Curator: Kathrin Becker

With the work Maximum Headroom (2014/2018), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein continues its project series on urban space. Ceal Floyer’s intervention on the façade of the n.b.k. consists of a series of individualized traffic signs that designate the area above the large window façade and indicate the exact overhead clearance at the respective upper edges. The work, characterized by formal simplicity and austerity, reduces an everyday circumstance to absurdity by suggesting an alleged risk that does not even exist. At the same time, the wordplay in the title of the work also refers to the phenomenon of limiting art, as well as dissolving any limits of it, and equally the people around it. As is typical for her work, Ceal Floyer sounds out our patterns of perception, but also the relationship between sign and reality.

The façade of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), which connects the exhibition area with the public space of the city, on an annually alternating basis serves as a surface of intervention for different contemporary artists, who develop a special project for the building. The outdoor projects directly exert their influence on the public space, they encourage an active engagement with the urban environment and stimulate a debate about contemporary art and its aesthetic, social and political implications.

Ceal Floyer (b. 1968, lives in Berlin) studied at Goldsmiths College in London. In 2009, she received the Nam June Paik Art Centre Prize in South Korea; in 2007, she was awarded the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst in Berlin. Solo exhibitions (selection): Aspen Art Museum (2016); Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (2016); Kunstmuseum Bonn (2015); Museion, Bolzano (2014); Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst, Bremerhaven (2013); Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2011); Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2011); Museum of Modern Art, Miami (2010); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2009). Group exhibitions (selection): Hamburger Kunsthalle (2017); Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf (2016); Manifesta, Zurich (2016); Fondazione Prada, Milano (2016); Marta Herford (2016); Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2015); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2014); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2014); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/Main (2014); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2012); Hayward Gallery, London (2012); Guangzhou Triennial (2012); Documenta, Kassel (2012), Venice Biennale (2009).