What Lies Beneath

The exhibition ‘What Lies Beneath’ strives to capture one of the current conditions of our culture: an atmosphere of increasing alienation and decaying trust resulting from factors that often lie beneath the surface of the visible. The show comprises three room-size installations — by, Michal Rovner, Krzysztof Wodiczko and Zimoun — that create a contemplative space for reflecting on cultural and social conditions and visceral forces that may not be easily perceivable and create feelings of uncertainty.

The world is currently witnessing a momentous period of instability and conflict, leading to existential forms of alienation for individuals. The systems and forces creating these conditions are often difficult to understand in their complexities, which generate feelings of insecurity and a fear of the “other,” be it an individual, ethnic or religious group or a circumstance such as persecution or poverty.

The works in the exhibition invite the audience to ponder the complexities of systems and the human condition that remain beneath the surface. Krzysztof Wodiczko’s large-scale video projection Guests consists of projected windows that display a slightly blurry view of immigrants from countries around the world, raising concerns on the quality of their life. In Michal Rovner’s ‘Broken Time’ (2009), ‘Untitled 4’ (Panorama) (2015) and ‘Untitled 19’ (Panorama) the movements of tiny human figures become ‘human marks’, a hieroglyphic text that reflects on migration and disruptions, as well as relationships between time and space and their legibility. Zimoun’s site-specific installation ‘240 prepared dc-motors, cardboard boxes 60x20x20 cm’ (2013/2015) consists of a room full of tall, standing cardboard boxes that move and shake driven by ominous forces, thereby creating a sound architecture that invites the audience to contemplate the complexity of its environment.

Curator: Christiane Paul