BRITTA ADLER
“I love to deal with taboo topics like age, sex, abuse, spirituality, sex work, money, addiction, power, guilt, trauma, and death, but my work is not about provocation.”
Interview by Semra Sevin
Britta Adler is a German artist based in Berlin. Adler studied fine arts and psychology, and received her masters at the Philipps Universität Marburg. She also studied contemporary dance at the Conservatory Linz and, along with Ron Helbig, was part of the artist group, “Artists Anonymous” founded at the Universität der Künste Berlin (masterclass Baselitz). Adler and Helbig collaborate under the name “GODsDOGs”, and create large-scale installations combining photography, performance, and painting. Adler is also known for curating the feminist group exhibitions, “bitch MATERial” and “bOObs,” co-curated with Saralisa Volm. Adler will have a solo show at the White Villa in Joachimsthal near Berlin, where she will introduce her new art persona, Lara Azul.
Adler’s work has been exhibited in galleries such as Haunch of Venison, Zurich; Galerie Christian Ehrentraut, Berlin; Gallery Goff+Rosenthal, New York; as well as in international art fairs like Frieze London and in institutions like Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin. Collections include the Saatchi Collection, London; Deutsche Bank Collection, London; and Arthur Zeckendorf Collection, New York.
SEMRA SEVIN When did you first decide to become an artist?
BRITTA ADLER I studied art in high school as an exchange student in Michigan, and at university in Germany. However, I only saw male artists in museums and I grew up with a mother who made crafts rather than art, so I did not see any possibility of actually becoming a professional artist. After graduating from university, I embraced my artistic side, and I studied contemporary dance and choreography. Then, I organized art and dance festivals until I joined the five-member artist group “Artists Anonymous” in 2004. As a member, I did nothing besides art because the group’s philosophy was that art and life are one, which I still believe to be true.
GODsDOGs, Fallada, 2014. Photographer: Jakob Zoche
SS How did your upbringing in Germany shape your work?
BA In school, I was taught by teachers who studied in the late-sixties student movement, so my education involved a lot of discussing and critically analyzing German history. Although I was born a few decades after World War II, I still felt the guilt stemming from the horrible crimes committed during the Nazi Regime.
In my teenage years, I found out that quite a few of my direct relatives were Nazis. Nobody said it aloud and actually, they were lovely grandparents, aunts, and uncles to me. Of course, I find the Nazi crimes absolutely horrible and inexcusable. The experience that supposedly “nice people” could have supported something so wrong, that I even have difficulties in finding words to describe my utter disgust, made it clear to me that everyday people can make horrible, inexcusable decisions. Though on the outside, some of my works might look light and easy, there is always a deeper message or an underlying question that goes with it.
GODsDOGs, Fallada, 2014
Lara Azul, Wildwechsel, 2010
SS What does it mean to be a German artist to you?
BA On the one hand, I feel very international. I was an exchange student, and later during my university education in the US, I studied dance in different countries. I watch series in Spanish, French, and English, and I listen mostly to American podcasts. I even do most of my performances in English rather than German.
On the other hand, I am deeply rooted in German traditions. I am equally interested in philosophy as in folk myths. As well as Einstein, I believe that fairy tales have deeper meanings and lessons beyond the stories themselves. There are a few poorly known tales from the Brothers Grimm that I refer to in my work, such as my performance of “Allerleirauh,” a quite odd variant on Cinderella that touches on the subject of incest and the power of victims. Deep stuff so to say, which I make accessible using layers of fur and beetroot.
Also, “Gesamtkunstwerk,“ a German word that made itself into the English language, describes artwork that makes use of many art forms to create a whole, desired art experience for the viewer. Similar to Schwitters’ Merzbau, I love to create walk-in installations, where the audience can immerse themselves in artworks and experiences. For example, with GODsDOGs we built a moving installation where the spectators were “swallowed” by a box on wheels. The movement inside the artwork shaped the perception in a very different way than just standing in front of a painting.
GODsDOGs, 5 smooth stones, 2019
GODsDOGS, Mind the gap, 2018
SS Let’s talk about your subject matter and your focus.
BA I love to deal with taboo topics like age, sex, abuse, addiction, power, guilt, trauma, and death, but my work is not about provocation.
For me, it is actually comforting to address the things which usually are swept under the rug. Maybe this derives from being a trained psychologist. I try to address these topics from different sides – my goal is resonance and relatability instead of repelling spectators.
I find that in old masterpieces, there are a lot of these hardcore subjects addressed (e.g. how Judith beheads Holofernes, etc.), and in a lot of my works I refer to art history and try to mix it with a contemporary, and sometimes more feminist approach. At the moment I am working on a personalized version of Jacob wrestling with the angel. I bring together different sources that inspire me, like Eugène Delacroix’s famous wall painting in the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris as well as a scene in which a female character of Stephen King’s book series “The Dark Tower” fucks a demon. I find that deep and complex topics are hidden in books and movies in pop culture as well as in folk tales.
These taboo topics show up in my curatorial work too. I worked on a group exhibition on rethinking motherhood that had the controversial title, "bitch MATERial". With the accompanying art book, the panel discussions, and the press coverage, we were able to illustrate new images of motherhood that were not only confined to women but all genders, challenging the traditional conception of “parenthood.”
Lara Azul, Chtonia, 2018
SS I know that you studied contemporary dance, movement theater, and have a background in professional dancing. How has dance impacted and influenced your work?
BA For me, there are no strictly-separated art genres like dance, poetry, sculpture, and painting. Everything is connected and intertwined. I use the same techniques which I studied in contemporary dance and transform them into art. It is a bit like a collage but in 3D plus time. When I compose an artwork or design an exhibition, I take a theatrical approach in the arrangement by focusing on shape, color, and rhythm to create certain experiences, feelings, and sensations.
GODsDOGs, Am Anfang war das Feuer, 2012. Photographer: Eric Tschernow
SS Talk to me about your new persona, Lara Azul, who will be performing in your next show.
BA Lara Azul is a solo project. She is an artist persona who had her first appearance at an art fair in London years ago, and she was actually an accident. She is a special character with distinct blue hair that keeps appearing in performances and even some works of GODsDOGs.
Last year she was restless and wanted a life on her own, so I decided to give her a name and her own artistic career, which is different from my work with GODsDOGs and from my identity as a curator. She is still fairly new and at the moment, I am developing a new body of work with her.
Similar to my work with “Artists Anonymous” and GODsDOGs, I am also working conceptually with Lara, in a way that does not limit myself to any particular medium. Even more so than my former artistic collaborations, I aim at involving the viewer in the artwork. Thematically, I refer to my roots as a trained psychologist. Lara’s work refers to psychological themes such as fear, decision making, vulnerability, inner defense mechanisms, and the effects of sexual abuse or how to deal with one's brokenness. For the latter, I am currently playing with a Japanese tradition called “Kintsugi” (joining the pieces of a broken vessel by filling cracks with gold). By taking away the shattered fragments, I turn the absent shards into negative space and the cracks become a hanging and moving sculpture.
Lara Azul, Phynx, 2020
Lara Azul in studio, 2020
SS Tell me more about the performance in your exhibition next year in Joachimsthal - Berlin.
BA The exhibition is opening on April 1st, 2021 at the artspace, the White Villa in Joachimsthal and will be the first solo exhibition of Lara Azul. One of the first installations is a walk-in installation with the title “Alliothea,” which is Greek and stands for truth. The installation looks like a little shrine, a mix between a confessional and a meditational closet. Currently, I am filling it with all kinds of relics and symbolic tokens. On the outside, there are fractures of oven structures, which is a reference to another tale by the Grimm Brothers, called “Fallada”. “Fallada” is the story of the beheading of a talking horse, which inspired an ongoing performance of Lara Azul talking to a painted horse head.
For another performance, I am inviting visitors to come inside and get a “treatment.” I apply a temporary tattoo of what looks like an abstract drawing of the burning bush. While I apply the tattoo, I reveal that these blue lines are a replica of the spider veins on my leg, and in this cozy, safe, and mythical confined space, a personal conversation about the beauty of age can take place.
GODsDOGs, BlauRosa, 2018
SS What themes seem to reappear in your work and do memories and personal experiences reflect in your work?
BA With GODsDOGs as well with Lara Azul, I had a personal approach, since I can talk more profoundly about what I know best. My life is full of weird, interesting, and extreme experiences, such as sex, crime, cults, and scars that I feel will resonate with others, even if they have not lived through some of the extremes I did.
I grew up in a well-educated, somewhat bourgeois family in a small town in West Germany. On the outside, my childhood may have seemed pleasant, but I was sexually abused by my father. As an attempt to find a surrogate family, I joined extreme churches in my young adult years. On the one hand, I was loved and supported in my creative pursuits, but I was also part of a system that rejected homosexuality and premarital sex, which is a very intense Christian ideology that I don’t agree with. Looking back, I understand what brought me there, but I am also deeply ashamed that I was affiliated with a religion that was homophobic. I left the church, stumbled into a cult-like group which was promising at first, but ended up being disastrous. Although we produced grandiose art and received recognition in the art world, it was a toxic group.
I watched members of the group being beaten up, was threatened multiple times, was illegally kept away from my child for weeks, and incited to commit a crime - which I later made amends with as soon as I managed to get out. I won a few lawsuits against the group, worked three jobs to rebuild my life, and danced in a nude bar to continue my artistic work.
All of this is now behind me. I have worked through these tough times, and I am now working artistically without all that drama.
Although I had never wished for those things to happen to me, I am grateful for the depth of understanding these experiences have granted me. And thankfully besides these extreme lows, I have also collected a few amazingly great adventures as well - like being accepted at a professional dance school at the age of 28. That allows me to pass on hope and perseverance to others as well.
Lara Azul, ¿Qué deseas?, 2015
SS What is important to you about the visual experiences you create and what do you want your audience to take away?
BA Next to oil painting and other typical art materials, I tend to incorporate materials and techniques that resemble the works of the “Arte Povera” movement but are seldom found in the so-called ‘high’ art world, like blacklight, cardboard, lacquer, twigs, branches, and even ventriloquy. Although the claim, “art is life” connects me with the “Arte Povera” movement, my works have a very different feel to them. Similar to the “Arte Povera” artists, I don’t hesitate to use “poor” materials like cardboard, twigs, branches, or cloth, but I also use lacquer and blacklight that results in a bright color palette.
I want to evoke openness, connection, and communication. So when there is an uncomfortable topic, I try to strike a balance by using aesthetically pleasing composition lines, and a partly-symbolic but always sensual use of bright colors.
GODsDOGs, Vortex, 2015
GODsDOGs, Lot, 2017. Photographer: Magnus J. K. Wessel
SS How do you come up with new ideas? Is there a philosophy behind your practice?
BA New ideas just flow. I am never worried about more incoming ideas. My concern is to be worthy of them and actually make them become a physical reality.
I believe that all kinds of creative forces are at work in my art. Some call it intuitive intelligence, the higher consciousness, or the “Vortex.” Personally, I am not fond of any religious or esoteric labels, but the following allegory, which Steven Pressfield uses in his book, The Artists Journey, resonates with me: “The artist shuttles between worlds.” It's a bit like plunging your hands into a creek - as a metaphor for the stream of Jung's collective unconsciousness or the Soul or “Neshama” as Pressfield calls it - and retrieving pretty stones from the stream bed. I have the obligation to help to give birth to the actual work, which is difficult and painstaking.
GODsDOGs, Clanchief, 2018
Lara Azul, performance with Milai. n.d.
SS: Where do you see yourself in the future, what is next?
BA: Our GODsDOGs solo exhibition was postponed due to corona. It will now open on April 21st 2021 at the Karl Oskar Gallery, Berlin. The photography we show is altered by a special technique - a digital form of pseudo-solarization - and displayed in installation work. For the solo exhibition, we also include new paintings, which tie in some themes from northern mythology. As 2020 we will again show with GODsDOGs at the Berlin Art Fair in Sept 2021.
With Lara Azul, I am showing some new work at an art salon “On Beauty” with the fashion label, Susanne Kovar, March 2021, and she will have her first solo exhibition with the title “Fractalicious” in the White Villa, Joachimsthal Brandenburg opening April 1st, 2021.
Also with both artist entities we will take part in a few group shows, e.g. in January 2021 "Lusus Naturae", curated by Vanessa Souli at BcmA Gallery Berlin or "GLAUBE? (Belief?) ?אֱמוּנָה" in June in Studio 1 in Berlin and in 2022 in Israel.
And lastly, as a curator, I continue to work on the “bitch MATERial” exhibition series with Saralisa Volm. We are currently planning to bring the “bOObs” exhibition to Barcelona and are looking for other partner institutions for our next three feminist group exhibitions we have created.
Britta Adler as curator with EVA+ADEL, “bitch-material”, 2019. Photographer: Ron Helbig
Feature Image: Britta Adler, performance still, 2013, photographer: Halina Hildebrand
