The Inner Life of Things
05.02.2010 — 25.04.2010
Opening: February 4, 2010, 7 pm
Today the representation or imitation of what is held to be the real world is hardly possible without a reflection on its constructed character. Yet, at the same time, there exists furthermore a direct interest in the “Dinghaftigkeit” (a kind of “thingliness”) that surrounds us. In art it appears as a visual mimesis when elements of the real world are presented in order to make manifest their being in specific constellations and things.
With the help of artistic strategies such as serial procedures, fragmentation, scaling or dissolution, representations of the natural or “thing” world emerge that often question their relationship to reality or their own status.
The exhibition “The Inner Life of Things” took the concept of mimesis, understood as an imitative representation of reality, and its role in contemporary artistic productions as a point of departure.
The works and projects by Nina Canell, Florian Haas, Till Krause, Bettina Lauck, Yoon Jean Lee, Egill Sæbjörnsson and Andreas Wegner presented various methods in the search for the “inner life of thing”. They have shown painterly, photographic or filmed effigies of mundane objects, for example bottles, glasses, balls, stones, mushrooms, flowers, tools, toys or everyday products.
Adopting diverse observational and representational approaches, they attempt to draw conclusions on the being of objects, by way of their forms. They thereby produce something fundamentally new too: apparently found or artificially created objects reveal quite unexpected traits through serial photographic analysis and staged or contextual configurations.
The works brought together in the exhibition questioned in exemplary fashion the character of the “real world” as well as the observer’s relationship to it. In addition to the seven artistic positions taken, some exhibits from the Sammlung des Museum der Dinge / Werkbundarchiv (Berlin)has been on display.
Participating Artists: Nina Canell, Florian Haas, Till Krause, Bettina Lauck, Yoon Jean Lee, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Andreas Wegner
Curator: Dr. Holger Kube Ventura