Ulla von Brandenburg

By combining three works, Ulla von Brandenburg has constructed a multilayered theatrical scenario that shrouds the exhibition space in highly symbolic artificiality. These pieces (all dated 2007) are a 16-mm film titled Schlüssel (Key); Zelt (Tent), a cloth sculpture; and a found object: the board from the game La Tacticien (The Tactician). In other rooms in the gallery, von Brandenburg exhibits black-and-white ink drawings, which reproduce individual images from Schlüssel as if in silhouette. The two-minute film, shot in black-and-white, uses a slow-panning camera to portray a group of people frozen in onstage poses with simple props. The scene that gives the piece its name depicts a woman handing another woman a key; next to them sits a young man reading a book; behind him stands a woman holding up a backdroplike cloth. The group is linked by its motionless “activity.” Through formal stringency and the strict avoidance of narrative, von Brandenburg has produced a puzzling yet visually powerful scenario. Elsewhere, Zelt is a square room within a room. Its walls of thick cloth and its emblematic large-format patterns could be the abstract version of a stage used by a troupe of wandering players. The “sculpture” is constructed from four wooden posts and a thick rope from which eight floor-length pieces of cloth hang, creating an enterable space. Each length of cloth has its own simple pattern comprising diagonal or vertical shapes, and the whole is a kind of mobile architecture and a free abstract play with color, plane, and space. The third piece, La Tacticien—which Brandenburg has placed flat against the wall ornamentally, like a painting, thus highlighting its interlocking sections—fits into this motif of playful activity, offering a setting for an imaginary game. We learn as little about the rules of this game as we do about the events in the film or about the meaning of the “tent,” yet each remains compelling in its own way.