Material

About

Exhibiting artists: Michel Aniol, Joanna Buchowska, Andreas Burger, Birgit Cauer, Nina Doege, Tom Früchtl, Jens Hanke, Angelika Heinke, Helena Kauppila, Catherine Lorent, Susanne Kutter, Olivia Moore, Bodo Niggemann, Mirka Pawlik, Myriam Perrot, Lars Preisser, Alketa Ramaj, Adrian Schiesser, Susanne Specht, Juliane Tübke, Tilman Wendland, Markus Willeke, Beate Maria Wörz, Markus Wüste, Pomona Zipser

MATERIAL: THE STUFF OUR TIME IS MADE OF
There is something archaic about material. Unformed, raw and unshaped: It seems to be that from which all life emerges and into which it returns. An eternal cycle in which the material changes, takes on new forms, colors and shapes, never remains the same and never perishes. What life of its own does material have, beyond the forms we see in it? Is there even unformed material, which is only matter, pure becoming and passing away? Only in connection with a form, according to Aristotle, matter becomes a thing. According to him, every material has its own inherent form, which is the task of the artist to uncover. The stone and the wood dictate what is to be carved from them, what is to be planed and chiseled from them. The form follows the material. The world of art emerges from the material.
Today we simply redevelop materials, depending on the context of use, and use the existing and technologically produced new for our purposes. The material is supposed to fit: If it does not, it is bent, heated and modified until it makes sense in our order. Or it is disposed of, sorted into the garbage, thrown into the sea, buried deep underground or cemented into a sarcophagus. Preferably for eternity. The material of the world becomes a resource that we exhaust, exploit, explore: Raw materials as well as animals or people. But we do not always succeed in making the material compliant. Material is unruly, contradictory. Thoughts and dreams, for example, are materials that have a life of their own, that surprise us and force us to new interpretations. Depending on how one composes files, images or texts, what is simply present subsequently gains a different meaning, reveals a new depth, a new level, creates an unexpected connection. Material always holds its own history. It is archived time, sedimented development and layered meaning. 
Each new access to the material brings forth something different.