KOW - Berlin

This is a long description of the exhibition that includes many details about the artists, their works, and the themes explored in the show. It also discusses the curatorial approach and the significance of the exhibition in the context of contemporary art.

The Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló presents a solo exhibition by the artist Candice Breitz. The Johannesburg-born artist fills the EACC gallery with a series of works that explore how celebrity worship, the omnipresence of social media, and systems of white privilege are used as tools that compete for our attention. Known for her multi-channel video installations and photography, Candice Breitz works with the languages of mass culture to highlight the control they exert over our perception of reality and our empathy towards our fellow human beings. Through collage, editing, fragmentation, and appropriation, drawing heavily on the visual and auditory repertoire of so-called “popular” culture, she analyzes how the media control and compete with strategies to capture our attention in an information market that fetishizes fame and feeds on entertainment. Her art thus evokes the dangers of misinformation at a time when our narratives are shaped by algorithms, marked by our clicks and comments on social media and disconnected from the urgent realities of the world. The exhibition consists of the following works: [PARA] TLDR : Video installation recounting the ideological battle that pitted feminists against feminists, and the human rights organization Amnesty International against an uncomfortable coalition of prominent Hollywood actresses and sex work abolitionists. [PARA] Ghost Series : A set of 10 photographs altered with Tipp-Ex correction fluid that serve as a denunciation of the apartheid regime. [PARA] Profile: Three short films serving as a self-portrait of the artist, made in response to her nomination to represent South Africa in the country’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale. [PARA] Digest: A multi-channel video installation consisting of 1,001 videotapes buried and sealed in plastic sleeves inspired by the legend of Scheherazade, reflecting on the patriarchal order and the disruptive and subversive potential of narrative. [PARA] Labour: Six video installations consisting of images of real births recorded in documentary style but in reverse, accompanied by a supposed Matricial Decree, whose titles refer to the six most insensitive populist leaders of the early 21st century. All made with a feminist sensibility and a marked acid humor.

Since his death in 2013, the work of Hudinilson Jr. (1957–2013) has gained international recognition and is now considered one of the most important Brazilian positions in the field of Xerox Art, also known as Copy Art. At the end of the 1970s, Hudinilson Jr. began experimenting with photocopies — an artistic medium that soon became a central component of his work for both conceptual and practical reasons. For the first time in a Swiss institution, the exhibition presents a comprehensive selection of Hudinilson Jr.’s Xerox works, collages, artist’s books and documentation of collaborative projects. It is complemented by works by his companions Rafael França and Mario Ramiro.

[PARA] Based on the Wrisberg Epitaph in Hildesheim Cathedral Museum, Creischer and Siekmann’s three-room installation addresses aspects of economics, mining, colonialism, and missionary activity, in both historical and contemporary contexts. The 16th-century epitaph presents an unusual iconography of Church sacraments. In addition to the Wrisberg Epitaph, Creischer and Siekmann also make reference to two other treasures from Hildesheim Cathedral Museum: Bishop Bernward’s Great Golden Madonna (c. 1010-1015) and the 12th-century ‘Continent’ candlestick. The exhibition will include paintings and graphic works, as well as video and sculpture. The installation poses highly relevant social questions, in this way re-exploring the present-day significance of historical objects. [PARA] For decades, the artists Alice Creischer (b. 1960, Gerolstein, Germany) and Andreas Siekmann (b. 1961, Hamm, Germany) have worked together on artistic projects which address economic, political and social questions. The duo has been invited to stage solo exhibitions since the early 1990s, while also regularly participating in prestigious group shows, including Documenta 11 (2002), Documenta 12 (2007), the Skulptur Projekte Münster 07 (2007) and the 13th Istanbul Bienniale (2013). Their works are held in the collections of the best-known museums of contemporary art, including the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.

[PARA] We are currently experi­en­cing an unpre­ce­dented period of polycrisis on a global scale: In addition to wars, worldwide refugee movements, and a growing loss of faith in democra­cies, the man-made climate catastrophe dominates the thoughts and actions of many. Beyond cynicism and apoca­lyptic mood, however, it should be possible to live together in solida­rity and community as a basis for civiliz­a­tional and ecolo­gical survival. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, it is primarily artists who take up such ideas in their works and advance the discourse on possible utopias. [PARA] The exhibi­tion and publi­ca­tion project Utopia. The Right to Hope , initiated by the Kunst­mu­seum Wolfsburg, aims to give a sign of hope and confi­dence that a better and fairer life can be achieved for everyone on this planet. The aim is not to create a new grand design for the world, but rather to focus on a variety of micro-utopias that, when combined, can achieve something positive. For this reason, Utopia focuses primarily on works of art, but also on archi­tec­tural projects, design objects, and examples from the applied arts that present utopian projects or ideas in various media. In addition to the critical exami­na­tion of the concept of utopia itself and its promising but also totali­ta­rian impli­ca­tions, Utopia focuses on projects that aim at small-scale change, including activist or practice-oriented fields of action. The various works and objects can offer sugges­tions on different levels for a more just and sustainable coexis­tence that takes into account margi­na­lized social groups as well as animate and inanimate nature. In this context, art in parti­cular can make ground­brea­king contri­bu­tions to utopian models for the future, as it has criti­cally accom­pa­nied social processes with its palette of aesthetic and thematic means since the dawn of the modern era. This permanent critique of the status quo entitles art, more than any other cultural form, to utopia. [PARA] An academic advisory board with members from various fields supported the prepa­ra­tion phase of the exhibi­tion. The exhibi­tion project Utopia. The Right to Hope will be accom­pa­nied by a trans­di­sci­pli­nary publi­ca­tion with texts from the fields of art history, philo­sophy, ecology, sociology, law, archi­tec­ture, history, and politics, including contri­bu­tions by the following authors: Inke Arns, Andreas Beitin, Friedrich von Borries, Dagmar Fink, Lisa Garforth, Jörg Heiser, Jakob Huber, Wolfgang Kaleck, Sebastian Mühl, Ludger Schwarte, Maris­tella Svampa, Tilo Wesche, Kerstin Wolff and Alex Zamalin. Coope­ra­tion partners at local, national, and inter­na­tional level, as well as an extensive educa­tional and support program, ensure the best possible networ­king and disse­mi­na­tion of the contents of Utopia. The Right to Hope . [PARA] Aerocene Founda­tion, AES+F, Pablo Albarenga, aLifve­Forms (fed and cared for by JP Raether), Kader Attia, Yael Bartana, Martin Beck, Ursula Biemann, Nuotama Frances Bodomo, melanie bonajo, Eglė Budvytytė, Violeta Burck­hardt und Andreas Greiner, Cao Fei, Anetta Mona Chişa und Lucia Tkáčová, Chto Delat Inter­na­tional, Jasmina Cibic, Jordi Colomer, Thomas Demand, Margret Eicher, Olafur Eliasson, Philipp Fürhofer, Robert Gabris, Chitra Ganesh, Stephan Huber und Raimund Kummer, institut für zukünfte, IRWIN, Sven Johne, Keiken, Folke Köbber­ling, Mischa Kuball, Mischa Leinkauf, Haley Mellin, Achim Mohné, Muoto archi­tectes und Georgi Stanishev + Clémence La Sagna, Marina Naprush­kina, Otobong Nkanga, OX2architekten, Cornelia Parker, Rosana Paulino, Rory Pilgrim, Oliver Ressler, Lin May Saeed, Jaanus Samma, Khvay Samnang, Tomás Saraceno, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Cauleen Smith, Maja Smrekar, Société Réaliste, Uýra Sodoma, Sputniko!, Team Mycel der Ostfalia Hochschule, Terreform ONE, Rhoda Ting und Mikkel Bojesen, Nasan Tur, Hermann Weber, Pınar Yoldaş, Liam Young, ZK/U und KUNSTrePUBLIK

[PARA] Featuring: Havîn Al-Sîndy, Maria Thereza Alves, Asche Lützerathi (other hosted by Sybling – JP Raether & Sarah Friend), Joseph Beuys, AA Bronson, Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (Congolese Plantation Workers Art League, CAPTC), Liu Chuang, Simon Denny, Jan Dibbets, Nir Evron, Simone Fattal, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Jef Geys, Robert Gober, Dor Guez, Andreas Gursky, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Richard Long, Gordon Matta-Clark, Boris Mikhailov, Lutz Mommartz, Grace Ndiritu, Simone Nieweg, Chris Reinecke, Ugo Rondinone, Thomas Ruff, Lin May Saeed, Shimabuku, terra0, Ron Tran, Franz West, Alex Wissel [PARA] The exhibition Land and Soil. How We Live Together leads us back to the foundations of human coexistence. It invites visitors to gather around questions of living, owning, and sharing, and to envision a just and sustainable future. For the first time, an exhibition will span the entire former parliament building of K21 and extend to the adjacent Ständehauspark, addressing the ground the museum stands on—both geographically and historically. Around thirty international artists and collectives will present various models of administrating resources —from indigenous ways of planning to co-ownership and utopian blockchain projects

The exhibition ... to leave a space in which the din of war might die down brings together art works that reflect on the lasting repercussions of war in Europe and beyond since 1945. The title alludes to Marguerite Duras‘ post-war memoir and references a critical process of mourning that embraces both the personal and collective dimensions of traumatic experiences. The exhibition asks how historical violence continues to resonate and explores the potential of intergenerational and transnational dialogue for a pluralist remembrance that offers orientation for the future.