Daniela Kneip Velescu

Opening, 9 March 2024, 5pm
March 10 – May 12, 2024

Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim
Hauptstraße 37
49828 Neuenhaus
Germany

Factually and sternly, Daniela Kneip Velescu welcomes us to Vampire Facelift at the Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim. The inspiration for the name of this exhibition is a minimally invasive method for reducing wrinkles using one's own processed and concentrated blood plasma, quite a step up from her last show, which was merely entitled Hyaluron. Now Daniela Kneip Velescu seems inclined to take a more decisive approach and employ harsher measures. A press release stated somewhat gruffly that the artist already had »a few wrinkles«. However, Daniela Kneip Velescu tore down the house of cards of her own identity whilst laughing with Joie de Vivre. This comprehensive artistic showcase across many disciplines at Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim is based on the ruins of this architecture of self-awareness.

Last year, Daniela Kneip Velescu traveled with the support of the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn along the Danube to Satchinez in Romania, her mother's hometown. She moved along the historical migration route where her ancestors once immigrated to the Pannonian Plain in one-way ships. In the exhibition, we encounter a model of such an Ulmer Schachtel recorded on film. She slyly disintegrates the documentary-style severity of the material by embedding the presentation monitor into a coffee table.

Elsewhere, strange creatures push their way across a bureaucratic playing field in an A4 grid without any recognizable strategy or system–is this a cruel version of the Snakes and Ladders game or a fun migration bingo? Files pile up in the background and exude a strangely urban aura. The resemblance to currently stalled construction sites from Beijing to Berlin is unmistakable, and the fact that Vampire Facelift refers to a historic personality famous for his inclination to impale his victims is somehow quite perverse. Fortunately, now that she has our attention, Daniela does not confront us with such horror stories.

Nevertheless, this exhibition is not composed of cozy art. If the personal is political, art can also become personal to be political, right? We should be glad and grateful for Daniela's chutzpah. She consistently manages to elicit a smile even from the most serious context, gratefully distracting us from our uneasy feelings. Vampire Facelift is more than just an examination of history, it is rather a vehicle to grow beyond our present.

Invited by: Muriel Meyer
Interim director | project management: Carolin Itterbeck [Caro Prime]

Exhibition public programme:
Opening, Saturday 9 March 2024, 5pm

5:30pm
Welcome | Carolin Itterbeck
Interim director of Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim
Greeting | Günter Oldekamp
Mayor of the joint municipality and town manager of Neuenhaus
Introduction | Ralf Schlachter
Co-founder of the architectural office
"unique assemblage" in Frankfurt am Main; grew up in Timişoara / Temeswar (ROM)

8pm
Sundowner |DJ Glücklich and DJ Kündigung
A selection of electronic club music

Wednesday, 20 March 2024, 7:30pm
Tour of the exhibition with Meike Behm, Director of the Kunsthalle Lingen

The art historian and director of the Kunsthalle Lingen, Meike Behm, arrives as an uninformed expert to the exhibition. Carolin Itterbeck, interim director of Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim, is available for dialogue.

Saturday, 20 April 2024, 7pm
“Thomas Perle reads in the exhibition space”
followed by an artist talk with Daniela Kneip Velescu

Thomas Perle is a multi-award winning Hungarian/Romanian-German writer and playwright. His work is characterised by fluid transitions between genres and deals with origin, multilingualism and pluralism. In 2023 he was the writer-in-residence in Timișoara. He currently lives in Vienna, where he runs the "exil.literaturwerkstatt" at the Burgtheater and the "auf der Suche" writing and theatre workshop at the DSCHUNGEL.

Sunday, 12 May 2024, 11am - 2pm
Finissage
Morning pint and film screening with Daniela Kneip Velescu
A small buffet will be provided.

This exhibition is supported by the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, the Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim and the Stadt- und Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus.

Fig.: Find at the Danube Loop, river kilometre 2419.5 on 28. 05. 2023
Graphic: Schroeter & Berger / gebrauchsgrafik3000

Hours
Thursday to Sunday 3-6pm
and by appointment

Free entry