Valérie Favre is not only an internationally known artist, but also has also been a professor of painting at the University of Arts (UDK) Berlin since 2006. While some of her former students, like Lars Teichmann and Nicolai Huch, have already made a name for themselves in the German art scene and beyond, other promising young artists have only just begun to work with this exceptional painter and to profit from her experience. So, in order to give all of her students, 43 in total, former and present, the possibility to present their work, Valérie Favre and the good people at “Haus am Lützowplatz” have decided to carry out a project that would both include the students and the teachers’ works,  and aptly named it “Projekt für die Gegenwart” (Project for the Present).

While the influence of Favre can still be found in the works of some of the artists, others have long decided follow different routes and to develop their own, very individual style. But the common denominator, the overall theme of this group exhibition is still very much present in all of the exhibits. This denominator is: fiction.

It can be found in Emeli Theander‘s eerie scenarios that seem to be taken from the very pages of those children’s books, that you loved when you were young and that made you wonder how anybody could ever read these scary stories to little children, and that you still loved when you re-read them as an adult. It can be found in Max Thiel‘s very dark etchings and paintings, that were never meant for children. It can be found in Büke Schwarz’s beautiful drawings, in Kate Dervishi’s fragile piece “Library” and probably most prominently in Maryna Baranovska‘s wonderful installation “Begegnung” (Encounter), that not only fantastically smells of old books, fresh cut wood and moist lawn, but that makes it nearly possible for the visitor to step right into fiction.

Even though such a range of artists have contributed to this exhibition, Valérie Favre and her students have managed to create a surprisingly homogeneous atmosphere and to present works that are not only valuable today, but that will still be in the future.