that Enrico Freitag is trying to bring us closer to discovering, This is, at the very least, what it aims to show in this exhibition with respect to current day life in Shanghai. I am happy to show the work of Enrico Freitag at the Chivalrous Cantaloup Commune and I would like to thank Yuhong Wang and her teamwarmly for this exhibition´s possibility.