48 Stunden Neukölln: Shades of Today. Picking up the Pieces Post-Truth

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The concept of distorted representations and perceptions of reality may date as far back as Plato's allegory of the cave. However, in light of Brexit and Trump's election, the manipulation of information seems to have reached new heights (Oxford Dictionaries dubbed ‘post-truth’ as 2016’s word of the year). Amidst the confusion between true facts and fake news, heightened by 24-hour news cycles, social media and a populist rhetoric, artists play a pivotal role in warning and reminding of reality's different shades and how they can be exploited by those in power. For "Shades of Today: Picking up the Pieces Post-Truth", Centrum have invited ten artists to shed light on this issue through a series of sound, scent, text-based, and video installations, and a suite of events.

During this year’s 48 Hours Neukölln festival, Centrum will present a prelude to the exhibition "Shades of Today: Picking up the Pieces Post-Truth" through a series of video and audio works and a light box installation: In "Game Call" (2017) Hana Sackler combines artificial and recorded everyday sounds with diverse video sequences that shift and gradually intensify in rhythm and quantity of audio and visual stimuli, creating an environment overloaded with contradictory information which emulates our media-saturated way of life. Stefano Miraglia's experimental film "Anoche" (2017) was produced in the UK in direct response to the Brexit vote, evoking the ancient myth of the Minotaur and the sensation of disorientation and anguish – ‘When Rome is dust the Minotaur will moan, once more in the endless dark of its rank palace’ (Jorge Luis Borges). In "Martin Cries" (2017) Jonathan Vinel confronts viewers with the emotional impact of loss, alienation, sadness, rage, and violence within a virtual game, questioning the authenticity of our closeness not only to each other but also to ourselves. Kirstin Burckhardt’s sound piece "Imagination is a Powerful Tool" (2016) is a fictitious ‘Ted Talk’ that draws attention to the fine line between experiencing and imagining and brings perceptions of truth and reality into play. Max Grau's 'kinda sorta manifesto' "reclaim your fucked up-ness… maybe" (2016) talks about staying in bed a lot, the precarious state of self-employment and ‘how you should have sips of champagne in bed, even when you are alone’. In his confessional audio work Grau reflects on the dissonance many a creative freelancer experiences today, between creating and maintaining a successful virtual persona while being in denial about the absurdity and difficulties faced in real life. "2+2=5" (2016) is the title of a project by Jae Kyung Kim featuring a light box, which shows collages of photos downloaded from Google Street View in which houses have been partially blurred due to Germany’s privacy policy and attempt to legally regulate the US-American technology company’s collection and use of geographic image data.

To support and expand on the exhibition in Centrum’s physical space, our Tumblr https://shadesoftoday.tumblr.com/ is a virtual space to further develop and explore notions of post-truth and for six weeks we will post starting points for further research here. The material will be grouped into themes and will show how people, including artists and thinkers, are experiencing the world right now and communicating their most pressing concerns. The themes will include the subjectivity inherent Information Systems, Alternative Realities, Protest, Sensory Experience, and acute insights into How we Live Now.