In the exhibition materia prima, which has been running since 12 October, Marlene Bart and Johannes Post present works that correspond with each other and deal with the cultures of the digital both critically and poetically.
The works in the exhibition describe both utopian and dystopian scenarios and operate in a field of tension between artificiality and nature.
Digital images have become our everyday companions. Although image cultures have always been a dynamic field, new technical possibilities have enabled image production to take on an unusually high evolutionary tempo. The two-part exhibition series Hyper-Visions aims to shed light on the complex relationships between advanced digital imaging technologies and their cultural contexts.
In her works, Marlene Bart deals with the visual chains of representation in the history of science, with natural history artefacts being a central source of inspiration for her multimedia practice. The exhibition includes a virtual reality work, a spatial installation and graphic works. She is also presenting a new sculpture that combines bone, glass and plastic. Skeletal specimens often serve as the starting point for her graphic works, while she sees her modular installations as a kind of skeleton that changes depending on the exhibition context. At the same time, the reference to bones and the dissolution of materials and states creates a thematic link between the artistic positions of Bart and Post.
Johannes Post is showing large-format, AI-generated images based on the experimental sci-fi magazine Far C, which are part of the Future-Archeology series of works. The work creates a post-apocalyptic scenario in which the technoid and the organic merge eerily. The earth's surface is uninhabitable, covered in mud, and people live in subterranean habitats, controlled by a bio-technological intelligence that uses them as hardware components. They tirelessly salvage electronic fragments to produce bio-technological hardware to sustain this intelligence. Electronic waste from our present is the most important resource here, as other raw materials such as oil are exhausted...
As part of the exhibition, there will be a discussion between Michael Schäfer and the curator and art historian Yasemin Keskintepe on Saturday, 9 November at 5pm.
Exhibition: 12.10.-09.11.2024
Thu, Fri, Sat 2-6 pm