IT IS ONLY A STATE OF MIND
2 March - 7 April 2013
Opening: 1 March, 19h
[23 November 2013, NGBK, - 26 January 2014 Heidelberger Kunstverein]
Annie Goh, João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, Michal Heiman, Joachim Koester, Ofri Lapid, Susan MacWilliam, Matt Mullican, Lea Porsager, Patrick Rieve, Sarah Schönfeld, Rosemarie Trockel, Ute Waldhausen
The exhibition looks at the experiment as a mode of exploring the inexplicable and the uncertain. The NGBK RealismusStudio and Kunstverein Heidelberg have joined forces to present a series of artistic positions which investigate the thresholds of science through experiments of their own.
At the heart of the exhibition is the question of how much our “state of mind”, and the patterns of perception and perspectives that arise from it, shape our assessment of what is real. Twelve international positions direct our focus to the subjective and subconscious:
American artist Matt Mullican, for example, has been conducting self-experiments under hypnosis since the 1970s. The installation Room (No.7) presents statements by Mullican's other ego, “that other person”, written onto long stretches of fabric. These are investigations into his own and yet unknown self with which Matt Mullican seeks to understand the world.
For her latest project How to Program and Use T – F (2013), Danish documenta artist Lea Porsager took part in a séance with a Lithuanian medium. She then translated the thought-forms that revealed themselves to her into bronze sculptures.
Northern Irish artist Susan MacWilliam is also interested in exploring the paranormal. Her videos, photographs and installations deal with researchers and eyewitnesses of supernatural phenomena. MacWilliam will be showing three pieces – the most extensive presentation of her work in Berlin to date.
Realised as experiments and propositions, the works in the exhibition ask questions about what makes us believe and what we are prepared to believe. They steer our attention towards mystical, spiritistic objects of investigation, or challenge areas of psychological research. The artistic experiment can operate far more freely than its strictly scientific counterpart; it is not obliged to follow a fixed form, deliver measurable results or be repeatable. This open approach holds the potential for moving away from prescribed paths and entering uncharted periphery realities and poetic realities – to create new truths.
Project group [RealismusStudio]: Christin Lahr - Jan Ketz - Michaela Richter - Frank Wagner - Susanne Weiß - Edda Wilde
An exhibition by the NGBK in cooperation with the Heidelberger Kunstverein.
