Worlds within World

About

We cordially invite you to the opening

Worlds within World
 
Reiner Maria Matysik
Andrew Pekler & Kiwi Menrath
curated by Sebastian Häger

 2019/04/06 at 7pm
Exhibition: 2019/04/06 – 2019/05/11

04/27 Soundperformance with Andrew Pekler, 2pm – 6pm

Gallery Weekend 26. – 04/28.
04/28. galerie weisser elefant is open, 1pm – 7pm
 

en/
The exhibition “Worlds within World” launches the exhibition series “Exhibitions for a Speculative Audience” at Galerie Weisser Elefant. The series was developed by an interdisciplinary board of trustees consisting of curators, media and cultural scientists as well as artists from the independent scene. Based on the works of intellectual figures from the philosophical wave of speculative realism, which places an open view of reality at the forefront of its contemplation rather than merely adopting an anthropocentric worldview, the board of trustees developed questions from its various perspectives on alternative realities, ways of being and approaches to processes, matters and existences. The series aims to illustrate the collective dialogue of interdisciplinary strategies in artistic research, the investigation of artistic processes, and curation.
The terrain of the Speculative is conceived as an artistic field of research whereby, on the one hand, the interdependence of the construction of reality and thought can be investigated and, on the other, questions on the relationships between aesthetics, art and politics can be developed and addressed in a prototypical way.

For the exhibition Andrew Pekler, Stefanie Kiwi Menrath and Reiner Maria Matysik developed works which occupy a space between fiction and reality. These works serve as an entry point into a parallel reality, surveying and questioning whilst simultaneously presenting its constituent parameters.

The sound installation Phantom Islands builds on the work Phantom Islands - A Sonic Atlas, an online interactive map developed by sound artist Andrew Pekler and cultural anthropologist Stefanie Kiwi Menrath. Phantom islands are islands charted on historical maps, but whose existence has never been ultimately verified; their status thus oscillating between cartographic fact and maritime fiction. Phantom Islands interprets and presents these imaginations in the form of a sound installation, wherein the sounds and (discovery) stories – attesting to greed and savagery as well as fortitude and courage – of individual phantom islands are presented by way of auditive, textual and visual means.
Upon a basis of cartographical and narrative evidence originating in the Age of Discovery of the 15th -18th centuries, further layers of counterfactual evidence are added in an attempt to critically examine the constitution of reality by way of a fiction that fulfills the parameters of its own existence. Each of the islands is also given its own acoustic presence, anchored in reality as a quasi-ethnographic, pseudo-traditional sound-world.

Reiner Maria Matysik's exhibition contribution follows on from his 2008 publication “Sexuelles Vegetieren” (Sexual Creeping). With his paratextual contribution, he transcends the border of his own narrative and gives his fiction's non-human protagonists a material form: Matysik constructs parasitic plant-beings which are used by humans as a means for their own reproduction. With their stamens, sepals, stems, and roots, they caress, entwine and proliferate their human counterparts, who succumb, before finally becoming hooked. After the process of seduction follows organic penetration, and at times, tantalizingly pleasurable copulative acts, ending in exhaustion, self-abandonment, and even physical incarnation.
In contrast to previous works, Matysik's beings act as more than mere objects to be viewed from a safe distance, for the visitors themselves are invited to handle them, and as a result, are placed into a direct relationship with the organisms, giving rise to a situation of physical immediacy. An immersive momentum emerges when the organisms' tactile experience unites with Matysik's rampantly debauched narrative universe as an auditory trace. At the point where Matysik's organisms appear to emerge from the narrative, the space between fiction and reality has expanded, and as agents of their narrative alter egos, their agency becomes apparent.

Andrew Pekler works as an artist with techniques of digital sampling and analog synthesis to re–contextualize found sounds and archival musical materials.
His last album release, Tristes Tropiques is a collection of synthetic exotica, pseudo-ethnographic music and unreal field recordings. In addition to his studio productions and live peformances, Andrew Pekler has composed music for theater, dance, and film and played numerous concerts in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.

http://andrewpekler.com/phantom-islands/

Stefanie Kiwi Menrath is a cultural anthropologist and music curator. Since 2004 she has been a member of the Cultural Education Team at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, and works on cultural and music education projects for institutions such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Humboldt Lab (Berlin), the Übersee-Museum (Bremen) among others. She is co-founder of the electronic music record label moving records (Heidelberg/Berlin), for which she curated compilations and individual artist releases as well as organizing concerts and tours.

Reiner Maria Matysik is a Berlin based artist and Professor at the University of Art and Design in Halle (Burg Giebichenstein) for three-dimensional design. He works in manifold ways with concepts for future landscapes and organisms, like post-evolutionary life forms. Through the specific adoption of object, installation and video he developed a dynamic scenario of future landscapes and organisms. In this way he creates an area of conflict between promise and failure in a potential future.

http://reinermatysik.de

http://www.galerieweisserelefant.de/

galerie weisser elefant
Auguststraße 21 | 10117 Berlin
Di-Fr 11 - 19 Uhr, Sa 13 - 19 Uhr