Zwischen Ausgängen – Pending Issues

About

If assured knowledge is not available, or at least not yet, then indeed we are dependent on other forms of knowledge. Expectation precedes experience, but expectation also constitutes an experience in and of itself. So, what exactly is it that lies between the situation at the outset and its resolution, the outcome of the situation?

Under the title “Zwischen Ausgängen - Pending Issues,” the exhibition critically examines the dizziness of speculation, the anticipation of success or failure, and the temporary or permanent gaps in our knowledge. The gathered artistic positions, projects and objects reflect moments of (cognitive) events that have not (yet) occurred. They focus on the epistemic openings which suspend objects, projects and other utterances of meaning, knowledge or effectiveness; the elements that render them unpredictable or incalculable. In doing so, they open up self-reflexive perspectives on the conditions of their production and circulation, and on the values that are ascribed to them along the way.

It is rejected ideas that form the basic elements of Daniele Sigalot's sculpture series “Totem” - ideas that have failed to meet certain expectations held to artistic works. Moritz Frei's video work “Meine erste Tasse Kaffee” (My First Cup of Coffee) attempts to make describable the sensual qualities of coffee. At the same time, the work plays with the projections of the artist as well as with those of its viewers. 

The relationships between expectation and communication are exposed to particular tension when dialogues are temporarily suspended, as exemplified with the artistic positions from the Mail Art Archive of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt and Robert Rehfeldt: While en route, the mailed art works were inaccessible both for their senders from all over the world and for their recipients in the GDR. In the case of the so called “typewritings” presented by Mail Art artist Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, the final destination is uncertain. Their subversive messages explore the artistic potentials of the since outdated communication medium, thereby developing an extraordinary visual poetry.

In the Anonymous Drawings Archive, the artists remain anonymous until their works have been released from the archive: Their names will be announced only after the drawings have been sold on the exhibition's closing day (Sunday, 15 September). The objects from the Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge (Werkbund Archive – Museum of Things) also invite us to reconsider ascriptions of significance and value. Their mysteriousness and the coinciding openness put into perspective the questions posed by things and the expectations objects might actually have of us.

Poised at the intersection of analog and digital, the installation, into which Vanessa Farfán has integrated her machine "Model 5052," becomes a laboratory for researching the contingencies and coincidences as well as the outcomes of technical processes. However, also our cognitive processes are subject to unpredictable structures. The potential effects of this can be seen in the scenarios that unfold in Lilian Robl's video work “Abschweifung” (divagation). Finally, the Archiv der enttäuschten Erwartung (Archive of Disappointed Expectation) knows a lot about what it means when prospects fail.

Accompanying program

Tue, 03.09.2019, 6pm
»(Un-)bestimmte Ausgänge«
exhibition tour with participating artists
Performance by Vanessa Farfán

Sa, 07.09 and Mi, 11.09.2019, 6:30 pm
»Metamorphoses. Questioning our state«
performance by Soline Krug in English

Sun, 15.09, 1pm – 7pm
selling of the presented art works from the Anonymous Drawings Archive
(on the occasion of Berlin Art Week)