The Metaphysical Store (2014) was an installation by STRAUTCHEREPNIN – a merger of two artists, Josef Strau and Stefan Tcherepnin. The artists have worked together on several occasions, but their 2013 collaboration is perhaps most relevant. Übersetzungsbüro (Office for Duplication) was an exhibition and a series of events in the form of a temporary shop containing projects that blur the line between artwork and entrepreneurship.
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In Liverpool, they redeemed their existing collaborations and productions and presented them as sculptures alongside other sculptures. ‘Redeem’ is an important word here: the artists were looking back at their own past work and previous decisions – revisiting, rethinking, re-categorising them, which allowed themselves to be critical of them. All was presented in the form of a shop, where product existed alongside object, sounds, reclamation and vulnerability.
Josef Strau lives in New York and Berlin. His previous solo exhibitions include Vilma Gold, London, 2014; EDITION REPETITION COMPETITION, House of Gaga, Mexico City, 2013; and Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, 2012. In 2002, Strau founded Galerie Meerrettich, an independent Berlin gallery that closed in 2006.Strau is also a writer, not only in most of his own art production but also contributing to independently produced art publications, catalogue essays and art magazines.
Stefan Tcherepnin lives in Brooklyn and has recently exhibited at the Modern Institute and Hepworth Wakefield with Tobias Madison and Emanuel Rossetti. Tcherepnin contributed to Some Redemptions curated by Josef Strau at SOLOWAY in 2013 and has performed alongside his wife, Hanna Törnudd, for Green Tea Gallery Worldwide at the Rietveld Acadamie. He composed the score for Ei Arakawa’s Paris and Wizard the Musical, which was performed at MoMA in 2012. Tcherepnin has performed and exhibited at Emily Harvey Foundation, New Jersey, Hamburger Bahnhof, Kunsthalle Bern, and Real Fine Arts. His band, Solar Lice, are releasing a double-LP with The Power Station in Dallas and have recently toured the UK, playing at Modern Institute in Glasgow, the Calder at Hepworth Wakefield and Vilma Gold in London. Tcherepnin will have a solo exhibition with Green Tea Gallery at Freedman Fitzpatrick in July, 2014 and at Real Fine Arts in November.