Mr. Biedermann and Mrs. Grün

"Around 200 years ago, it wasn't a life-threatening virus, but a restorative political system, including a secret police force that monitored everything, that caused people to flee into their private lives."
(Elke Doppler, Wien Museum Magazin, Zwischen Chaos und Mutterglück, March 2020)

In her exhibition "Herr Biedermann und Frau Grün" at the BURN-IN gallery and think tank in the traditional Gerngross department store on Vienna's Mariahilferstraße, two series are juxtaposed that at first glance appear to be very different in terms of theme and execution. On the one hand, the artist Ellen Semen, who was born in Hamburg in 1971 and has lived in Vienna for over 20 years, is showing her series "Floral Militancy", which she began in 2005. She adds socio-political commentary to seemingly idyllic scenes in the form of popular figurative compositions inspired by real politics. The narrative commentary element in this series is often hidden and entices the viewer to engage intensely with the works.
The work "Probability 1:3" deals with the disaster of the US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of which the 75th anniversary of the incomprehensible horror was marked this year.
A bright yellow sea of sunflowers stands in the foreground. There are around 200 of them, symbolizing the more than 200,000 victims of this terrible historical event. In the top left-hand corner, the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb can be seen rising into the ominously dark sky. The sunflowers in the lower part of the picture hang their wilted heads. In the top right-hand corner a figure dressed in yellow can be seen. The proportions of this figure in comparison to the rest of the scene and the lack of double rows of sunflowers may be reminiscent of naïve painting, with this imbalance of proportionality representing alienation and thus functioning as a means of processing. In the work "Uups..., man-eating" (2005), in which she was inspired by the visual language and aesthetics of the classic Quentin Tarantino film "Kill Bill", green is the dominant color. The 5-metre-long diptych stands out not only for its use of an unusual color within the art canon, but also for its imposing size and the dynamic structure of the narration.
She uses a manga figure as an alienating element, as a form of symbolic transportation of a "message". Tarantino also allows Uma Thurman to develop almost superhuman powers in his painting and exaggerates scenes of violence to comic effect.

The second series, "Biedermeier Reloaded", which was started in 2016, deals with Austrian artists of the Biedermeier period, such as Waldmüller, Dannhauser, Fendi and Kupelwieser. The source of inspiration are illustrated books about the Biedermeier period that she found at flea markets. Ellen Semen has translated these into a modern era in collage style. These designs are detailed and precise. The resulting painting, on the other hand, is more freely painted, more impressionistic.

The title "Herr Biedermeier und Frau Grün" combines the main characteristics of the two series with humor and a wink, questioning the popular culture of remembrance of this period and placing it in a new, historically relevant context through the use of collage techniques and video animations. A certain form of contemporary pessimism is evident in both series, a critique of the here and now - how current situations on the political and social stage deal with acute issues such as the coronavirus pandemic.

The question arises as to whether the time has come for a new Biedermeier - the retreat into the private sphere has been forced by the global spread of the virus through lockdowns imposed by governments. However, the current situation is a far cry from the romanticization of a family idyll.

The horror is also finding its way into the children's room, as Ellen Semen shows in her work entitled "Im Kinderzimmer" (2020). Based on the work by Biedermeier artist Josef Dannhauser (1805-1845) "The Child and his World" from 1842, in which the artist stages his three-year-old son in a perfect but seemingly unrealistic play situation, Semen takes the superficial optimism of the present and turns it into a dystopia in which the child has to deal with three of the ten biblical plagues that afflicted ancient Egypt.

The blood-red colored water, the drought and the toads symbolize the fears that this toddler is certain to experience in times of geopolitical unrest and a potentially life-threatening pandemic. The devil (the figure is borrowed from a historical book) is in the detail, the private chaos of the child's room reflects the trauma with which today's society is confronted.
In the background we see a praying historical female figure, reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's dystopia "The Handmaid's Tale", in which women are degraded to childbirth machines. The cube-shaped building blocks at the bottom left of the picture are reminiscent of the open world video game Minecraft. The virtual world becomes reality. In times of corona, many people are retreating into these constructed worlds to escape the challenges of everyday life and to celebrate an alternative reality in which the individual still has the power to decide how to shape their life.

The retreat into one's own idealized reality serves as a response to seemingly repressive social control (keyword: compulsory masks yes/no, social "criminalization" of infected people). Ellen Semen has "reframed" this change of perspective, not only metaphorically but also with the use of various techniques - painting, collage, drawing, video. The proverbial Pandora's box, which only became a box due to a translation error and was actually an oil jug, floods the children's room with a flood of terrible scenarios that are becoming a threat right now and in the near future.

At first glance, the work "Excursion to the Sea" is reminiscent of the painting "The Raft of the Medusa" by the French Romantic painter Théodore Géricault. Like Ellen Semen, his work depicts an inner, psychological drama. However, it is based on the work of the Biedermeier artist Kupelwieser.

The figures of the company in the painting "Excursion to the Sea" are borrowed from a watercolor by Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1862) from a different context. Paul Kupelwieser (1943-1919) was the second son of the famous painter Kupelwieser and bought the Croatian archipelago of Brijuni (an archipelago of 14 islands) from a Venetian in order to turn it into a vacation destination for Viennese high society. In the scene constructed by Ellen Semen, the decadent society is unaware of its precarious situation and drifts carefree in the seemingly leaden sea. A gentleman looks into the water, where he assumes his top hat has fallen off his head, instead of worrying about the obvious threat of capsizing. The small fishing boat is drifting towards its doom, but the idyllic sunset seems to be taking up more of the crew's attention. This precarious situation and the incomprehension of the people in it are reminiscent of the actors on the contemporary world stage.

In "Traunstein Wrack" (2017), the viewer does not question the realism of the composition. On closer inspection, however, one realizes that a sailing ship of this kind has no business being on a lake. The life jackets that Semen has placed in the left-hand corner of the picture are a reference to the European refugee issue. The complexity of Ellen Semen's artistic work reveals itself in a process of discovery. The creation of a new living creature, a butterfly with the help of the caterpillar's life substance, is an obvious association.

The socio-political significance of Ellen Semen's work cannot be denied and subtly shows us what is going wrong in the world. Europe, or rather the European community of states, is falling apart. The European concert of powers has played out. Corona has catapulted the climate crisis to the sidelines, although the urgency of addressing this issue has not diminished. Attention has shifted, globalization is no longer the Holy Grail, the globalization trap proclaimed by Harald Schumann and Hans-Peter Martin in 1995 (in the book of the same name) has largely come true.
But what now? Art has always thrived on crises and will not allow its freedom to be taken away in times like these. The socio-political commentaries in Ellen Semen's art give a certain hope that voices will remain loud and that the last word has not yet been said.

The visual language of the two series "Floral Militancy" and "Biedermeier Reloaded" differs through the use of different techniques. The first series takes place predominantly in nature, in so-called greenery, hence the play on words "Frau Grün" in the title, as the owner and director of the gallery Sonja Dolzer specializes in green art. The Biedermeier series shows both the interior and exterior world of its protagonists, not only the interior of the reality of life but also the inner life of individuals. The unifying element is the level of socio-critical commentary, which the artist skilfully and subtly incorporates into her works. She does not shy away from taking a stand and raising her horizon of meaning to a reflective-critical level. Ellen Semen is also a wonderful storyteller. She combines historical moments and provides them with clever commentary while still allowing the viewer to make their own interpretation. Immersed in her narrative world, one forgets time and space - a welcome break from everyday life and not to be missed.

The exhibition runs from 2.10. to 29.10.2020 at the BURN IN Boutique Gallery in Gerngross.