2014–2021: Independent Curatorial Projects (Selection)
ELSEWHERE. Observations on Islands
17/1/2015—15/2/2015
I have been here before, but when or how I cannot tell *
In attempting to describe the “islandness” of islands, the totality of cultural island notions is often united in a manner bordering on the cliché. Liberated from a specific geographic location, the idea of the island becomes a projection screen: its isolation destabilizes its reality, and the island resides in the temporary overlap of desire and reality. As a conceptual islet, it appears archaic, anarchic, becoming a claim of personal autonomy in an increasingly engulfing world. As a timeless utopia, the island is a symbolic site for criticism of civilization and carries within it the potential for renewal, for retreat, as well as the risk of failure at the human condition.Yet the island always refers to something else, a real or imagined "mainland," and is defined precisely by this polarity: the insular becomes a paradigm of openness, of plurality, and of the relational idea of an “elsewhere.”The group exhibition ELSEWHERE. Observations on Islands includes works by international artists of various generations. The exhibition is conceived as the exposé of a study on insularity and its manifold manifestations in the cultural image of the island: a first, subjective exploration presented as a heterogeneous and intricately interwoven survey of possible islands.
Julieta Aranda (MEX)
Tacita Dean (UK)
Edith Dekyndt (BE)
Andreas Duscha (DE)
Ane Mette Hol (NO)
Rodney Graham (CAN)
Sven Johne (DE)
Adrien Missika (FR)
Thomas Mulcaire (ZA)
Christodoulos Panayiotou (CY)
Björn Segschneider (DE)
Christoph Weber (AT)
Seth Weiner (USA)
* I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound,
the lights around the shore.
— from Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
quoted by Jorge Luis Borges in the prologue to The Invention of Morel (1940) by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Curator: Marlies Wirth
Concept: Marlies Wirth and Andreas Duscha
In attempting to describe the “islandness” of islands, the totality of cultural island notions is often united in a manner bordering on the cliché. Liberated from a specific geographic location, the idea of the island becomes a projection screen: its isolation destabilizes its reality, and the island resides in the temporary overlap of desire and reality. As a conceptual islet, it appears archaic, anarchic, becoming a claim of personal autonomy in an increasingly engulfing world. As a timeless utopia, the island is a symbolic site for criticism of civilization and carries within it the potential for renewal, for retreat, as well as the risk of failure at the human condition.Yet the island always refers to something else, a real or imagined "mainland," and is defined precisely by this polarity: the insular becomes a paradigm of openness, of plurality, and of the relational idea of an “elsewhere.”The group exhibition ELSEWHERE. Observations on Islands includes works by international artists of various generations. The exhibition is conceived as the exposé of a study on insularity and its manifold manifestations in the cultural image of the island: a first, subjective exploration presented as a heterogeneous and intricately interwoven survey of possible islands.
Julieta Aranda (MEX)
Tacita Dean (UK)
Edith Dekyndt (BE)
Andreas Duscha (DE)
Ane Mette Hol (NO)
Rodney Graham (CAN)
Sven Johne (DE)
Adrien Missika (FR)
Thomas Mulcaire (ZA)
Christodoulos Panayiotou (CY)
Björn Segschneider (DE)
Christoph Weber (AT)
Seth Weiner (USA)
* I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound,
the lights around the shore.
— from Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
quoted by Jorge Luis Borges in the prologue to The Invention of Morel (1940) by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Curator: Marlies Wirth
Concept: Marlies Wirth and Andreas Duscha